Reading, Writing, Arithmetic…Is too much social media making us sick?

Do you check Facebook the moment you wake in the morning?  Do you feel compelled to Tweet, even from the bathroom?  Does checking in on Foursquare take precedence over your quiet dinner conversation with a friend?  If you answered yes to any of these questions you may be suffering from social media addiction.

Look Who’s Talking: Equinox

We’ve all wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall – secretly listening in on conversations and overhearing chatter.  Whether admitted or not, knowing what people are thinking, positive or negative, holds tremendous weight and influence on how we represent ourselves and how our organizations represent themselves to consumers.

With the influx of social media and myriad of outlets at our disposal, consumers WANT to tell organizations what they are thinking about their products and what they’d like to see change.  Tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs no longer make it necessary to be the invisible fly; rather, consumers feel free to openly provide feedback and engage in two-way communication.

As PR Manager for Equinox Fitness Clubs, I consider it important that I not only know what the media says about the brand but also what our members and prospective members are saying as well.  I recently scavenged a few outlets to find out just how Equinox is portrayed.

Engineered to Share

Prior to this post, I never used an internal communications tool such as an Intranet, Wiki, or other employee to employee social media system within my organization.  I am surprised to know, however, that a number of tools exist for organizations to communicate and collaborate internally, outside of normal email and face-to-face meeting functions.  I also found it eye-opening that departments beyond Human Resources and Marketing, such as engineers, recognize the need for a streamlined, time saving, and cost cutting technology.

I sat down with an Engineering Director (who wishes to remain anonymous) for a consumer packaged goods company in New Jersey to find out just how he “shares” with fellow engineers and if, in fact, it’s worth delving into.

Are YOU Fearless?

On Friday, July 21^st hundreds gathered at Riverside Memorial to commemorate the life of Jennifer Goodman Linn. Many of the people attending the funeral had never met Jennifer Linn.  However, each person in the room knew and was a part of her life.  I write this post in her honor, for a woman who, with unrelenting determination and unwavering tenacity, developed a community of Fearless followers and founded one of the fastest growing charity events in the country.

Obama Tweet-Up/s...and Downs

Social media and the web have played a significant role in the election and presidency of Barack Obama.  In an address to the White House in May 2009, Obama stated that government must “recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking…we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative.”  The New York Times blog, The Caucus, notes Obama has reached over 9 million Twitter followers and has more than 21.6 million “fans” on Facebook.

The strategy and use of technology to connect with audiences and voters has proven successful for Obama’s campaign, election and ultimately his presidency.  Obama, seeing an opportunity to further engage his followers, hosted the first ever White House Twitter Town Hall on Wednesday July 6^th at 2 p.m.

The “Tweet-up”, streamed through an hour long webcast, solicited more than 119,000 timely questions on jobs and the economy using the hashtag #AskObama.  Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, moderated the event and questions were curated through 8 veteran Twitter users.

President Obama used the medium during the town hall meeting as a new tool for an old communication approach –was it a victory, defeat, or rather, a tie?  Let’s weigh in…

3 Ways Social Media Disrupts Public Relations

This is PR….                                                  This is PR on social media…

Any questions?

Social media, global, instantaneous and virtually cost free, has the ability to reach a substantial number of people.  Facebook tells us there are more than 750 million users, Forbes.com reports Twitter has reached “200 million registered accounts with 110 million tweets per day” and YouTube shares “more than 48 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute.”  Statistics don’t lie and these are impressive.  Social Media is not something to be ignored nor is it a slowing trend.  The question is – is it worth it?