This week’s comments

Jackson-http://jacksonmcgahee.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/t-o-w-pinterest-much/#comment-39

Yasmine-http://yasminehorton.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/all-aboard-the-pinterest-train-calling-all-diyers-scrapbookers-and-alike/#comment-102

Un-pinterested

I think pinterest is a waste of time.  I don’t think people use pinterest in the same capacity they use twitter or facebook.  I don’t have a pinterest -as a matter of fact, I don’t know any guy who does- and I don’t plan on getting one.  My girlfriend has one and seeing how she uses it, I don’t see too much usefulness coming from the site.  She’ll use it to group together things she like, be it clothes, shoes, furniture or things of that nature.  

It could be a great tool for brand promotion and marketing if you are targeting a certain demographic. I would assume this demographic to be Females, ages 16-34.  That’s a big gap, but it’s simply based on the people I know with a pinterest.  It would be more appealing if it didn’t come across as a “girls only club”, where it’s dominated by women and a personal invite from an established member is necessary to gain entry.

If there were a practical use for it, I’d be more eager, but it seems like twitter is dominated by do it yourself projects for women.  It has a lot of cute recipes for them to make creative snacks, but other than little projects and keeping tabs on what you want your dream house to look like, what’s the practical application?  Not a fan.

V-Day Comments

Cait- http://socialcbailey.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/valentines-day/#comment-55

Yasmine- http://yasminehorton.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/424/#comment-95

The holiday of love or loneliness?

I find it funny that this is the topic. Seeing as how I am a guy, I cannot say that I have received any Valentines day gifts to speak of.  All I can think of is that I got a card and some small things from Lauren last year.  In my point of view, men are the ones to be giving the gifts on this, the mother of all fake holidays.  I would never, however, let Lauren know if she had given me a gift I didn’t like.  That’s just dumber than swimming with cinder blocks on my feet.

Now if I were to be representing a company that stands to turn a large profit from V-Day, I would try to play up the sincere care and love our workers put into their products and how it mirrors the care and dedication they have for their significant other. If I were a local business, I would play up the fact that you would be supporting your neighbors by choosing us and who better to go to for a gift for the one you love than the people who know you best.  If I worked for a large corporate chain, I would reaffirm that we have been bringing love and happiness to the hearts of women since ____ and hope to do so for you this Valentines Day.

Another tactic that would work is to offer discounts or a smaller price than that of our competitors.  This crap is expensive, especially when they know every committed man in the world will HAVE TO buy flowers, cards, candies and all of that crap.  All you have to do is be the last advertisement they see on the 13th -or 14th in some cases- and offer same day delivery and you will get plenty of business.

Social Media Comments

Jordan-http://jordanmcd.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/leave-it-to-the-professionals/#comment-75

Blane-http://bhumphries.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/the-social-public-building-relations/#comment-78

Social Media, a revolutionary change in the PR world

Social Media has changed the game for PR professionals.  No longer are we restricted to face-to-face communication or snail mail to get our message out.  We now have the ability to share our thoughts and discuss topics with each other without even going to our computer.  With twitter we can talk about any topic at any time with millions of other users.  Thanks to linkedin, we can connect to our fellow PR professionals and clients.  Facebook lets us connect to our friends and family and the list goes on and on.  These changes definitely improve the profession.  If it wasn’t, we would shun the realm of social media and none of us would be in this class.  It’s a great thing because there can be a constant buzz about your company/client. The downside is that everything is so instant that mistakes and mishaps can occur at any time.

I don’t think you necessarily have to be a PR professional to operate these social media outlets, however, it wouldn’t hurt to have a communications professional managing your most widely used communication outlet.  Individuals -such as athletes- tweet constantly and improve their image.  Sometimes they tweet about something they shouldn’t, but in this day and age, people seem to have a short term memory when it comes to social media messages.  Where it can come into hurting their image is when there is a problem with the company/individual already and the social media handler either ignores the issue or makes it worse.  Outside of that, I believe that the Generation Y’ers will be able to effectively handle and organization’s social media.

Week 2 Comments

Jackson McGahee-http://jacksonmcgahee.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/topic-of-the-week-2-books-n-such/#comment-37

Yasmine Horton-http://yasminehorton.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/the-book-or-the-movie/#comments