Category Archive

Wow, what a crazy intense movie.  I decided this past saturday night that it was time to watch the award winning Brad Pitt film Babel, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into but I figured it’s a rare occasion that I don’t enjoy a movie at all.  This movie ties five families across the globe together, all having some part in one particular incident.  It touches upon racial and ethnic issues, stereotypes and how the human brain responds and acts in different situations.  It was very real and very hard to watch at times, definitely not your saturday night pick me up, but definitely worth watching.  Sometimes you’ll be wishing it to be over but I couldn’t tell if it was because I wanted the actual movie to end or I just didn’t want to be watching the harshness that is our world.   

Branding has always been something I was interested in. “Know how to brand yourself.” a professor of mine would reiterate to the class, and it’s true you must know how to brand yourself in order to separate yourself from others and get ahead.   A new job of mine has brought me to research small companies and businesses online and quite frankly, they could have used a lesson or two from my professor in branding.  I’m amazed that despite how gorgeous and seemingly technologically forward a company’s location can be, they have a poorly designed and branded webpage that does not reflect the same message their actual presence in the real world does.  What these companies don’t realize is that online branding has become just as important of an investment as their actual location, marketing and advertising.  One company in particular has a satellite office location that no consumer sees and they rely solely on their website and stores that carry their products, which are high end bags and accessories for women.  Upon seeing samples at their location I immediately went home to check them out online,  The website was alright but didn’t reflect the high end products they were trying to sell and ultimately turned me off to purchasing.  Who is to know how many people have done this, shocking that someone would let something so obvious escape the branding radar.  Just another example of the growing influence of online tools. 

Many advances over the past years have experienced tipping points, and it makes sense, any new and exciting idea or object peaks the interest of even the most passive of some people.  Blogging is one “advancement”, if you decide to refer to it as that, that has indeed reached it’s tipping point.

For years we’ve had the ability to post our thoughts on some sort of website, in fact I had my own short stint on my free Yahoo website in middleschool.  As more and more people realized they could make a difference, or at least think that they will make a difference some where out there, and that their thoughts and words will be important to people, blogging spread like wildfire with the thanks to blogging web sites.

I deem this year, 2008, the tipping point of blogging.  Never in the past 3 years was blogging incorporated into my academic setting.  Sure, every now and then we would read a post a professor had printed out related to class work, but this semester it is to my understanding that a majority of students I speak with have to blog for multiple classes.  I mean what happened to good old in class discussions?  Blogging has become such a large influence on today’s communication there are those who believe so strongly in it that they are essentially forcing hundreds of people, by assignment, to blog against there will.  Now is the tipping point because there are so many, in fact I would say at this point all of those individuals who wanted to blog are currently blogging, and there are as I mentioned hundreds upon hundreds who never would that are.  When it has become so prominent and seemingly “important” to blog that there are hoards of people who have no desire to blog blogging, how uch more can it grow?  I feel that it can’t get much larger in terms of numbers, but instead sustain its numbers for awhile and eventually taper off a little, when all of those people out there get tired of trying to be recognized among hundreds of thousands of people’s great ideas, or no longer are given such assignments.

I’m not trying to say blogging is a bad thing, and I’m not saying that people aren’t recognized for their brilliant blogging. I just really wish there was a way to weed out all the self important B.S. bloggers.  (Sorry to be a negative Nancy)

For those who have read Gladwell’s The Tipping Point it is safe to say you are taken aback at first at how easily he breaks a major trend down to a few influencers who decided they liked something a couple months back. Of course as you are reading all this you are nodding your head in aggreance with Gladwell and quiet excited about the whole idea, it all seems to make so much sense.

And then there is Clive Thompson, author of “Is the Tipping Point Toast?”, which discusses Duncan Watt’s idea that the power of not the movers and shakers of society, but the average Joe, you and me (ok well maybe not you because I can’t generalize everyone out there, you may be quiet the influencer at this point in your life/career) are the ones who hold the power to spread the same trends and popular ideas as Gladwell’s influencers. The reason I had to agree with this is because how often have you seen a sweeeeet pair of kicks on someone who doesn’t mean anything to you and probably doesn’t mean much to most people they encounter, and said, “wow those are absolutely amazing and I have to have them,” and you go buy them. Your roommate goes and buys them. Their sister also has to have them and maybe 3 people who you will never meet face to face have encountered you and your stylish shoes and went out and bought them. Now half the east coast is rockin’ your new found pair of shoes and who did it begin with? Some chick in the grocery store who had an eye for fashion, she may never influence anything of that magnitude ever again. I rest my point, well I rest Watt’s point. Now go influence the world you non-influencer you.

From my previous post it has been made apparent I’m not a huge fan of blogging, but I do still hold some faith in some of the “New Rules” of PR and the new tools that go along with them.  If there is one thing I have been convinced is worth the effort and expense it is search engine marketing.  Now for me it is easy to understand how it works  “behind the scenes” because my boyfriend is a Search Engine Marketer.  However, now that I know about it and how it works I am aware of how companies can optimize their hits by having a good search campaign.  We’ve all been there, looking for that obscure item or small company, and we’ve all gotten frustrated when we can’t find it.  Well, sometimes it’s not you and your search engine searching skills, it could be the site’s lack of effort.

Companies need to realize that this tool is not only beneficial by making it easier for their customers to find them and what they were searching for, it can greatly increase their sales.  Students can also benefit from the growing success of search engine marketing by becoming a search engine marketer.  So whether you’re a student looking to find their niche or a company trying to up your on-line sales, using Search Engine Marketing is definitely something to look in to.

Although I like to consider myself relatively tech savvy, blogging has yet to peak my interest, and quite frankly I doubt it will anytime soon.  I love new gadgets and advancements yet I just can’t seem to bother myself to sift through what is probably now 100’s of 1000’s of people’s blogs, and despite its popularity I can’t help but think I’m not alone in this.

It is because of this that I feel that blogging in PR will not have a major impact for some time.  Sure it’s fun and different now, but I would not say that it is a major PR tool.  However, I do feel that those who will be entering the field in the next 5 years or so will have grown-up in a way with the idea of blogging and therefore use it as an instrument.

I definitely see the potential, but am unsure of how greatly it will effect PR.  I rope blogging in with the notion that some people believe normal television broadcasting will move to more of an online base in the near future.

Yes, television shows are now available online, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here, we’re just finally getting our act together with required digital service on our televisions.

And yes, these new technologies provide us with great advancements and opportunities but I believe people over estimate the rate of its growth and popularity, as the PR industry is doing with blogging.