I have a life i don't need a second!!

After the presentation that Jelena did about Virtual world and Second life games I still believe that this is something that will not help PR for this time period.

Virtual world is something that doesnt exist and gives you the impression of something that you dont have. Even companies looking to use Second Life just for market research may run into problems trying to apply their findings to the real world, where the psychographics and behavioral patterns are different(http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/content/second_life_2_how_can_marketers_take_advantage.php).

From my point of view i believe that this new technology will be used more in advertising than in public relations because it gives the opportunity to somehow feel the product you want to buy or use. Additionally i believe that it will be used more from men than from women because it is a game something that facinates them.

I still dont understand how it is useful to public relations but maybe i m wrong because it is too early. What do you think?

Facebook collapsing?

According to Siggy's post for Facebook. I didn't know that facebook faced this problem. Everyday i notice new people add in and i recive a lot of applications from different people. To tell you the truth it passed my mind to stop using facebook because of this uncontrolled aplication thing.

According to some recent report showed the number of people logging on to the social networking site in the United Kingdom dropped by 400,000 between December and January of 2007-2008.The decline, a first for the Facebook-crazed British, was pounced on by critics who gleefully warned that Facebook fatigue had finally arrived

In the U.K., for example, Facebook still boasts about 8.5 million users. That translates into about one out of every six people in the country. It is believed that this result referes to different age groups and the time they spent in facebook and their need. People aging from 12- 34 they use facebook to meet new people, communicate with friends and share photos. Those over 40 believe it is time consuming.

Check out this video that is against facebook!!!



Source: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/310272

Mobile Spam alert

I was reading Hilary's post about " Mobile spam" and it triggered my interest. Imagine that you go out with for friends to have fun and the mobile phone starts bipping with undesirable spam messages. What you would do? I would shut it down!

Experts agree that the time to stop mobile spam is now, before it becomes a huge problem and before opportunities for legitimate revenue are lost. Accordnig to Susan Wu, partner development manager for security at Sun Microsystems "Mobile spam is definitely on the rise, and the cost to mobile phone users quickly adds up. For every mobile message sent, a toll may be charged to both sender and recipient".But if the companies want to continue use this tool they have to use anti spam programms in order to blog the undesirable messages.

A recent survey by Rainier PR, a U.K. public relations firm, showed that 82 percent of respondents said all unsolicited commercial messages are unacceptable. On the other hand, 72 percent said they would opt in to receive location-based services on their mobile phones. Source:http://www.sun.com/br/0104_ezine/comms_spam.html

Do we need RSS?

When i heard the word RSS for the first time Isaid what is this?Do we need that?

Rss is a need way that can keep you informed for everything you are interested in.I think that everyone spends a lot of time searching in their favorite sites-blogs-web pages to find any new information or post. It is time consuming and the amount of information huge.
For this reason RSS is very useful. You can choose you favorite site you can click on the RSS button and anytime you want in any place you are you access and find out the news. Especially for PR practitioners that spend hours searching the papers and other sources is a very usefull tool.

At the following link you will be able to see the 55 Active RSS Web Directories:

But as any other tool has its prons and cons:
Prons: RSS feeds are timely ,are cost effective ,works well with e-mail,helps you manage and organize content,maintains privacy and anonymity,help you save time .
ConsRSS feeds provide no history,are a bandwidth waster ,are complicated to set up,content doesnt lend itself to search,usually only show an abridged version of the content.

So its up to you want to make your life easier or keep on the old way?

Sources: http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/manageinfo/rss.mspx#EJD

Can PR cope with Internet?

In these days it is impossible for Public Relations practitioners to practice PR without using Internet. The Internet not only is becoming the world's biggest source of information but also it's becoming one of the most powerful tools in the practice of Public Relations. The new technologies and specifically Internet have provided new and more efficient ways of producing, distributing, displaying, and storing messages. According to Cutlip, Center, and Broom "The Internet represents the most ubiquitous leading edge of what is a major communication revolution. The digital world has changed communication within organizations and between organizations and their various publics."

With Internet the practitioners can process their work faster,more effectively and efficiently, with less cost. Additoinally from the use of interrnet some theories are affected like two way- internal-mass communication.But all have their negative side too.Reputations can be damaged, brand names can suffer and uncontrolled messages can be distributed.

PR should engage using Internet but with having some lines and control.

Podcasting something that has two sides

George the previous week made a presentation about podcasting. It is a term that i havent heard before. I understand that with the use of Podcasting you can download anything you want of your favorite show or programme and see it or hear it any time you want. You dont have to be on time and worry in case you cant watch something that you want. I also read what Irene commented and i searched in the net and i found something interested. I remember my reaction when George played a sample of podcasting " What is that?" It was boring!

In another blog i found a small research conducted about Scouta Agent for iTunes in Windows. What they suggest is that even though people download the programmes they dont listen the hole program. According to Scouta’s Richard Giles, “Only 10% of downloaded podcasts are consumed to any degree, and only 50% of those are consumed over 50%.”


Scouta’s numbers are based on information collected directly from iTunes. The Scouta Agent checks your iTunes library for downloaded podcasts, and then offer personalized recommendations based on what you listen to and watch.

Giles qualifies his stats as being less than definitive, because of the sample size - 117 people and 4329 podcasts.

I dont know if the research is correct but i believe that people that download the podcasts do so because they want them. If not why to do this?

source:

Wikis Used in Internal Communication

While i was preparing my presentation for the Technology course about Wikis, i learned that wikis don't have only the traditional role that we know. I thought that Wikis are used only like a source of information like the WIkipedia and people log in to find information about what htey are interested in or add some information that they know about a topic.

What was new for me is that wikis are used as an internal tool of communication in organizations. Wikis can be used in different ways like : resources, event news ,collabrative discussion (Q&A), tracking coverage ,schedule, tasks, meeting notes, project status ,research results, contacts, team lists, member profiles .

Wikis can be both simple and complex. Wiki is simple and elegant, and conceptually this simplicity makes Wikis a good candidate for modest documentation needs or informal, shared notes capturing. Because they're hypertext publishing environments, however, they can also become quite sophisticated and complex. This is what makes them attractive and compelling tools for documentation.

This is a video that will make completely understood to everyone how WIkis work!



sources: http://www.llrx.com/features/librarywikis.htm