Social Media Monitoring

Recently a student has been jailed over racist comments over the social networking site of twitter in regards to Bolton Wanderers football player Fabrice Muamba who collapse during a game. The student was arrested after many complaints were filed from people who saw the posts. More information found here.

Student Liam Stacey who was sentenced over twitter posts

Trolling is another way of internet bullying when comments are made against people passed away or sensitive issues. The World Wide Web and social networking has millions of users over the globe with twitter having 1,000 posts a minute. Many companies, organisations and specialist agencies have a way of monitoring information but to the rest of us there are no tools in use or standard procedure over the social networking of making complaints. Is there any way of monitoring and policing the internet so these cases do not happen in the future? From country to country laws and legislations change and the way people are dealt with in these situations. An example of this would be in the UK the student previously mentioned got sentenced for 56 days where as Sean Duffy who posted offensive images of a victim of suicide only got community service. I think this calls for a social media/ Web procedure to be in place with people who make the remarks and a standard and agreed on way to punish those who do commit the office. This may be challenging as the rate of the growth of social media only makes this harder and scope of the web is so large is there really any way of monitoring everything?

Wrigley 5 Gum

Recently I attended Wrigley's 5 Gum launch party for the new citrus flavor at pulse London. I received tickets through a competition entry on Facebook which they use as one of their main tools of communication with the public. They use this for competitions, photos, latest news and a space where two way communication can take place. At the event various artists performed such as Labrinth, Yasmin DJs and more. I was impressed with the integration of social media and a event, as we first attended we were given lanyards which was signed up to our personal Facebook accounts with our permission which could be used to tap on stands around the venue which would automatically update your profile. There was a hash tag created f

or the use of twitter and an photo both where pictures co

uld be emailed or uploaded to Facebook.

Post made on behalf of 5 gum on Facebook

Recently new technology has been made an added to plants so that when a plant is needing water it will post a twitter update to let you know. Growing up with social media and rapidly technology change was amazing to see this happening and think of the possibilities for further use of social media in the future.

Finding PR Placements/Internships

Throughout the duration of my Public Relations course I have continuously looked for work experience in this industry. I have worked hard and gained some but also lost many. Experience is key in this industry and learning theories and skills in class are very different when putting them into practice in the working environment. The process of finding these opportunities are very hard and a majority not paid. This may change with laws as previously talked about within the industry but if this does happen does this mean that the amount of internships decrease, the cream of the crop will only get opportunities and who you know will be much stronger than what you know? Nick Clegg has support is some sort of payment to interns; "interns should be paid minimum wage or “at least” get reasonable expenses"

Some good employers will display opportunities online and pay expenses. If not it is always worth giving organisations a phone call or an email to the one displayed online. Once getting through make sure you know your stuff and the companies profile its self. If you show general ability and interest in the PR industry most people will take you on from 2 weeks to 6 months.

Good Luck!

CIPR vs PRCA

In the past year the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) has become more involved with students studying Public Relations courses at University over the UK. They have held events, asked for feedback and suggestions on what the students would like to see. They help to get students and graduates into the PR industry and employment. They have also provided membership rates for students. Although this is available to students there is also the CIPR(Chartered Institute of Public Relations). They have been supporting students for many years but to access a majority of the information a fee is also required to join. They run a student

representative programme every year with the chance of winning an award for student of the year. The CIPR represents individuals in the PR industry over a variety of sectors. Although both are now made available to students i see there is some potential competition in membership and followings. Many students do not have the money to sign up to both or go to paid events organised. Back in October last year i tweeted "CIPR or PRCA" and got direct emails from both if i wanted more information. Is there any room in the future for it to be free to students then the PRCA and CIPR could work together in improving courses for students rather than both individual flows of communication?

Noticed For The Wrong Reasons?

For many years every time fashion week comes around everyone knows who is sitting in the front row but are they there for the right reasons? It has been discovered that the dirty little secret of the fashion world is that these people and celebrities are being paid substantial amounts of money or other favours to sit in the front row. Although many do go and support designers for free this is the right way. Is it fair that a designer can receive media coverage just because of the people in attendance not the collections on display? I think not as there are many talented designers out there but do not have pockets full of money to pay people to attend their fashion show. It may not be the designers decision who is on front row but those of publicity and PR teams.

Katy Perry in attendance at Paris Fashion Week, can you remember what shows she attended?

Jeff Banks an British Designer is all for the paying of people sitting on the front row “These days, hiring celebrities is an integral part of the big labels’ marketing strategies. Whether they’re wearing your clothes on the red carpet or sitting on the front row at your show, the effect is the same. It’s expensive, but some labels will consider it money well spent…And if you’re going to pay Charlize Theron £1.3  million to advertise perfume, why not apply the same logic to getting coverage for your fashion shows?”, read here for more. Surely there is a differentiation between advertising and supporting maybe designers need to be educated on the value of earned media, it may save them a few quid as well.

The Constant Rise of Social Media