Universities need to internationalise their approach to social networking

The news that Facebook has finally launched a Chinese-language version of the site will undoubtedly excite many British universities. China is an important market for recruiting students and developing research partnerships. It is clear that British universities have over the past few years started to get to grips with the opportunities for communications (and dare I say, marketing) through social networking sites. The familiarity in the UK with Facebook and other popular sites such as Bebo and MySpace has encouraged universities and HE colleges to establish a presence in these virtual networks, or at least to monitor them for looming crises. Surely adopting a presence on Facebook's Chinese-language site is just another extension of this approach? Or is it?

I've been wondering over the past few months just how much consideration universities actually give to the international scene in social networking as opposed to thinking purely in terms of social networks that dominate in the UK or western world. For example in Asia Friendster is one of the most popular social networking sites, overshadowing both Facebook and MySpace quite considerably. QQ, Xianonei and 51.com are also dominant in the Asian market but barely heard of in the West. The language barriers make some of these sites inaccessible to the marketeers and communicators working in British universities, but if they are serious about continuing to engage with potential students in Asia, particularly China, then perhaps efforts should also be made to educate ourselves more in social networking spaces dominating other markets. Time is an issue, with many communications departments in British universities already stretched and undoubtedly struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change and online communications. I'd be delighted to lead some research into the potential for marcomms with non-English language social networks if there were a few universities out there that might be interested to get involved and back this.

This recent blog post on Venture Beat gives an insight into Friendster's dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. This post from Read Write Web written in January 2008 might also provide useful background information to anyone looking to explore the social networking phenomenon in China and Asia.

Useful toys for the blog

I'm always looking for new and useful tools for the blog and by following Paul Bradshaw on Twitter (www.twitter.com/paulbradshaw) I have had introductions to some great resources this morning. Firstly, he linked through to the blog post 60 ridiculously useful tools for your blog or website.

If that wasn't enough, I then also spotted Paul's use of polldaddy.com on his Online Journalism Blog. Polldaddy looks like a rather neat little tool for embedding polls and short surveys (for free using the basic account) in blogs and websites. Certainly one that I'll be thinking of using in future.

Thanks Paul!

Evolution of mobile phones

Just spotted this video on YouTube showing the evolution of mobile phones since the 80s. Just goes to show how incredible technology is and just how much we've moved on. How many of these handsets have you owned?

Pitching to bloggers

There has been a great deal of discussion recently about how to pitch to bloggers. Many bloggers are adding PR companies to spam filters in order to stop being pestered by pointless press releases.
I'm currently preparing a new media training session for a client and searching for useful resources to give them. I came across this really great discussion on Matt Haughey's blog about how to pitch to bloggers. Well worth a read.

Crisis Comms Conference - presentations, resources and feedback form now available

As promised at the CIPR Education & Skills Group Crisis Communications conference (6 June 2008), on behalf of the Group Pickle Jar Communications* has created a web space with all of the presentations from the conference, links to additional materials, and the feedback form for the event. All of this content can be accessed here.

We have also set up the blog post below for delegates (and non-delegates) to share comments and ideas from the conference if they so wish.

*The Director of Pickle Jar Communications, Tracy Playle, is the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group's Vice Chair and Events Officer hence why we are hosting these resources on our website.

Delegates of the Crisis Comms Conference: Keep Talking

There were plenty of ideas being shared at the CIPR's Education & Skills Sector Group Crisis Comms Conference this week (TVU, 6 June). As the Events Officer and Vice Chair of the Group, I thought it might be nice to create a space for those conversations to continue if delegates so wish. I therefore invite you all to post comments in response to this blog post as a way of sharing your thoughts on the conference, sharing ideas and asking questions of other delegates. Please go ahead and hijack my blog for this purpose - you are all very welcome!

Crisis Comms conference a success

I'm back at the desk this morning having been out and about down in London for the past two days. Yesterday, we (we being those of us on the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group) hosted our crisis communications and new media conference. From previous blog posts, you will know that I was pretty stoked about this conference anyway. However, it exceeded my expectations. Peter Reader, a colleague and friend from the University of Portsmouth, set the conference up excellently with his introduction to crisis communications. Mike Dame from Virginia Tech followed with a presentation of how they handled communications (particularly online) during the shootings on their campus in April 2007 in which 33 people died. I don't think I have ever seen a more focused, engaged audience. We broke for coffee after this session and everyone was very choked and blown-away by the presentation. Alison Arnott followed after coffee. Alison was one of the first media officers on the ground working for BAA when the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport occurred last year. I learned at dinner the night before that this was Alison's first presentation to such an audience. You wouldn't have known it! She was engaging, and her presentation was so personable and well presented that, yet again, we had a room full of focused delegates. Our committee Chair, Emma Leech, followed on by sharing experiences from MMU of a mix-up over exam venues last year, then Tom Abbott took the reigns for a while talking about the tools of the trade. We then ran four scenario sessions for the delegates to explore. Held in the graveyard slot when everybody must have been getting tired and ready to go home, I was amazed at just how animated our delegates still were. I'm really looking forward to seeing the feedback now and will be posting the slides online shortly as promised.

Does anyone know what the 'P' in PR actually stands for?

I've heard myself over and over again recently explaining to people that aren't particularly familiar with the PR industry that the 'P' in PR stands for 'Public' and not 'Press'. We are not all simply copy-monkeys churning out press releases and trying to win column inches for our clients or employers. Public Relations is exactly as it says on the tin: managing relationships with publics. The media, or more specifically, journalists, might be just one of those publics - one of many I might add!

So, I'm a little disappointed today that Damien McCrystal's article in the Guardian - Don't bite the hand that feeds you - places such emphasis on the media relations role that the PR professional plays. To his credit, he is trying very hard in this article to establish the credibility and the importance of the PR industry in the UK. I applaud him for that and welcome his thoughts and opinion. However, with an industry that has such a poor reputation amongst those that work outside of it, I think we PR professionals should be doing so much more to show the sheer breadth of the work that we do. Yes, relationships with journalists are crucial, but they are not everything. Sadly, to some PR companies and PR Officers they are everything, and their clients and organisations are the worse for it.

I've made a new friend recently. He's an opinionated chap who has moved in with a close friend of mine and thus has joined our social circle. I like him a lot. However, he has made it very clear to me that if we met under any other circumstances than the social circle of which we are part, he would have taken an instant dislike to me. Why? Because I am a 'PR person'. His staunch dislike of PR people is, in my opinion, purely founded on his misunderstanding of the good works that we 'PR people' (or communications professionals, as I prefer to call myself), actually do. We only met a few weeks ago but we've already had several good (and good natured, I might add) debates about the sins of the PR professional. Articles in the popular press that simply reinforce that perception of PR people as column-inch hunters, no matter how well they might try to paint the profession, just don't help us to improve wider perception of our abilities, skills, know-how and contributions to society and industry. We need to do more.