Karen Freberg, M.A.
University of Tennessee,
Knoxville
kfreberg@utk.edu
Created for: National Center
for Food Protection and
Defense
(Prime Award: DHS/2007-ST-061-000003)
Social Media &
Public Relations
What is social media?
Social media combines “a wide range of online, word-of-mouth
forums including blogs, company sponsored discussion boards and
chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer e-mail, consumer product or
service ratings websites and forums, Internet discussion boards and
forums, microblogs” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p.358).
 Social media integrates technology & social interaction with
pictures, videos, words, and audio.
 It also allows people to share different perspectives and sharing
information / stories / experiences among online communities.
Solis, B. (August 5, 2008). Introducing the conversation prism.
Retrieved from http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducingconversation-prism/.
Characteristics of Social Media
 Open
 Conversations & Dialogue
 Relationship Development
 Multiple voices
 Getting the message to stakeholders
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Social media press release
Video news release
Internet
Social networking communities / influencers
Live steaming
Opportunities in Social Media
Knowledge
Sharing
• Blogs
• Microblogs
• Ex. Twitter,
Wordpress,
Blogger
Life Sharing
• Photos
• Videos
• Ex. YouTube,
Flickr
Social
Networking
Business
Networking
Community
Building
• Connect
• Interact
• Ex. Facebook,
MySpace
• Connect
• Interact
• Ex. Linkedin
• Collaborate
• Collect
• Ex. Ning (social
networking
communities)
Key terms to remember about social media
 Engagement
 Influencers
 Internet Memes
 Edelman Tweetlevel Site
• Methodology in calculating Influence,
Engagement, Trust, and Popularity on
site.
Key term: Engagement
 Engagement
 Definition: the purpose of listening and interacting
with your key stakeholders virtually – these
conversations range from compliments to complaints
to specific needs.
 Examples of brands that have high levels of
engagement: Starbucks, Dell, and Toyota
 Why are these brands successful?
(Engagement DB Report)
•
•
•
The understand that each social media channel (ex.
Facebook, web sites, blogs, Twitter, etc.) provides
people a different dimension of engagement.
Centralized coordination of social media throughout
companies.
Senior management was part of the social media
process (ex. CEO of Starbucks & MyStarbucks.com)
Key Term: Influence
 Definition: The ability to shape and shift messages that
grabs a person’s attention and inspires them to act upon this.
 Breakdown of influencers
 Traditional influencers (newsmakers, reporters, analysts, etc.)
 New media influencers
• These individuals create their own social networking communities
and have their own followers (bypassing gatekeepers)
• Bloggers are just the beginning – people are establishing
themselves as prominent authorities of influence online.
• Has expert content on their blog, web site , etc. – as well
developing relationships w/ followers & peer-to-peer
conversations.
Basille, D. (November 5, 2009). Social Media influencers are not traditional influencers. Retrieved from http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/social-mediainfluencers-are-not-traditional-influencers/.
Key term: Internet Meme
 Definition:
 A phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that
spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet.
 Types of Internet Memes
 Self-promotion (usually created by a group / individual to gain
personal recognition)
 Rumors & Hoaxes (falsehoods spread virally)
 Crisis Communications & Reputation Management
 Examples of Crisis Communication Internet Memes
 Domino’s & YouTube Crisis (#disgustingdominos)
 Amazon Crisis (#amazonfails)
 United Airlines & Guitar – Song by Musician Dave Carroll
Understanding your online stakeholders
Creators
Publish a blog
Publish your own Web pages
Upload video you created
Upload audio/music you created
Write articles or stories and post them
Critics
Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Comment on someone else’s blog
Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives
Use RSS feeds
Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
“Vote” for Web sites online
Maintain profile on a social networking site
Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Listen to podcasts
Read online forums
Read customer ratings/reviews
None of the above
Bernoff, J. (August 25, 2009). Social technology growth marches on in 2009, led by social network sites. Retrieved from
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/social-technology-growth-marches-on-in-2009-led-by-social-network-sites.html.
What is the purpose of social media?
• Establishing online identity
• Conducting Research – qualitative and quantitative
• Launching event & creating awareness of an issue
•Using media relations practices in reaching both
traditional and non-traditional media
•Engaging with customers in dialogue
•Creating new online partnerships
•Communications with External & Internal Audiences
•Crisis Communications & Crisis Management
•Reputation Management (Corporate and Individual)
Social Media PR Case: CDC & H1N1
Centers for Disease Control Social Media site. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/.
CDC & Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Video (YouTube)
Widgets
Centers for Disease Control Social Media site.
Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/.
CDC & Second Life
Centers for Disease Control Virtual Worlds site. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/HealthMarketing/ehm/virtual.html.
Social media & Mobile Applications
Siegler, M.G. (April 30, 2009). Want to avoid Swine Flu? There’s an app for that too. Retrieved from
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/want-to-avoid-swine-flu-theres-an-app-for-that-too/.
Trendsmap. Retrieved from http://trendsmap.com/.
Fort Hood Shootings
 Overview of Crisis (Nov 2009)
 Areas in Public Relations
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Crisis Communications
Issues Management
Risk Communication
Social Media
 Strategies Army implemented with social media
 Facebook Main Page / “Prayers for Fort Hood”
 Twitter Accounts
Social Media & News response to
Fort Hood Tragedy
Newspapers
• New York
Times
• Fort Hood
Shootings
like had
updates
from other
news
organization
s in Texas
and
incorporated
citizen
journalists
Talk shows
• Today Show
• Used local
news
sources for
story for
Twitter list
Network TV
• CNN
• First
network to
create
breaking
news Twitter
news
account
(@cnnbrk)
• 2.8 million
viewers
Blogs
• Huffington
Post
• Displayed
Twitter lists
on
homepage
with
breaking
news.
Ostrow, A. (November 5, 2009). Fort Hood Shootings: News Orgs Put Twitter Lists to the Test. Retrieved from
http://mashable.com/2009/11/05/fort-hood-shootings/.
Social Media Measurement
Qualitative
Measurement
Discussion online
Quantitative
Measurement
# Downloads /
Views
Online reputation
Fans / Followers
Engagement with
followers
Key terms
searches / #
Tone of digital
dialogue
Online Revenue
Relationships
# Social
bookmarks
What are the goals in
social media measurement?
 Reputation
 Understanding perceptions and attributes associated with brand or person online
/ positive or negative tags and content online / analysis of conversations
 Awareness
 Brand loyalty / media placements and referrals to social media sites / share of
conversation / sentiment in posts / interaction with content
 Money
 Speed of online transactions / Referrals to new customers / conversations from
community
 Engagement
 Looking at specific activity and interactions among followers & brand
 Posts / Threads / Incoming links / Tags / Referrals / Post frequency
 Education
 Learning about stakeholders / being part of the dialogue / creating new
relationships / strategic issues management
How to measure social media
 Free sites for online tracking and measurement
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People Browsr
SM2
Google Insights
Samepoint
Social Mention
 Other sites
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Radian6
CustomScoop
Viral Heat
Nielson Buzzlogics
Cision Social Media
Example: How to track swine flu?
1. Check out what is being presented on the WHO Disease
Outbreak News Center
2. Set up not only Google Alerts, but also other search
engine alerts (ex. Backtype, Social Mention, etc.)
3. Track what people are posting via Twitter on
Trendsmap (look for key words) or Heath Map &
Flu.gov
4. Look at what are the common #hashtags being
discussed related to swine flu (ex. #swineflu, #h1n1,
#CDC, #swineflu vaccination, etc.)
Role of the new PR professional
 Role of a PR Professional
 Contribute valuable content and perspective through
participation
 We are not only liaisons for our businesses we work for or clients,
but we become influencers ourselves
 Social creates a new hybrid of PR professionals
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Social Media / Data mining expert
Market analyst & researcher
Customer Service
Relationship marketers
Viral marketer
Conversationalist/listener
How PR can be successful with
social media?
 Integrate social media practices as part of the daily routine –
like checking what is going on in the news or email.
 Connecting with people online (establishing relationships).
 Creating a dialogue through an online channel.
 Start having a conversation with online stakeholders from the
very beginning – incorporate into corporate culture.
 Being consistent with content across all social media
platforms as well in traditional media outlets.
 Social media is not for the short term – it is a long-term
process and investment.
 Educate your organization & community about social media
Other PR tips to success
 Talk like a person, not a computerized robot!
 Be helpful and bring value to the conversation and
relationship.
 Remember each time that you are talking, posting, or
conducting a business exchange online – you are
contributing to the personality and reputation of the
agency / corporation you are representing, as well as
your own reputation.
Why is it important to understand social
media from a PR perspective?
 Being aware of the latest technologies to implement our
communication messages and campaign strategies
 Know how people are getting their information and stories
and effectively communicate and share meaning with
audiences
 To build networks with fellow PR professionals - you never
know who you are going to meet!
 Understanding the key online influencers and opinion leaders
 A way to understand our target audiences and how to best
communicate with them
 A tool to use to manage online reputation for our client as
well as ourselves
Future of social media
Baekel. T. (April 27, 2009). Where is everyone? Baekel Online Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.baekdal.com/articles/Management/market-of-information/.
Social Media Resources
 Mashable: http://www.mashable.com
 Brian Solis (PR 2.0): http://www.briansolis.com
 PR Squared: http://www.pr-squared.com/
 Web Strategy (Jeremiah Owyang): http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
 Groundswell (Christine Li / Forrester Research):
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/
 Social Media e-Books: http://mashable.com/2008/03/19/ebooks-socialmedia/
 Online Reputation Management
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Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation:
http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools/
How to build the ultimate social media resume:
http://mashable.com/2009/01/13/social-media-resume/
Other useful research tools
 Twitter
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Twitter Search - Search keywords on Twitter which "self-refreshes". See what's
happening — 'right now'.
TweetScan - search for words on Twitter
Twit(url)y - see what people are talking about on Twitter
TweetBeep - Track mentions of your brand on Twitter in real time.
Twitrratr - Rates mentions of your search term on Twitter as
positive/neutral/negative
TwitScoop – Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets
every minute and extracts the words which are mentioned more often than usual
and creates a tag cloud.
Twilert - Twitter application that lets you receive regular email updates of tweets
containing your brand, product, service.
Twitnest – look at who is following who on Twitter
Twitratr – measures positive, negative, and neutral tweets for a particular Twitter
user
Twitscoop – tool to see what issues are being discussed the most on Twitter
TweetStats – statistics on Twitter
Twitlocal – find people in local area on Twitter
Twazzup – Twitter search engine but with real feed
 Monitoring discussions / comments
 Backtype
 Tweetmeme
References

Allen, N. (November 5, 2009). Seven dead in shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas. Retrieved from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6510855/Seven-dead-in-shooting-at-Fort-Hood-military-base-inTexas.html.

Baekel. T. (April 27, 2009). Where is everyone? Baekel Online Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.baekdal.com/articles/Management/market-of-information/.

Basille, D. (November 5, 2009). Social Media influencers are not traditional influencers. Retrieved from
http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/social-media-influencers-are-not-traditional-influencers/.

Bernoff, J. (August 25, 2009). Social technology growth marches on in 2009, led by social network sites. Retrieved from
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/social-technology-growth-marches-on-in-2009-led-by-social-network-sites.html.
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Centers for Disease Control Web site. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/about/stateofcdc/html/2008/Intro-Message.htm.
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Centers for Disease Control Social Media site. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/.
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Mangold, W.G., & Faulds, D.J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52, 357-365.

Ostrow, A. (November 5, 2009). Fort Hood Shootings: News Orgs Put Twitter Lists to the Test. Retrieved from
http://mashable.com/2009/11/05/fort-hood-shootings/.

Siegler, M.G. (April 30, 2009). Want to avoid Swine Flu? There’s an app for that too. Retrieved from
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/want-to-avoid-swine-flu-theres-an-app-for-that-too/.

Solis, B. (August 5, 2008). Introducing the conversation prism. Retrieved from http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducingconversation-prism/.
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Tools for Measurement. Retrieved from http://measurementcamp.wikidot.com/tools-for-measurement.
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Trendsmap. Retrieved from http://trendsmap.com/.