Rachel Sprung on PR

Using Twitter for News

When I heard screams in my office from the World Cup, what did I do?  When Michael Jackson died, how did I find out?  When LeBron James was making his big announcement last week, where did I go to find out?  Did I turn on the television for all of these things?  Did I pick up a newspaper?  No and no.  I simply opened TweetDeck and waited for everyone to tell me in real-time.

Recently, TweetDeck surpassed 15 million downloads.  And that is not even the only platform to send tweets. 

Everyone always discusses how social media has changed our lives, but a lot of the time I do not think about it too much.  Our generation was raised on social media, so it seems like a regular part of my life.  But when did I start turning to Twitter for breaking news? 

When we did not have water for days in Boston because a pipe broke, I constantly watched Twitter for updates about when the water would be safe to drink again.  I keep track of the Trending topics to see what is going on in the world.  I would not have seen the Harry Potter trailer if it had not been a trending topic.  Twitter is the new way to get immediate news.

George Steinbrenner recently passed away.  I found out about the news on Twitter when NY Daily News broke the story.  At first, I did not believe it, and I waited to see the other news outlets break the story in real time before I would trust this source.  The same series of events happens every time one outlet breaks a story.  It is a constant race for news outlets to get the word out via Twitter like it has never been before.

So the big question is, how do YOU get your news?

Complain Online Lately?

It is pretty much a known fact that I am brand loyal.  Whether it is Verizon, Poland Springs, Staples, JetBlue, Pantene Pro-v, FedEx (I’m literally looking around my room and naming off brands), I stick to what I like and feel comfortable with.  No, this isn’t a blog post about brand loyalty again, but it is a post about what goes happens with some of the other brands that I haven’t had the greatest experiences with.

It is known that negative feedback about a company has a larger impact than positive feedback.  People want to know the bad things that are happening in the world.  The good news is not always as interesting, and the public tends to ignore it. 

Within the last year, I have come into a habit of complaining about brands over the Internet when I have a bad experience.  My first instinct is to immediately pull out my phone or computer and tweet about the bad experience, update my Facebook status or even write a blog post about it.  When did this sudden change come?  Why do we all of a sudden feel the need to complain publicly instead of dealing with the problem by ourselves and moving on.  I guarantee there are much worse things in life than UPS not delivering a package on time (see, there I go again with my “not so subtle” complaints).

I remember when I was younger, my family was going on a trip to Florida.  When we got to the airport, our flight was canceled and I swore that we should never fly with that airline again.  I started telling everyone (who would listen at least) that we should always fly Continental, and it became an ongoing joke with my family.  (This was the pre-JetBlue days).  But when did it become necessary to tell as many people as possible and in real time when a company drives me crazy?

Honestly, I want to be the one to tell one of those amazing stories that I complained about a company on Twitter, they DMed me and fixed all of my problems.  I would LOVE to write a blog post about how my flight was canceled (even though JetBlue would never do that), but they came to the rescue and fixed it!  That is actually 95% of the reason that I tweeted a lot when I was stuck in Dallas in March (the other 5% was because I was very angry).

Advertising Age just wrote an article called “Are Major Marketers Training John Q. Public to Whine on Web?”  This article was exactly what I was planning to write my blog post about.  There are so many stories published about companies virtually “coming to the rescue” to fix a problem.  As more and more companies invest in digital to increase revenue via Twitter and other social media outlets, more and more consumers take advantage of the possibility that their problems may be solved quicker than they think.

So what does this teach us?  To complain about our problems publicly?  To take word of mouth communication to the next level?  To target companies that have departments to handle virtual complaints?  Will the companies really be able to handle the massive amounts of complaints they receive?  Sure we hear some of the solutions to the problems, but how many issues do they really resolve?

And to end my blog post, I need to give a special shout out to Verizon for the the launch of their new campaign Rule the Air.  Check it out on the website!

General Update

I think this has been the longest that I haven’t updated my blog, so instead of writing about a specific topic, I decided I was going to just give a general update (thus the creative title) about what has been going on in my life. 

So after spending a few weeks at home (for the first time since I went to college - maybe even before that), I started my internship at Burson-Marsteller.  I did not know what to expect walking into the internship.  Every student who has taken PR classes heard about some of the famous campaigns that this agency has led.  Even though it has only been a couple weeks, I have constantly been impressed by the time and attention the interns in this program receive.  Everyone has gone out of their way to make sure I understand assignments and clients.  They explain how my contributions are a piece of a puzzle that accomplishes a larger goal.  I have been quickly welcomed as part of a team by my supervisor and practice group.

In addition to learning from hands-on experience, I have gained a lot of knowledge and insight through the training sessions provided to the intern program.  Our session on media relations provided me with a greater understanding of the strategy behind reaching out to reports for placements.  The presentation showed me yet another piece to the puzzle that makes up Burson-Marsteller.  We have more presentations on the agenda for the summer, but we will also have the opportunity to learn from past interns and even Harold Burson at luncheons throughout the summer.  The combination of learning from presentations and mentors is extremely beneficial as we become public relations professionals.

I also went to Scottsdale with the new PRSSA National Committee.  We had two days of meetings and discussed all of our plans for the upcoming year.  It was truly motivating to be in a room of such ambitious and intelligent people.  And I must say, this organization is going to see great things in the upcoming year starting immediately.  But I am honestly counting down the days already until the PRSSA 2010 National Conference in Washington D.C.

And even though this is completely off topic from my internship and retreat, I have to mention it.  I saw Toy Story 3 in 3D.  I laughed, and I cried (literally cried with tears streaming down my cheeks).  It was a great movie.  But it also made me realize that one day EVERYTHING is going to be in 3D.  I wonder what things my children will laugh at me for not having when I was younger (like I laugh at my mom for not having color TV or things like that), and I realized that this is going to be one of them.

So that is the gist of what has been going on in my life.  I’m exploring NYC, interning, PRSSAing (yes, that should be a verb) and seeing movies (Eclipse to come in 9 days!)  More posts to come (and not just “general updates”)!

The Year As Boston University PRSSA President

Today I submitted the PRSSA Teahan Chapter awards, marking the end of my term as Boston University’s PRSSA President.  It was a bittersweet moment, as I loved leading such an incredible group of individuals, but I look forward to the upcoming year on the National Committee.

Looking back at this past year, I am so proud of what the executive board and PRSSA members accomplished.  We have a greater presence on campus and more members than ever before.  We usually have a problem retaining active members until the end of the year, but there were a lot of enthusiastic and dedicated new members who joined second semester and will make great contributions next year.  We are also attending all of the national events, National Conference, National Assembly, and Leadership Rally.  I am excited to see how many of our members will be at the 2010 National Conference in Washington, D.C.

Our Regional Activity, PR Advanced: Brand Yourself, was also an incredible experience both for myself and our committee members.  We had more members on the committee than ever before and more attendees.  More people on campus knew about the conference and attended, which attracted the attention of our Dean of Students.  Our addition of social media into the conference gained the attention of professionals around the world (the United States AND Bangkok).  It was a great success.

Our Vice President, Eric Leist, created our first annual Social Media Competition and Tweet-up.  Both were heavily attended by students and professionals around Boston.  The Social Media Competition invited students to create a campaign for Pavement, a new coffee shop, and had six social media judges to decide which team of students had the most creative idea.  The Tweet-up took place at Jillian’s for a night of socializing and networking.

PRSSAgency, our student-run firm, which will be called Unleashed PR next year, had a year of development that will hopefully lead to national affiliation next year.  Emilie O’Toole, who led the agency, worked constantly to create more structured rules for future success.

We also created great relationships with local professional organizations thanks to the hard work of Becky Steinberg.  She built relationships with PRSA and the Publicity Club of New England that led to many opportunities for our members and many fantastic speakers.  We have never had such a variety of speakers before, and it made for more interesting and engaging meetings.

To finish off, our social media presence helped us attract many professionals and members.  The Regional Activity was a trending topic on Twitter (#pradvanced and @pradvanced), the presence of the Tweet-up (#BostonCOM) and Social Media Competition (#BUSMC) on Twitter attracted more people than expected, and our chapter meetings were advertised on Twitter (#BUPRSSA and @BUPRSSA) and Facebook.  We also posted videos on YouTube to inform our members about meetings, events, and even conferences.  If they missed something, they could check the YouTube channel to constantly learn from the executive board.

And I cannot forget the hard work of our Faculty Adviser, Professor Steve Quigley.  Without him, none of this would have been possible.  He always puts his students first and drops everything to give advice and help out where he can.  We are truly lucky to have someone as dedicated as him.

Our new Professional Adviser, Meghan Gross, has also helped us this year.  As President of PRSA Boston, she worked to connect our organizations.  And she helped us secure some speakers for our Regional Activity.

Finally, Dean Fiedler, the Dean of COM, has been so supportive of PRSSA.  Between helping us with funding and giving us suggestions for some of our events, he has truly helped us develop our organization.

PRSSA has brought me incredible memories throughout the years.  I spoke a bit about them on my guest blog post.  But being President has been one of the greatest experiences I could have asked for.  I truly encourage everyone to get involved in their local chapters and aspire to hold this position.  It is truly worth the hard work throughout the year to see so many new faces, meet so many inspiring people, and make a difference.

Graduation Reflection

This past weekend, I attended Boston University’s Commencement Weekend.  It was basically my one last hurrah with many of my friends who are a year older than I am.  We spent some time in Cape Cod and then came back to Boston for graduation.  It was a great weekend, but it felt like any other weekend at college.  It did not really hit me until I was driving back home from Boston that my experience at Boston University would be very different in the future.  Many people who have been in my classes and who have been easy to get into contact with will not be there anymore.  One of my close friends is moving to Mississippi for Teach for America so I will not see her for at least two years.  Others will be going back home to California, Florida, New York, and even Scotland.  College as I know it will be different.

So all of this got me thinking: What do I want to remember from college?  What experiences, professionally and socially, are important to me?  What do I want to make of my senior year?  Do I have any regrets from the past three years?  Should I have done something different?  Is there something I need to experience in Boston before I graduate?  Will I live in New York City after I graduate as I have always planned?  Should I look into other cities to live in besides Boston and New York City?  What is keeping me on the East Coast?

I remember when my sister and brother-in-law graduated from college.  They had been in Philadelphia for the past four years but had not experienced everything Philly had to offer.  My brother-in-law went back after graduation to relive some of the historical sites that he had not visited during his time at the University of Pennsylvania.  This made me think too.

The past semester, I tried to go out of my way to do some things that I may not have done in the past.  If I was too tired to meet up with a friend who just graduated, I made myself do it anyway.  If I was too tired at night to go to a networking event, I made myself do it anyway.  I wanted to make sure I made the most of my time in Boston because I was realizing, slowly, that it was limited.

With only nine months left in Boston, I want to take this to the next level.  My goal for my senior year is to do one thing each week that I normally would not do.  That may be a tourist attraction or going to dinner at a restaurant besides Noodle Street (which is a feat for me).  But whatever it is for that particular week, I want to go the extra mile to take advantage of college and Boston.

People always say that your college years are the best years of your life.  That may be true for some but not all.  I am a positive person and hope that my future will be just as fulfilling if not more than college.  However, I want to make the most of the opportunities I am fortunate to have in the meantime.  Anyone have any suggestions about Week 1?  I have until September to decide!

Verizon & Z100 Parternship to Encourage People to Stop Texting & Driving

Today I was driving around town running errands and listening to Z100 (oh the beauty of being back in New Jersey).  A commercial came on about their newest partnership with none other than Verizon Wireless.  If you know me, this clearly earned my undivided attention.  They are starting an initiative called “Please Don’t Text and Drive.”

Basically, high school students have the chance to take a pledge that they will not text while driving.  The pledge says, “I pledge to not text while driving.  I also promise to avoid using my cell phone at all times while operating a vehicle, for both my safety and for everyone I share the road with.  I’ll also encourage my friends and family to do the same.”  The high school that has the highest percentage of participants will win a free concert with Jason Derulo.

Even though I have to admit I am guilty of texting while driving, I think this partnership is so smart.  Z100 is the perfect outlet to reach a lot of teenagers in the tri-state area.  Verizon Wireless is the carrier of the majority of cell phones in this area as well.  The right company (Verizon) is trying to get the attention of the drivers who are most guilty of texting and driving, and they are using the perfect outlet to do so.

Verizon’s first promise is to their customers.  In addition to providing them with quality service, they are not taking the extra step to protect them and work toward eliminating a problem.  When companies take this extra step to connect with their customers, they can be even more successful.

A few months ago I saw a billboard on the way to New York City from Verizon asking drivers to stop texting while they were operating a vehicle.  These subtle advertisements, especially while people are driving, can really make a difference and make people remember the dangers of texting and driver.  Like I said before, I do text and drive, but when I saw this billboard, I did not text and drive for the remainder of my car ride.

Z100 has the right idea to use their connections with artists to partner with Verizon for a good cause.  I do not know much about Jason Derulo, but he is doing a great thing by offering his time to make a difference in high school students’ lives.

Overall, great campaign, great ideas, and a great marketing strategy by all parties involved.

The Joneses

Your friend walks into work/class and shows you the COOLEST new thing she just bought!  Even though it was pretty expensive, it is the LATEST hi-tech gadget that EVERYONE is going to want.  She tells you that anyone who is anyone is going to have it, and all of the celebrities are buying it!  Not only is it the most innovative product around, but it can do EVERYTHING!  Touch screen, Internet, automatic, GPS, you name it, this product has it.

Have you ever heard a friend talk about their “new toy” in this way, and you immediately wanted to buy the new product that she bought?  Whether it is a new cell phone, new piece of clothing, a new car, a new camera, a new television, a new video game, a new ANYTHING.  Your friend talks about all of its great qualities, and you immediately want to buy it.  Heck, you may even go out to the store immediately and purchase it.  Well, this is where the new movie The Joneses comes in (make sure to check out the trailer).  This movie is based off of four characters who are placed in a home together and instructed to act like the “perfect family.”  However, the mother, father, daughter, and son are not only not even related, but they have been hired by a marketing agency to engage in stealth marketing.  Their job is to make new friends in the community and brag about all of their new products (jewelry, sports equipment, cosmetics, food, décor, cars, etc.) in an effort to convince their peers to purchase these products for themselves.  They are instructed to sell “a lifestyle” instead of simple the products to convince as many people to buy them as possible. 

Even though this movie was a bit exaggerated about the effects of this type of marketing between the fate of poor Larry and the monthly evaluations of the household, this type of marketing exists every day.  The recommendation of a trusted friend or family member about a particular product, service, or brand is more powerful than any other type of marketing.  When you need a new product or service, how do you find out where to go?  If you go online or to any social media outlets, you are looking for a recommendation of someone else who needed the same thing.  If you call up a friend or family member, you are putting your trust in them to figure out the BEST possible solution.

The movie refers to the ripple effect, in which Person A recommends a product to Person B who recommends the product to Person C and so on.  How often have you heard, “Well I don’t have one, but so-and-so LOVES her *insert product/service here*.”  The power of word-of-mouth marketing becomes endless in this way.

The power of marketing has reached new heights.  No longer do advertisements on television or in magazines make or break the success of a product or service.  A person is exposed to 5,000 advertisements per day in any form.  When a person is checking their e-mail on Gmail, they are exposed to advertisements.  When a person checks Facebook, they are being marketed to.  When a person is doing research for work or a class, they are shown advertisements.  Soon enough, when a person tweets, companies will be marketing to them.  In a world with millions of choices being shown to you every second, the types of stealth marketing shown in this movie really take predominance.  How do you narrow down these choices?  How do you make your final decision?  Of course you simply ask a friend!  Even though this movie was a satire on American consumerism, it takes a real picture of the life we thrive on as consumers in the 21st century.

Promoted Tweets

So a big story this last week was the news that Twitter is going to finally have ads.  But the ads are a lot different than anyone expected.  Instead of ads on the side like Facebook or even Google, Twitter is going to have promoted ads.  These advertisements will come in the form of tweets, so users can retweet them, comment on them, etc.  But what does this mean to the world of Twitter?

PC Magazine had a very insightful article explaining how the whole process will work.  Basically, when someone searches for a particular item, a promotional tweet will come up first on the search list.  Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo used a perfect example of when this could be useful to both companies and users.  Apparently, people were complaining on Twitter that their iPad battery was not charging.  “iPad battery” soon became a trending topic but clearly not for a good reason.  Best Buy recognized this problem and tweeted a solution to this problem, but the people who had already tweeted about it did not see Best Buy’s reponse.  However, if Best Buy had posted a promotional tweet, users who searched for this problem to see what other people were saying could have seen the solution at the top of their search list.  Customers and Best Buy (and even Steve Jobs if you think about it) would benefit from the use of the promotional tweet.

So what are the first companies we will see on Promoted Tweets?  Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.  Interesting variety and choice in my opinion.  I would think some of the other brands that have a bigger presence on Twitter would be included in the mix, but then again this is a trial run for Twitter. 

The interested part of promoted tweets is that Twitter is not really seeing it as the advertisement I just described.  Basically if users do not retweet it, comment on it, favorite it, etc., the Promoted Tweet will disappear.  Twitter wants to continue to be a user-friendly service and keep its organic platform.

MediaPost Publications brings up a good point about Twitter.  What types of ads will people really want to retweet and favorite?  They are not going to retweet regular messages about the company.  People will not care to retweet about something that does not benefit the general public.  They will only want to retweet about sales and promotions.  I could see JetBlue gaining a lot of attention through these promotional tweets through their weekly JetBlue Cheeps, but I don’t know if some of these other companies would be able to benefit.  But I do have to admit, Starbucks is already getting A LOT of attention by being the first company to take part of the promoted tweets.  The majority of articles being written about the promoted tweets have included the picture above of the “example promoted tweet.”

But what does this mean for Twitter?  Could it have survived without the use of the promotional tweets?  Was there another way it could have made money?  Will people become frustrated by another place that will consume our lives with ads?  Wherever you turn there are advertisements.  Even Gmail customizes its ads depending on your e-mails and what you search for in Google.  And the same goes for Facebook.  Have you ever been frustrated with an ad that appears on the side of your Facebook page?  Is Twitter going down that same route?