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Do New Media Pose Any Serious Challenge to Traditional Media? February 22, 2009

Posted by Angelia Chandra in New Media, Research data, Social Media, Traditional Media, YouTube Videos, traditional media vs new media.
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In this post, I’d like to discuss what has happened to traditional media after the emergence of new media. I’ve made a video to show you my opinion based on some research data. So, take a look at it and you’ll find the answer to the question I mentioned in this post title.


This video is created using Xtranormal application and edited using Windows Movie Maker.

The script and whitepaper are available for download.

Social Media Release January 7, 2009

Posted by Angelia Chandra in Research data, Social Media, Social Media Release, YouTube Videos.
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We all know press release is the basic yet important tool in PR. Has press release died after the emergence of Web 2.0? Of course not. In fact, press release has relived and transformed into a PR 2.0 platform so called the Social Media Release (SMR).

I recently read the book “PR 2.0: New Media. New Tools, New Audiences” by Deirdre K. Breakenridge and here are some useful information on what to include in a SMR according to him:

  • Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds (direct news feeds on content related to the subject matter as well as links to content).
  • Photo libraries with high resolution images. (These images are for download into a print publication.)
  • MP3 files (a digital audio encoding method to reduce the size of an audio file for easy download) or a podcast.
  • Video footage for Video-On-Demand (VOD).
  • Links to previous coverage on a topic with the ability to use del.icio.us or Digg for social bookmarking. (Journalists can tag their favourite information by locating, classifying, and ranking noteworthy references and resources.)
  • Technorati is a leader in “what’s happening on the World Live Web.” Because bloggers commonly link to other blogs, Technorati searches and organises blogs, and tracks how blogs are linked together (by recording the relevance of the links to your subject matter).

Therefore, press release is now more than just a page of paper filled only with graphics and texts. Now, journalists can get more data from SMR in shorter time period. Journalists can download materials that are useful in the publication such as pictures, videos, podcasts directly from the SMR. All of these information could also help journalists to cover news completely as more and more journalists go online to retrieve news. The “2004 Media in Cyberspace” study described in an online article by John V. Pavlik Ph.D. (p.5) discovered that:

  • 76% of reporters go online to find new sources and experts.

  • 73% of reporters go online to find press releases.

  • 81% of reporters go online daily to do searching.

  • 92% of journalists go online as part of their story research.

Furthermore, the other important aspects of SMR is that it is not only for use by the journalists. It is also for bloggers who are interested in writing about a certain company or subject matter. Consumers or public who are online could also gain access to the SMR. As such, SMR also helps the company to communicate directly with its consumers.

Here is a useful SMR template from Shift Communications – a known PR agency in the USA. Shift Communications claimed to be the first one to create a PR 2.0 SMR template. This template is free for download from their website:

smr-template

Click for Original PDF Document

You’ll notice that some basic press release rules are still there. Contact person, headline, main facts, quotes and boilerplate statements are still important in SMR. So don’t forget the 5Ws and other rules in writing a traditional press release even though we are now living the Web 2.0 world.

I also found one video on YouTube about Social Media Release by WebitPR agency. It is quite useful to help one understands SMR even though the agency is promoting itself with the video ;-) Put that aside, take an unbiased look at it here:


More about Social Media December 19, 2008

Posted by Angelia Chandra in PR and Web 2.0, Social Media, YouTube Videos.
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While browsing today, I came across an interesting video on YouTube that helps me understand better about the relationship between PR, Web 2.0 and social media.

This video titled “What’s the Buzz About PR 2.0/Social Media?” is created by Robert Sears, the PR 2.0 Social Media Manager from the SSA Public Relations agency based in Denver and Phoenix – USA. He talks about the usage of social media in PR.


I agree with his statement that in using Web 2.0, PR should engage people when, where and how they want to be engaged. I do really think it is important to find out the “when, where and how” our targeted public want to be engaged with. Now with the emergence of Web 2.0, we have plenty of choices to convey our messages across. We can upload videos on Youtube, upload pictures on Flickr, create a profile on Facebook, post stories on weblogs, and etc. But we can’t just use all of them, we need to know what our target public are really involved with. We need to know whether they only read blogs or watch videos or both.

Another interesting point that Robert made in his video is that social media provides a global public focus group. Everyone expresses their opinions online which somehow lets us know what they think about our products and services. It provides us a valuable insight into what they really wants and needs. So, simply get online and you can follow their conversation to find out what they really wants or needs. This is such a great contribution from Web 2.0 since consumer insight is one important point in PR.