Teaching PR

My WOM communication class just wrapped up a replication of my colleague Kaye Sweetser's Twitter experiment, so here's a report on it for other faculty who might want to try it.

I created a Twitter account, WOMclass, keeping my updates locked so that only students could follow it. I then used Twitter's invitation system to invite all the students to register on Twitter and request to follow WOMclass updates. Once they all linked to WOMclass, they could click on each others' avatars (as opposed to the 100+ other people I follow as KarenRussell) and therefore easily connect with each other.

I made the assignment as unintimidating as possible -- students could post about anything, they had to post only 5 times in the 48 hours (but not all in a row), and they didn't have to follow anyone outside the class. They don't even have to use it ever again. The assignment was also worth only 5% of their final grade, so basically it was intended simply to encourage them to experiment with it.

Most of the students far exceeded the requirements and made a genuine effort to understand how the Twitter community operates. They uploaded their pictures, posted more frequently than required, and gamely jumped in to try the @reply method and to learn Twitter etiquette.

In class this afternoon (the experiment ended at 9 a.m.) we discussed Chris Anderson's description of "filters" that drive traffic down the Long Tail, including recommendations and reviews. I then pointed out how much of their conversation had served that purpose -- music, a movie, a local restaurant, a book, two television shows, and a certain new laptop all came up, not to mention red velvet cupcakes. We also talked about parasocial relationships, and compared our experiment with this study of microblogging and talked about the significance of one of its findings, that personal and community common interests comingle.

Finally, we reviewed how they might use Twitter for personal branding and networking purposes and listed ways that microblogging can be used in advertising/public relations/marketing communication. Our discussion, which was guided by several blog posts (sorry, didn't think to save the links) and 3 helpful Twitterers, included:

• Participate in conversations, build relationships -- not the "hard sell"
• Get feedback on ideas, programs, etc.
• Hire someone
• Extend reach of other social media programs
• Direct traffic (to product, Web site)
• Datamining (learn about interests, trends, issues, etc.), including polling the audience
• Announce sales or promotions
• Make appointments
• Event updates
• Live coverage of events
• Build trust, build a community
  

I enjoyed following the students for a couple days and thought the experiment was a great way to get students involved in a form of social media that most hadn't tried -- great idea, Kaye! I also loved how their conversations actually mirrored what academics and professionals alike suggest can and does happen on Twitter. I'm interested to see how many will continue tweeting.

Update: links I should've included-- thanks to Judy Gombita for an assist.

The Big Juicy Twitter Guide, Caroline Middlebrook

How Individuals Use Twitter, Peter Kim

If You Don't Twitter Now, You'll Hate Yourself Later, Deborah Ager

17 Ways You Can Use Twitter, Maki

7 Ways Marketers Can Use Twitter, Ann Handley

Guide to Twitter for PR Students, me

Labels: classes, microblogging, social media, students, WOM

During the Connect conference, a bunch of UGA students got hooked on Twitter, so I thought I'd provide a few tips on how PR students can use microblogs like Twitter to the best effect.

1. Don't take "What are you doing?" literally, at least not all the time. Use it for networking by providing links to interesting posts, podcasts, video, news stories, etc. that others might also enjoy.

2. Don't Tweet too many times in a row (thanks, @AdamDenison) -- if you have that much to say, consider doing a blog post instead. Or updating your Web site (thanks, @ashleyb33).

3. Keep it professional. Like any other social media, use it to help build your online reputation.

4. Security measures apply here, too, just like on a blog or Facebook page.

5. Twitter helps create conversation, which means you have to follow (and be followed by) other people for it to work. Set aside some time to find people to follow-- start by adding PR educators like @prprof_mv, @rdfrench and @kmatthews (and, of course, @KarenRussell!), then look through the people they follow to find their students and professionals who are interested in PR education. In addition to the Twitterati mentioned throughout this post, I can recommend @vargasl, @paullyoung, @jspepper, @bryper, @LukeArmour, @prblog, @michaelallison, @ceubanks ... just for starters. Just read their most recent posts and see if they're writing about things you're interested in, and if they are, click Follow. And if someone starts following you, consider following them, too.

6. Twitter is unreliable (thanks, @kamichat). Learn not to be annoyed.

7. Read about why some people don't like Twitter and 17 tips for writing Kickass Twitter Posts, in which B.L. Ochman recommends asking and answering questions on Twitter, advice I followed to help me write this post!

Update (19 December 2007): 8. Use Tweetscan to make sure you've seen any posts replying to or concerning you. Just type in "@yourusername" and it'll search for all references to you.

Labels: microblogging, social media, students