According to wikipedia “Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.
The second paragraph goes on “Social media use the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video”.
When compared to certain parts of the internet, spam is a beautiful, poetic and inventive thing. It really really is.
In some (lots of) parts of the net there is a tipping point where spam has more going for it than human utterances. Spam is more open to new ideas, more thoughtful, less repetitive, less myopic than lots and lots of forums and blog sites, online culture magazines, etc. And it’s getting more complex and more inventive, while some blogs and forums are beginning to feed off themselves and on themselves.
Let’s face it, increasingly blogs are yielding the power to either build or break a brand. So for PR professionals – those ultimately responsible for their client’s reputation - it’s more important than ever to listen up, pay attention and be able to influence what’s being said online about your clients’ brands.
According to Don Bartholomew, author of ‘Proving the Value of Public Relations’, first generation attempts at measuring the extent of online coverage of your brand have predominantly relied on traditional media metrics like numbers of impressions. But Don believes that 2008 will see a stronger push toward specialised metrics to understand online engagement and dialogue, rather than just exposure. He rates online analytics as the top measurement trend for PR in 2008. (more…)
