FutureCamp 2010 was awesome! Special thanks to Zack and Jenna for organizing the event for 2C!
HumberPR 2C’s are determined to stay connected. From facebook to twitter (#YnotW) to prom to email…every possibility was covered.
Once we are all successful and rich (as Zack put it) we will be able to stay in touch and help eachother out. Sounds like a plan! Can’t wait to see what the future holds for our class…we will meet in 5 years to catch up officially. Until then we are sticking to Why Not Wednesdays 🙂
Check out some other blogs about Future Camp 2010 🙂
Starbucks is well known for not only its great coffee, but also for its unique barista service. Taking it a step further, this coffee franchise is opening the floor to customer input. Starbucks has set up a website entitled My Starbucks Idea where they invite customers to propose new ideas the company can put into action. Ideas range from new flavours to promotions to gold cards, all aimed to further customer satisfaction.
Although My Starbucks Idea is an amazing way to gather ideas and make customers feel important, it also seems like they might be taking the easy way out. Giving their head office employees a break, Starbucks is making their customers do all the work.
However, considering the economics times, this could be a smart way to improve the company without investing additional money into the marketing department. They have come up with a slick way to come up with ideas about how to better the company, without it costing them a dime! By allowing their customers to suggest ideas for the company, Starbucks is improving their customer service and their marketing with one hit. Talk about clever!
As annoyed as I am that they appear to be taking advantage of their customers while hiding behind great customer engagement, I have no choice but to admit: I am thoroughly impressed with their frugal but yet savvy approach during a recession!
I have been avoiding this topic for about as long as I can…but it appears that I can avoid no longer :(. I think like most people, I don’t want to limit myself or close any doors that I may want to enter one day in the future. Therefore I want my brand to evolve just like I do. Therefore, my plan is to learn and to share with you what I learn. Whether it be something I learn about myself, others, my profession or the world in general, I will share that with you. As I learn, I plan to pass my new knowledge or realizations on to you, if you care to read about them that is. If not, that’s ok too.
Here is a quick little presentation which includes some of my personal brand plan details…
Historically, public relations has been based on one-way communication. Its distinct role was always to get a well-crafted message out to the public or save an organizations reputation in the time of a crisis. With the evolution of technology and the unprecedented rise of social media, PR is changing its focus. It is time for PR 2.0.
For a quick 101 on PR 2.0 take two minutes to watch this video:
PR 2.0 is based on two way communication which allows for dialogue and information sharing. In A communicator’s Manifesto, Deirdre Breakenridge outlines the importance of two way communication and the tremendous benefits it offers the PR world. Breakenridge states that PR 2.0 puts the “public” back in public relations with the ability to speak to more people. Public relations is no longer a tool used to get a message out but a vehicle which can be used to enhance and grow relations with the public. This can be seen everywhere from politics to retail.
People no longer want to be told things; they want to be able to inform themselves. Social media allows for conversations between people and humanizes the once uninviting process of PR communication. PR 2.0 presents an opportunity to not only reach audiences but to share information and communicate with them directly. It allows organizations to hear what their customers are saying and answer their questions and respond to their needs. People feel heard and important while organizations are able to improve faster and grow profit. It’s a win-win situation.
As any other college student in Ontario today, I am frustrated! With the possibility of a strike growing by the minute, I find myself completely annoyed. It is not even the chance of a strike which irritates me anymore. It is the blatant lack of communication that is infuriating me.
Check out this short clip to find out how students feel about the possible strike.
It is extremely difficult to find any substantial information online about the current situation. The information being announced by the union and the management is rarely similar. This leads me to believe that they might not be negotiating with each other in the same city, let alone the same room!
The only half decent source of information is a website set up by the College Student Alliance, but even this is very vague. I am horrified that the Ontario Ministry of Education does not even mention the strike on their website. It appears as though everyone is nobly fighting for the quality of education in this province but no one remembers to keep those mostly affected by the fight informed.
No one seems to remember that I am the one who paid thousands of dollars to be sitting in a classroom all day. It seems like those at the bargaining table think they might be doing me a favour by giving me some time off. What they apparently don’t know is that I don’t want any time off!
I just try to remind myself that ignorance is bliss, or so they say.
Last week, as the world watched on, Apple unveiled their new iPad. This innovative tablet was highly anticipated and is intended to revolutionize current technology. This sexy and sleek multi-touch screen (or as others call it: this iPhone on steroids) has many features. The iPad provides easy access to the web, email, photos, movies, ibooks and more. Its thin and light design includes a huge touch screen, ten hour battery life and Wi-Fi among other things. Although the iPad was rumoured to be VERY highly priced, its $499-$829 price range is actually somewhat affordable and reasonable.
Watch this video for a full overview:
Mixed emotions
With countless reviews, both good and not so good, no one can say how well the iPad will do when it goes up for sale in late March early April. Those with high expectations see the iPad eventually eradicating newspapers and magazines, a revolutionary step for technology. Others however, think it is too similar to both iPhones and laptops to revolutionize anything.
My opinion
What do I think? Well, I’m not sure. I have mixed emotions because as cool and pretty as I think the iPad is (yes I am a girl and I define things by how pretty they are), I can’t imagine myself ever using one :S Perhaps I am a little technologically challenged, something I don’t deny, but I just don’t see what the iPad offers which I can’t get from another device already on the market. I don’t see what the iPad can offer me, which my smartphone and laptop don’t offer me already.
I have no doubt that Apple is only unveiling a certain amount of the iPad for now and keep many amazing features to themselves in order to be able to launch new versions and make even more money in the future. Perhaps these future versions of the iPad will amaze me and I will end up using one on a daily basis, but not for now.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that the iPad will sell like mad, if only because it is a new Apple product. I’m certain that it will be a hit but I just don’t see myself buying one, at least not yet.
Do you see this device revolutionizing technology? Is it as great as it’s made out to be?
Have you ever gotten a link from a friend who raves about an amazing article or report they found online only to find out it is infinite pages long? Too long to bother reading it and finding out what’s so amazing about it? I have. And I hate it! I feel like I often miss out on good information off the web simply because the text is so long that I close the window as soon as I see its length. Well, let me introduce you to Awesome Highlighter.
Awesome Highlighter is a website which allows you to highlight the parts of an article, or any text, you find important and send it to your friends…or keep it for yourself. All you have to do is type in the URL of the site you want to highlight and have fun! Some great features include the ability to change the colour you are highlighting in and adding notes to areas of the text you would like to comment on or add to. This application is very user friendly and for this reason has gotten great reviews when compared to other similar tools.
Check out this quick video on how to use Awesome Highlighter:
Awesome Highlighter was started by three guys from Florida who clearly saw a need for better information sharing. This application is free to use and even has a facebook group and a twitter account associated with it. Awesome Highlighter can also be downloaded as a Firefox add-on, making it easy and accessible while you surf the net.
I believe that Awesome Highlighter is a great application for the corporate world and specifically for PR because it allows you to reduce confusion and help the reader focus on what you want them to see. It is also a good tool when sharing links with friends because, as I mentioned earlier, it minimizes the time spent on looking for the “cool” or “interesting” part of the text. I believe that Awesome Highlighter is helpful for many different demographics of people and will only grow in popularity in the future.
Don’t agree? Want to learn about the other side of the story? Check out Carmen’s blog for her view on Awesome Highlighter.
My parents generation seems to think that we, the young people of the world, should know everything there is to know about social media. We have grown up in a world where computers have almost become a basic necessity and so how could we not know everything there is to know about them? Don’t we do most, if not all, our research online? Aren’t we addicted to facebook? Haven’t we substituted the art of letter writing for emails? Aren’t we always connected to the web through our phones? Technically yes, but I still don’t know “how to”…well, a lot of things.
When I actually sit down to think about it, I find the web overwhelming. There are so many possibilities online that I often don’t know where to begin. Like a blog for example, apparently everyone has one, but…where do I blog? how do I blog? why should I blog?
There are countless “how to” videos which try to aid in this chaotic race to learn social media, however many of them are not helpful but long and confusing. One of my Public Relations classes has compiled a list of the best “how to” videos related to social media.
My group decided to investigate “how to setup a wordpress blog”, and we found a great and easy video showing the process, hence my first blog is here on wordpress. 🙂 Check out the video:
The reason why we really liked this “how to” video was because of how incredibly easy it was. Other “how to” videos required you to start setting up a wordpress blog using a different program (programs none of our group had ever heard of) or the videos were almost an hour long! However, this video was so simple! All the steps were described well and shown using a highlighted cursor. The whole video lasted only 5 minutes and covered the whole process from setting up an account at wordpress to posting your first blog.
I never considered using wordpress for my blogging because I have heard many times that it is not as user friendly as other blogging sites and that it is geared for the more avid blogger. However, after watching this video I decided to set up my own blog on wordpress because it looked so easy…and it was! The actual setup process took maybe 2 minutes and soon enough I was ready to post my first blog!
Check out what my other group members had to say about this “how to” video: Kaitlynn’s Blog and Helen’s Blog
Zoe 