Strategically Communicating

Access Communications is a PR firm in San Francisco and New York, owned but operated seperately from Ketchum, Inc. In reading through their website today I came across their blog. I think it is worth checking out. There are some interesting stories in social media and PR that could make this wonderfully gloomy day in Eugene, a little more interesting and exciting.

Check out Access Communications’ blog.

If you did not see this particular billboard, you heard the story. May 21, 2011 at 6 pm the Rapture was occurring. That is an extremely specific time. Why then? From what I have been able to piece together through my devote Christian friends (who none that I spoke to believed this event was happening) the newspaper, and the internet, is that this specific date was chosen because it was 5 months after a larger earthquake and x amount of years after Noah’s Arc. The entire Public Relations strategy for this event was done improper.

First, with something as unexplainable as religion and the end of times, why put such a specific time on it. 6 pm? That means the rapture would hit people in Europe before it did in the US. And what do you know, it was reported the rapture did not happen there either. I believe it is incredibly rude to promise the world an event like the coming of Christ and not deliver. Not to mention, it made Harold Camping and his followers seem unintelligent.

Secondly, is it possible to believe sinners will repent and mean it for one day would and will go to heaven? That spreading the word of the rapture would make the world a better place? No, it didn’t. Instead, I got many Facebook invites with titles along the lines of “Post Rapture Looting”. Also the hashtag of  #endoftheworldconfessions was trending. My personal favorite, by “Lord Voldemort: #endoftheworldconfessions, it was me, I ‘let the dogs out’.”

Needless to say this is a PR fiasco for the Christian faith. I am sorry for all those who truly believed the Rapture was upon us and sold all their belongings and drove cross country to be with Camping. On the bright side, at least my neighbors got a kick out of it.

Digital, mobile and social media in China.

I was shocked to see the numbers and statistics behind China’s social media activity. It is interesting to compare the facts with American statistics or even American trends. I found it shocking that 87% of Chinese social media users have “friended” a brand. In America it seems companies have just gotten on this bandwagon and recently started targeting campaigns around social media. This slide-show put in perspective how behind America actually is in social media, even though we feel we are fully capitalizing on it.

With the exception of our profession and promoting ourselves and our brand through social media, many workers should not be using social media during work hours. Instead of focusing on their job, many employees are on Facebook via their Blackberrys and Iphones, and costing their company millions of dollars by wasting their time. More than half of  U.S. workers waste an hour a day on interruptions like Facebook and Twiiter. Electronic devices and emails take the rap for 60 percent of the disruptions, while phone calls and gossiping with your neighbor takes up the 40% according to a survey on white collar workers in the U.S. done by Harmon.

Another study that was done shows that  the average worker wastes 2.5 hours looking for misplaced documents in poorly organized electronic files.

I dont necessarily agree with this opinion of social media being wasteful. Although I’m sure that these employees were mostly using them for social and personal purposes, I think the typical workplace should embrace social media instead of punishing it for its attributes. Why not utilize Twitter to promote your company? Or create a Facebook page to help consumers keep updated on what your company is currently doing. By putting such negative associations with social media, it could easily force the employees to rebel and play on it more.

Also why not embrace the wonderful apps and abilities on smartphones and have a day where employees are shown how to most effectively organize files via Iphone/Blackberry. If employees are poorly organizing their files electronically dont blame the technology, help the employee understand the technology more effectively. After all they’re love spending all of their time on it, don’t they?

Word on the street is that Facebook is launching a new feature where in addition to tagging your friends in photos online, you will also be able to tag pages that have a fan page. My first thought is that Facebook will now become the interactive “Where’s Waldo” of spotting brands.

This new feature is obviously aimed towards attracting brands with a social media presence, but will it really benefit them? Smaller companies can reap the benefits of loyal customers doing free publicity work for them. On the other hand, I don’t think large brands like Coke will have an advantage at all.

From a solely social Facebook user’s perspective, I can see this feature becoming quite an annoyance as my News Feed turns into a list of advertisements. We are exposed to approximately 3000 advertisements for brands every day. I could care less about about what soft drink or cell phone my friend from high school who I never talk to is using. But you tell me fellow PRer’s, what are your thoughts?