TOP 2013048

WEEK END. PUBLIC RELATIONS.

1.INTRODUCTION:
This study intends to determine how the Public Relations Unit of the Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation use the social media and the benefits it has derive from the
use of the social media. On the flip side, the study will also find out if the department
has not embraced this new phenomenon and in furtherance make some
recommendations to that effect. It is worth noting that although social media is
endowered with a lot of positive outcomes, some cooperate bodies in the country are
still in the process of adopting this new innovation.
BACKGROUND.
The 21st Century is a dynamic era were ICT among other new innovative ways of
communication cannot be forfeited. In Ghana, although steadily cooperate organizations
have developed the attitude of adopting new ways of doing things. Several reasons can
be attributed to this but one stands tall among all, which is to be able to compete in the
competitive world were communication is the key to success. The advancement of
technology and the invention of the computer have led to the development of a new
phenomenon called the social media. Again breaking it down, the Media can be defined
as an instrument for communication, like a newspaper, TV or a radio, so therefore the
new Social media, on the other hand, can be defined as a two-way process that gives
people the ability to communicate. In addition, it makes it possible for anyone to create,
modify, and share content with others, using relatively simple tools that are often free or
inexpensive. New Social Media requires a computer or mobile device with Internet
access. The phenomenon includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn
communication into interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and
individuals. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of
Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations
that allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media can
also be defined as online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly
between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that
enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up
content and to form communities around shared interests. The Social Media comprises
several new forms of communication tools under one umbrella. This includes blogs,
internet, twitter, facebook among other social networks. Historically, the First dial upBBC (CBBS) was launched on February 1978 and progressed through the
80s,meanwhile Personal home page service Geocities was launched in 1995 but was
publically accepted in 1998.It was later purchased by Yahoo in 1999 at a cost of 3.57

billion. Unfortunately Geocities was shuttered in 2009.In 1997 the early social media
service Sixdegrees.com was launched. As part of its achievement, the service attracted
one million users. In August 1999,the Blogging Service Blogger was launched and was
subsequently bought in 2003.In replace of the Blogger, the social media site Friendster
was launched in 2002 with a massive growth of membership in 2008.Myspace was
launched in July 2003.In the same year corporate social networking site Linkedin was
also launched. The site which was acquired by News Corporation in 2005 for 580 million
dollars received more than 75 million visitors per month in the late 2008.Consequently
facebook was launched on February 4, 2004 but was only made available to students of
Harvard. It was later opened to 800 colleges in May 2005.By September, the social
media was made available to users above thirteen years. In 2006 yahoo again offered
1billion dollars to buy facebook but was not successful. In that same year text base
social media twitter surfaced in the system. Tweets were limited to 140 characters only.
On 15 March 2011,Starbucks passed 20 million likes on facebook meanwhile on the 19
of May 2011 Linkedin elevated to IPO doubling its shares in the first day. On June 3 rd,
daily deal site Group on files was made public. In June 28, 2011, Google Plus launched
its closed beta meanwhile more that ten million people joined the network sharing about
one billion items a day. On June 30 th 2011 News Corporation sold MySpace to Irvine
based digital media firm for 35 billion dollars. On July 8, 2011, Linkedin climbed second
on the US chart and on that same month Twitter celebrated its five years and delivered
350,000,000,000 tweets per day afterwards. The Broadcasting Service, established in
1954, was originally known as the Gold Coast Broadcasting System before it was
renamed to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation upon the country's independence in
1957. Throughout its history it has been independent of the government's Information
Services Department. The GBC operates one television station, GTV. It also operates
ten radio stations in the country. This includes Uniiq FM in Accra, URA radio in the
Upper East Region, Volta Star in the Volta Region, and Radio Savanna in the Northern
Region among others.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The social media carry along it easy facilitation of life and in the cooperate world it
complement work because it serves as a platform for communication in recent times
instead of the analogue way of communication. Hence the research is to examine
how the Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation Public Relations Unit uses this social
media.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of the research is to determine the use of the New Social
Media by cooperate organizations precisely the GBC.

THEORITICL FRAMEWORK:
The diffusion of innovation theory, which is a theory associated to Mass
Communication has been identified as the appropriate theoretical framework of the
study. In his book Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers defines the diffusion process as
one which is the spread of a new idea from its source of innovation or creation to its
ultimate users or adopters. Rogers differentiate the adoption from the diffusion
process in that, the diffusion process occurs within society, as a group process;
whereas, the adoption process pertains to an individual. He therefore defines the
adoption process as the mental process through which an individual passes from
first learning about an innovation to final adoption (SOURCE lecturers note, Mr.
David Newton) Rogers breaks the adoption process into five stages:
a. AWARENESS: At this stage the individual is exposed to the innovations but lacks
complete information about it.
b. INTEREST OR INFORMATION STAGE: Here the individual become interested in
the new idea and seeks additional information about it.
c. EVALUATION STAGE: The individual mentally applies the innovation to his
present and anticipated future situation and then decides whether or not to try it.
d. TRAIL STAGE: the individual makes full use of the innovation.
E. ADOPTATION STAGE: The individual makes full use of the innovation and
decides to continue the full use of the innovation. The Ghanaian cooperate world
can be said to be at the adaptation stage of the new social media, the use of
facebook, blogs and the like can be stated as a manifestation of such a claim. It is
paramount that in the cooperate world organizations should adopt new ways of
communicating to their internal and external publics.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A study of related material on the topic The use of the new social media has
facilitated the new revelations on the topic of study. For instance an article
published by Daniel Nations on a website called about.com gave several definitions
and explanation of what a Social Media is. He compared and contrasts the
difference between social media and social news and how the social media can
help in the area of health, business and marketing. This education has added to the
knowledge base about the benefits of the social media. But one notable thing was
that the writer did not explain to readers the investment that is needed to access the
various social media, although it posses juicy packages. Again there is a negative

side or side effect of everything but Nations publication did not tackle such an area
too. Similarly i am of the convection that the writer should have encouraged
collaboration between the Social Media and Social news because they also play
pivotal roles in the communication process in the 21 st century. The Monday, January
21,2010 edition of the Fountain Gate Chapel in house publication on page 7 carried
a column story captioned the new social media written by Samuel Abongo .The
publication revealed how the social media has unearthed several opportunities for
the youth in the Bolgatanga municipality and the nation at large. It has come to
sustain the caf business in the Bolgatanga municipality, facilitated online
transactions and information. The publication took a critical look at how in the
middle 80s people use to cue at the Bolgatanga post office to receive phone calls
from love ones outside the region and the country but in recent times sit in the
comfort of their homes, offices or the internet caf to receive messages in general
from relatives, business partners and also news about what is happening around
the world. The writer however noted that internet connectivity which plays a major
role in the access of this phenomenon is really bad in the municipality and needs a
second look. He also mentioned that due to some factors like internet failure,
ignorance and the low level of education some businesses in the region are feeling
reluctant to adopt this new innovation. He therefore recommended the use of WAP
for internet connection. But it can be argued that the writer failed to give in-depth
reasons to why cooperate bodies should adopt the social media as one of the best
tool of communication. Meanwhile Ben Parr an Editor-at-Large website in his article
titled The Peep Project Which outlined the role of the social media in politics
revealed that social media has earned a prominent seat at the table with the large
media companies of the world and has birthed an entirely new way to cover the
world of politics. As the country approaches the electoral year, political chatter will
continue to snowball and generate enormous heaps of data courtesy the new social
media. This data he claim can drastically impact how we determine the importance
of a given story, the ways that we gauge public opinion and eventually may even
revolutionize the way we cast our votes. The social media will help people to
contribute to political panel discussions because of its unique perspective. However
the writer failed to outline the powerful role the social media can play in creating
chaos during the elections.

1.5 INTERVIEW GUIDE

1. Do you know about the Social Media?
2. Which of them have you heard of and has been using?

3. Do you use it officially or personally?

4. If official how is your office using the social media to compliment your Public
Relations activities?
5. How has the use of the social media for your activities made work easier?
6.

2.

Do you think the adaptation of this new phenomenon will enhance work in
the office?

CONCLUSION.
The new era of communications and digital relationships with the Internal and
External Publics of cooperate organizations has come as a result of innovation.

With
it new ways of connecting to the outside world through information discovery,
consumption and sharing of information, the findings of this research work has
revealed that Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation with the
use of blogs facebook and twitter has been able to conduct research relevant for

the growth of the organization. The social media has also help to improve
contributions and collaboration among staff and the publics. In recent viewers and
listeners of programmes broadcast by GBC only post their comment and
suggestions
on the website, blog, facebook page for consideration. It has also help improved
communications because the unit has taken advantage of sending texts, instant
messages on facebook to their internal and external publics. This has help in
encouraging a two way communication between the PR unit and the two publics.
It has also brought about feedback and participation. The department has been able
to link up with other sites, people and other resources and organizations for
adaptation of PR strategies.

RECOMMENDATIONS.
As part of recommendations, it is important for staff of the PR unit of the Ghana
Broadcasting Cooperation to be impacted with knowledge of how intersection of
search and the social media at large provides a platform to reach and engage the
traditional media and its publics through interaction, sharing and meaningful dealing
and not only for entertainment and socializing like chatting with friends on face book
especially during productive hours. In line with this more desktop computers or
preferably laptops should be made available to the staff of the unit alongside
interventions to ensure that they are used for the intended purpose.

BIBILOGRAPHY.

Unpublished, History of the Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation.

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein Social Media Wikipedia, July 11.2011.

Anthony J. Bradley1 January 7, 2010 Gartner blog network.

Jolie ODell, The history of Social Media (INFOGRAPHIC) January 24, 2011.

Lecturers Note, Mr. David Newton

Daniel Nations on Social Media, about.com

Ben Parr, The Peep Project At-Large website.

MASS COMMUNICATION
TOP 2013048.WEEK END

Social media can be defined as a two-way process that gives people the ability to
communicate. In furtherance the phenomenon makes it possible for anyone to create,
modify, and share content with others, using relatively simple tools that are often free or
inexpensive. Social media requires a computer or mobile device with Internet access. It
constitutes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into
interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals. Andreas
Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations that allow the
creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media can also be defined as
online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of
audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without
knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form
communities around shared interests. The Social Media comprises several new forms
of communication tools under one umbrella. These include blogs, internet, twitter, face
book among other social networks. However Valeria Malton in an article titled The New
Media published on November 18 2007 defined new media as a way in which the
delivery of news and information follows a many-to-many format. This stands in contrast
with the mass media that just proceeded this age of conversation. The Economist in an
article published on November 18, 2007 titled Among the Audience simply explained
the phenomenon as a new culture with a characteristic of participation. Meanwhile
BusinessWeek story on Mounting peer-to-peer pressure for Comcast in an attempt to
explain what the new media is indicated that, under the new phenomenon small firms
and individuals will be competing or collaborating. Subsequently some will generate
some income from their content they produce whiles others will not care even if they
dont make any money because they have other aims and objectives. This is absolutely
different from the old traditional media where a few media giants were competing
among themselves for audiences. Wikipedia further explained that most technologies
described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated,
networkable, dense, compressible, and interactive. Some examples may be the
Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New
media does not include television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-

based publications unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity. In
Ghana a sign of embracing the new media is evident in the use of the internet to source
and share both local and international news and other programmes.
The evolution of the internet can fill several pages and keep us glued to our seat for
several hours hence the information given is a partial history of the internet from 1962
to 1999.Arpanet has been identified as the first real network to run on what is called
packet switching technology which was brand new during that period. As part of its
historical achievements it aided the connection of computers at Stanford and UCLA for
the first time in on October 29, 1962. This mark the beginning of the internet world as
the first internet message to be sent across the network was supposed to be Login but
due to a technical fault the link between the two colleges crushed on the letter g. The
beginning of Unix in the 60s was an laudable era as its operating system which is very
famous in todays web hosting service thus Linux and FreeBSD. In 1970 Arpanet
network made some progress as its network was established between Harvard, MIT
and BBN thus the organization which built the interface message processer computers
use for connection to the network. Ray Tomlinson gave the internet world a further
boost when he established Email in 1971.He was the brain behind what we call domain
name as his decision to use the @ symbol for separation between user names from
computer names finally transformed into domain name. In that same year another
remarkable development was the surfacing of Project Gutenberg, a project which was
aimed at making had coping documents electronically available for free access. Michael
Hart was the one who came up with this innovation. Today the world is using ebook
which is the current product of the Gutenberg project. In 1972 France became the first
country to begin its own Arpanet branded as CYCLADES. Although it was shut down,
it triggered the idea that a host computer should be responsible for data transmission
instead of a network. The year 1974 marked the beginning of Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) as a proposal was published for the materialization of a link of Arpa like
networks into what was called inter-network, which did not have vital control but
expected to work around a TCP. By the middle of 1975 the email has gained grounds
through the emailing process. In line with this, the first ever modern email programme
was developed by a programmer at the University of Southern California called John
Vittal. At to history the biggest achievement of this new development was the addition of
the REPLY and FORWARD functions of emailing.1977 was identified as a
successful year of the internet because the first ever PC modem was developed by
Dennis Hayes and Dale Haetherington. The Bulletin Board System was also established
in 1978 in Chicago. The firs unsolicited commercial email message currently called
spam was born in 1978 and subsequently Gray Thuerk sent it out to 600 Arpanet
users. The Precursor to World of Warcraft and Second life was established in 1978 and
was named MUD short form of Multiuser Dungeon. It was a text base virtual word with
the combination of elements such as the role playing games, interactive, fiction and

online chart. Usenet net an internet base discussion system was created by two
graduates in 79.It gave people the opportunity of conversing on a same topic through
the publication of public messages. The Enquire soft ware was ushered in by the
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).Written by Tim Berners-Lee, it
was a hypertext which allowed scientist at the Particle Physics laboratory to keep track
of people, soft ware and projects using hypertext. The first emoticon proposed by Scott
Fahlman using the sign :-) rather than the original version which is -) proposed by Kevin
Mackenzie was introduced in 1982.Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP developed
by Vinton Cerf in 1983 with January 1 1983 given as deadline for switching. The name
server was also developed in the same. The Domain name system and Domain Name
Servers were created in 1984.Theyear 1985 brought along what was called THE
WELL thus Whole Earth Lectronic Link, one of the oldest still operating in the virtual
communities. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant. It started out as a
community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but
"remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering". Wired Magazine once called
The Well "The most influential online community in the world."Protocol Wars were
established in 1986 whiles European countries were perusing the Open Systems
Interconnection. Meanwhile the US by then was still using the Internet/Arpanet protocol
which eventually was out of the system. In 1987 the internet grew with about 30,000
hosts on the internet. Meanwhile in 1988 the Internet Rally Chat was introduced which
paved the way for real time chat and instant messaging programmes in recent times.
American Online was launched in 1989 and renamed American Online which still in
existence today. In 1989 Tim Berners Lee wrote the first proposal for the World Wide
Web originally published in the March issue of Macworld. The first commercial dial up
internet provider called THE WORLD was introduced whiles Arpanet was no more in
existence. In 1990 Berners finished writing the World Wide Web based on his previous
proposal including standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLS. Meanwhile the first web
page was created in 91 also Gopher thus the first search protocol that examined file
content instead of file names was launched. The MP3 format was also accepted as a
standard. One of the most interesting developments of this era was also the
development of the first webcam. This first downloaded Internet browser Mosaic was
introduced into the system in 1993,in that same year both the United NATIONS AND
White House were online which marked the beginning of .org and .gov domain names.
Netscape Navigator a competitor of Mosaic was also released in 94.1995 was the era of
the commercialization of the internet,as the first Secure Sockets Layer was developed
by Netscape which made it safer to conduct financial transactions. Online businesses
also started the same year with the first sale of the Echo Bay thus eBay and
Amazon.com made the same year. Geocities was also launched the same year among
other sites. The first webase thus webmail was launched in 1996, the term weblog was
also coined in 1997.In 1998 the first news story was broadcast online thus the Bill

Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal as Google went live in the same year. The
SETI@HOME Project was launched in 1999.Dotom collapsed in 2000 resulting in the
collapsing of hundreds of companies. Wikipedia was launched n 2001 which facilitated
the collective web content generation. Skype and MySpace became accessible to the
public in 2003. Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term "Web 2.0", referring
to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and userdriven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle
and Tim OReilly described the concept of "the Web as a Platform": software
applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the
desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of
interoperability).Facebook was open to students in 2004 whiles u-tube was launched in
2005 enabling online sharing of videos and hosting. Twitter was however launched in
2006.It initial intended name was twitrr .The first twitter message was just setting up my
twtter. Popular Television programmes were made available online when Hulu was
launched in 2007.Meanwhile the biggest achievement was made with the introduction of
ipones with the aim of renewing interest in mobile web applications and design. The first
internet election was conducted in 2008 beginning with the U.S Presidential elections.
The year 2009 came alongside some remarkable changes as the US was flexible on
control over ICAAN an official naming body of the internet responsible for the registering
of domain names.
THEORITICAL GROUNDINGS:
The Public Sphere which is a concept based on the ideas of Jurgen Habermas in his
book titled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere published in 1962 has
been identified as the appropriate theoretical grounding of the Social Media. According
to Emily Jarvis on an article published on E.HOW dated July 06, 2011; Public Sphere
can simply be defined as a platform for sharing information and formation of opinions. It
furthered explained that it is made of a community gathering where information is
shared through discussions, deliberations and eventually leading to the formation of
Public Opinion. Public Sphere was established in the 18 th century with the growth of
public meeting places such as coffeehouses, literary societies were all meeting places
or outlets where issues of public concern were discussed. Linking the various definitions
of Public Sphere, it can be stated that the social media is a modern public sphere
because it serves as a platform for gathering, sharing, dialoguing and finally opinion
formation. There is no limitation to information flow, expressions and access to

information. For instance the World Wide Web is defiantly not a web neither is
Cyberspace a space or face book a book, they are names or identification for platforms
were people meet to exchange ideas, discuss issues which are mutually beneficial or
matters of general interest to all.
TYPES, FUNCTIONS AND USES (GLOBAL CONTINENTAL, SUB.REGIONAL,
NATIONAL, COMMUNITY, GROUPS).
There are several forms of the social media likewise functions at the global, sub
regional, national, community and groups level. These include Blogs, U-tube, and Face
book among other social networks.
BLOG: Unlike the traditional Mass Media were participation was somehow limited blogs
offer people the opportunity to gather information and finally curve public opinion
globally. At the sub regional level it does facilitate socialization. Communities are able to
exchange developmental ideas at the community level through the use of face book. It
serves as an arena for the exchange of information and interaction at the group level
likewise fueling decisions of the masses.
FACEBOOK: As another Social network which can be used to communicate 24/7 with
people you know across the globe. The network has several functions including the
promotion of business or product and services through advertising. In recent times
people do easy marketing through online by using Face book. About 3,000,000 people
across the world stay connected whiles businesses grow each day.
TWITTER: Twitter at the community level as part of it functions can lead to community
actions. Through twitter ads, communities are developing because groups such as
NGOs promote their efforts, which are supported through citizens participation. Millions
of people globally show their support for positive initiatives that might have been
initiated unnoticed likewise the negatives.

WIKI (WIKIPEDIA): This is a content created online because of multiple users working
on the same content but at different times and from different place. It serves as search
engines for the world because it is accessible to everybody at all levels in life.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon Social bookmarking
applications allow users to share their favorite online content with one another while
also creating online bookmarks that the user can refer to in the same way he would a
bookmark created offline in his web browser. Bookmarks may also count as a vote;
hence content with lots of votes can rise to the top of the page results in that
community.

BegBlogging reverses a trend that had become increasingly worrying in an era

dominated by mass media, namely the erosion of what the cultural critic Jurgen
Habermas called 'thepublic sphere'--an area where citizens gather to generate opinions
and attitudes that affirm or challenge the actions of the state. Mass media offered the
illusion of diversity while narrowing the range of real choices available--the '600
channels and nothing on' syndrome. Blogging has revived--and begun to expand--the
public sphere, and in the process may revitalise our democracies."
(John Naughton, "Why Everyone's Invited to the Tenth Birthday Bash for Blogger." The
Observer, Sep. 13, 2009)

Linking the definition of Public Spere

BY EMILY JARVIS,E HOW CONTRIBUTER JULY 06,2011
The public sphere is a concept of a community gathering to share information and form opinions. The
public sphere is no one place, though it is often associated with public forums. The concept is also related
to the marketplace of ideas, a concept that if all ideas, good and bad, are shared, the truth will out. The
public sphere was originally proposed by cultural theorist Jrgen Habermas in 196
Read more: What Is a
sphere.html#ixzz1tBHOok5U

Public

Sphere?

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8696521_public-

The ideal public sphere is made of private people gathered as a public to discuss the needs of society to
the state, the ruling force. Through assembly and dialogue, the public generates opinions about the role
of the state, either challenging or affirming the status quo. The public then articulates its opinions to the
state. This dialogue makes up public opinion. Cultural theorists agree that public opinion is vital for a
legitimate
democracy.
Read more: What Is a
sphere.html#ixzz1tBHLLHyP

Public

Sphere?

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8696521_public-

The public sphere as it is now known was established in the 18th century with the growth of public
meeting places. Coffeehouses, literary societies and a free press were all meeting places or outlets where
issues of public concern could be discussed. The Internet could be considered a modern public sphere.
Governments have historically tried to censor the public sphere to control discourse. Attempts to
criminalize
or
stifle
speech
are
still
seen
today.
Read more: What Is a
sphere.html#ixzz1tBH08gVO

Public

Sphere?

eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8696521_public-

Public Sphere as defined by Richard Nordquist in a publication titled Public

Sphere

"The public sphere is . . . a metaphorical term used to describe the virtual space
where people can interact. . . . The World Wide Web, for example, is not actually a
web; cyberspace is not a space; and so with the public sphere. It's the virtual space
where the citizens of a country exchange ideas and discuss issues, in order to reach
agreement about 'matters of general interest' ([Jurgen] Habermas, 1997: 105). . . .

Meetups/Events Meetup.com and Facebook Events

Meetup.com and Facebook event invites for example. These types of social media allow you to
plan and organize events including sending out invitations through your social network and also
receiving RSVPs.

Video Sharing - YouTube, Vimeo, iMemories

Similar to photosharing. Users upload video content to a site for sharing either privately or
public.

Photosharing - Flickr, Photobucket

Photosharing sites are where people can upload photos to share either privately with only
selected other users or publicly. Creative Commons licensing rights can grant permissions for
others to use the photos by simply embedding the codes in their blogs. That is how I get most of
the photos on my blog.

Wikis - Wikipedia
A wiki refers to content created online as a result of multiple users working on the same content,
but at different times and from different places. The Different Types of Social Media video
from my online social media workshop

Blogs WordPress, TypePad, Posterous, Tumblr, Blogger as well as non-branded

blogging platforms
Blogs are online journals where the author can write (blog) about any interest he wants. The
blogger can also use the blog to share content picked up from other social media sites (YouTube,
Issuu) by taking advantage of the simple embed codes offered by those content hosts.

Social bookmarking Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon

Social bookmarking applications allow users to share their favorite online content with one
another while also creating online bookmarks that the user can refer to in the same way he
would a bookmark created offline in his web browser. Bookmarks may also count as a vote,
hence content with lots of votes can rise to the top of the page results in that community.

Social networking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+

Social networking sites allow users to add friends, send messages and share content. People on
social networking sites group in communities of like-minded interest. IMPORTANT: 1) The other
types of social media outlined here also allow for networking, though theyre typically more
focused on content sharing. 2) Dont assume your audience isnt participating in social
networking. The growth of Facebook for example is phenomenal. The rate at which it is growing
with men and women in their 60s even is staggering.

BLOG OF KEVIN MCLNOSH,CREATER OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA ROAD TRIP

WORKSHOP.6TH MARCH 2012

ADVERTSING ASSIGNMENT.

QUESTIONAIR.

1. HAVE YOU EVER TASTED BLUE SKIES?

.YES/.NO
2. FROM WHERE?
..

3. WHICH OF THE FLAVOURS TO YOU PREFER AND WHY?

4. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE BLUE SKIES?

5. WOULD YOU RECOMMEND BLUE SKIES TO FRIENDS AND RELATIVES?

.YES/.NO

.ALL ANSWERED YES.

2.FOUR BOUGHT IT OUT OF CURIOSTY.

FOUR RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRIENDS
2 THE DESIRE TO TRY NEW THINGS.
3.FOUR WHO WERE BOUGHT THE JUICE OUT OF RECOMMENDED ADDED THAT
THEY THOUGHT IT HAD A BLUE PACKAGING AND SO SPENT MINUTES OF
MINUTES LOOKING FOR IT FROM THE FRIDGE BUT COULD NOT FIND AND
EVENTUALLY HAS TO ASK THUS THREE.BUT ONE RQUESTED FROM THE CAF
ATTENDANT AND WAS SURPRISE TO SEE THE PACKAGING NOT BLUE.
ALL TEN ANSWERED YES.

REPORT.

Our questionnaires were distributed to ten students of the Ghana Institute of

Journalism constituting five ladies and five men.

Findings from our questionnaire revealed that the students are aware of the product
through friends.
Four out of the ten respondents indicated that they were made aware of the product
through friends who recommended it. Meanwhile four bought it out of curiosity
whiles two indicated that they bought blue skies out of the desire to try new things.
But one interesting development was that the four respondents who bought the
product through recommendation indicated that they first had the impression that
the name of the fruit juice blue skies reflected on the packaging which in reality is
not. Secondly four out of the ten respondents revealed that they were not aware of
Blue skies different flavors until the day of filling the questionnaire. To be able to
complete the questionnaire they tried all the flavors.
Meanwhile five out of the remaining six preferred the ginger flavor because they
noted that it was good for the human system.
In conclusion, the group decided to design a print advert which will display all the
flavors. This will also clear the impression that the packaging of the product is not
blue as was expected.
The group will also strive in creativity to ensure that advert attraction attention
through action and generate desire and be credible as these forms part of the
writing copy.

WHAT TO DO TO ENSURE THAT THE ABOVE STATED IS ACHIVED.

HEADLINE: We intend to use: YOU HAVE TO TRY IT, TASTE 100%
NATURAL thus a combination of command and information headline because
we are of the conviction that it will generate a desire to try all the flavors.
ILLUSTRATION: Secondly we will then display all the three flavors which will
be iced and increase their sizes in the advert to equally elicit desire and interest.
This will be done with the implicit attempt to also indicate to consumers that the
packaging is not blue.
BODY COPY: The body copy will further enlighten consumers about how blue
skies are naturally manufactured.

According to INFORGRAPHIC, the evolution of the social media can be track back to
the late 1970s when computer hobbyists Ward Christensen and Randy Suess invented
the bulletin board system (BBS). The launch of the Mosaic web browser in 1993 gave
birth to the world wide web, and then another revolution of the media including
Geocities and Blogger in the late 90s, through to Friendster and MySpace in at the turn
of the millennium, the path to present day social stalwarts Facebook, Twitter, Google+
and the white-hot Pinterest and the like sprang up.

INFO NOT YER TACKLED

Facebook Detox claims that social networking is actually asocial networking, which causes
people not only to stagnate in life, but stagnate in the function of creating and maintaining
interpersonal relationships. Social networking, according to the website, is an obsession that has
a massive negative net effect on society as a whole.

strategic and on-demand research for keywords and topics relevant to search and/or the social
web

Know best practices of SEO for Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and any other digital
media produced for news distribution
High level of expertise with tools to improve quality, efficiency and scale

Call it convergence or consolidation, but no matter how you look at it, marketing and public
relations expertise is unifying to bring brand messages and influence to the new search and social
web. Its a compelling thing for PR professionals to gain an understanding of how search and
social media channels can improve reach and placements. Its even more impressive to step into
the shoes of their customers customer as a marketer would and really understand how news is
discovered, consumed and shared.
If youre a public relations professional, have you begun implementing search and social media
optimization into your news content strategy? How are you educating yourself and your teams on
these best practices?

PARTICIPATION: It promotes contributions and collaboration among staff and

cooperation.
CONVERSATION: It promotes a two way communication between the PR unit and
the internal and external publics of the cooperation.
CONNECTNESS: Are able to link up with other sites, people and other resources.
OPENESS: It promotes feed back and participation, Encourage comments, voting
and suggestions from the publics.

With an ever increasing universe of data and ways to connect, PR and communications
professionals are in a compelling position to master the new rules for consumer information
discovery, consumption and sharing. As participants and content creators savvy about the search

and social web, PR professionals can directly impact online brand visibility, customer
engagement and acquisition.
A big part of how Public Relations pros can show more value for their efforts is to understand
how the intersection of search and social media provides a powerful means to reach and engage
media and consumers that inspires interaction, sharing and meaningful business outcomes.
Some of the fundamentals online PR and communications practitioners should seek to
understand in the world of Social Media and SEO include:

Consider: Facebook is approaching 700 million users and Google handles over 11 billion
queries per month. World-wide there are over 5 billion mobile subscribers (9 out of 10 in the
U.S.) and every two days there is more information created than between the dawn of civilization
and 2003. The age of communications and digital relationships between brands, the media and
consumers has changed faster and in ways few could have anticipated.
With an ever increasing universe of data and ways to connect, PR and communications
professionals are in a compelling position to master the new rules for consumer information
discovery, consumption and sharing. As participants and content creators savvy about the search
and social web, PR professionals can directly impact online brand visibility, customer
engagement and acquisition.
A big part of how Public Relations pros can show more value for their efforts is to understand
how the intersection of search and social media provides a powerful means to reach and engage
media and consumers that inspires interaction, sharing and meaningful business outcomes.
Some of the fundamentals online PR and communications practitioners should seek to
understand in the world of Social Media and SEO include:

Stay on top of future trends in search, social media and content marketing for PR
Gain insight into how social and search strategy can amplify media and public relations
outcomes

Understand how to develop search & social personas think like your customers
customer

Be able to conduct strategic and on-demand research for keywords and topics relevant to
search and/or the social web

Know best practices of SEO for Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and any other digital
media produced for news distribution

High level of expertise with tools to improve quality, efficiency and scale

Call it convergence or consolidation, but no matter how you look at it, marketing and public
relations expertise is unifying to bring brand messages and influence to the new search and social
web. Its a compelling thing for PR professionals to gain an understanding of how search and
social media channels can improve reach and placements. Its even more impressive to step into
the shoes of their customers customer as a marketer would and really understand how news is
discovered, consumed and shared.
If youre a public relations professional, have you begun implementing search and social media
optimization into your news content strategy? How are you educating yourself and your teams on
these best practices?
Later today Ill be speaking to a soon to graduate class at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN
about these topics and Im also giving a 1-hour presentation at the upcoming Vocus Users
conference in Baltimore to a group of experienced PR professionals on Integrated Social SEO
& PR.
Lee Odden