As most people are aware of, Donald Trump announced earlier this spring that he was going to run for president in 2012. This created such a frenzy in media not just because most thought the celebrity, television personality and business magnate running for president was a joke but also because he started attacking President Obama’s re-election. Trump insisted that Obama is not from the United States. What a HUGE mistake.

This went on for a few weeks and Trump went as far as asking President Obama for his birth certificate. Now, I don’t know who advised Trump to continue on that destructive path, but everyone involved should be glad to know that they have humiliated themselves enough for a lifetime.

However bad and disrespectful this attack was, President Obama and his team made the best out of a ridiculous accusation – they made a campaign out of it!

Obama and his team made T-shirts for his re-election that say, “Made In America” underneath a picture of Obama on the front, and a picture of his birth certificate on the back.

Not only did Obama and his team respond accordingly to Trump’s delusional claims but they also made the whole thing into more of a joke, and better yet, an opportunity to support his re-election campaign. With a donation of $25, a T-shirts could be yours and it will help raise money for the Obama camp. 

I don’t know about everyone else but I’m sure getting one!

Well, there are sites that can answer those questions and that will give you a social media analytic reading.

The first site I am going to discuss is my personal favorite and the most popular social media analytic: Twitalyzer.com. Twitalyzer can only be used as a measuring tool of social influence for Twitter, but is the most popular used amongst businesses and personal users because it focuses on impact, engagement and influence. 

Twitalyzer offers multiple ways to measure and visualize your progress in the Twitter world; it can see who is in your social network, which allows you to better target your outreach for your key audience; it works with the industry’s tightest integration with Google Analytics and other popular link tracking tools, such as bit.ly, ow.ly, and j.mp; and it can tell you how many people you are reaching in Twitter and when you can most likely reach them again with another message.

Next is Klout. Klout.com is another great social media measurement tool to see how much influence one might have over the social web. Klout mostly analyzes influence on Twitter but is moving into development to measure influence also on Facebook.

Klout gives a number, which is called your “Klout Score,” that represents the measurement of your overall online influence. The score is a range from 1 to 100 and measures influence by seeing how many readers, followers or friends actually engage with you. It measures this by clicks, comments and retweets of your content. This creates users to be able to track the impact of their opinions, links and recommendations across their social demographic.

These are just a few things that these great social media analytic websites can do, and there are many other useful sites that measure all different areas of the social web and determine how each influences it. Find out what type of influence you have!

Twitter was first launched in July 2009. The brilliant social networking idea created over a decade ago by Jack Dorsey was first developed on a college ruled piece of paper. The information network once called “Status” started when Dorsey observed people’s interactions and social behaviors. It was a no-brainner; obviously, people LOVE to talk, and constantly are “squawking” to one another about what’s going on, where they’re going, where they’ve been, and so on. But what made this network so different from others is it gives a chance for people to interact with anyone all over the world to discuss what is important to them and what might be important to tell others. You don’t have to personally know everyone you tweet to; this networking site gives a social experience that wouldn’t be possible anywhere else.

What makes Twitter so useful to me is that it is a great resource for information I might not have had the chance to see otherwise. It’s an important information channel for me and many people I know. It has given me the chance to interact with people I look up to and would love to work with some day. I feel that Twitter is the only real place where I can be professional but still express who I am through a simple form (140 characters) of communication in social networking. Twitter gives communication opportunities I would never get using Facebook or LinkedIn.

 So, why are fewer people using it compared to Facebook? Is Twitter dying, like so many people are “squawking” about?

Well, according to one article on Twittip.com, why people love Facebook so much is because “Facebook appeals to social animals and can be very addicting to people who have an insatiable appetite to stay connected with friends and make new acquaintances.” Why they love Twitter is because “you get more immediate responses and it seems to live somewhere between the worlds of email, instant messaging and blogging. Twitter encourages constant ‘linking out’ to anywhere and, in that respect, is more analogous to a pure search engine; another way to find people and content all over the Net.”

I have read many articles and comments over Google as to what the statistics look like and where the usage of Twitter is heading, and many think that it will not be able to match Facebook. I think the simplest answer as to why people spend on average a total of seven hours a month on Facebook, compared to only two hours on Twitter, is that people can gossip and spy on their “friends,” and shout what they are doing, how they feel, or what they think. What I have experienced from Facebook is it is very similar to high school interaction. And let’s face it, people really never get over high school – I happen to have loved high school.

As social media and networking have developed and changed dramatically since 2006, my challenge is no longer about understanding the benefits of having a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, but it is knowing what the future of PR will be with all these new ways of communication. Will this provide anyone with the tools to have PR without the PR people?

Last week, the University of Oregon was lucky to have had Ogilvy’s Atlanta Public Relations Managing Director, Mickey G. Nail, as a guest speaker.

In his “Tradigital is the Future of PR” presentation, he discussed the advantages public relations practitioners have with social media.

Nail first pointed out that social media is a form of public relations and helps define public relations. Social media is not out there to just push messages. Social media helps PR to listen to customers and engage with customers no matter when, where or who they are.

Nail dissected tradigital and digital PR and shared so many great points on the course of action you take in PR. What must you pay attention to?

• Branding – everyone is part of making it.
• Tradigital Approach – “The best ideas come from fringes, not from the center.”
• Consumer PR Tradigital and Digital – ALWAYS be transparent! Tell a story with the truth.
• Social Media – Get Over It! Use all the tools you have today.
• Measurement in Both Words – ROI ->Output – Impact – Outcomes.

Although his entire presentation was amazing, the best part of it and what resonated with me was his passion and commitment to Ogilvy because it is a value-based company and its respect for transparency for all its clients.

“We exist to build the business of our clients.” – David Ogilvy.

You are ALWAYS transparent and honest! We are NOT “spin-doctors.” Public relations is about helping tell a story. “Make the truth fascinating.” – David Ogilvy.

Even though people might not know what to think when it comes to the field of PR because of social media’s impact, I now know it will all be fine. Without professionals that know how to adapt to all the change in journalism and without values and commitments to their clients, there is no PR. PR is about showing the truth in a captivating way, and social media is a useful tool to get more information out quickly. The field of public relations cannot be replaced with social media alone because PR professionals actually have passion and commitment to take the time to change lives by telling a story others might not be able to see yet.

It’s funny that it took me so long to get into networking online because I have LOVED journalism since I was 14 years old. It started with me watching a TLC documentary on a magazine editor with my mom when I realized my passion for journalism. I knew after that day I wanted to be a magazine editor when I grew up. I wanted to work for a top fashion, women’s, or parenting magazine. From that day on I pushed myself every day in high school to do my best work so that I could go to college for journalism.

When I came to the University of Oregon, I still knew I loved journalism without a doubt, but I didn’t know if I wanted to focus on magazine editing anymore. Instead, I discovered my love and passion for public relations.

During fall term, 2009, I had the opportunity to intern with NBC’s TODAY show. This was such a great opportunity and really opened the door for me to find out if I liked anything about broadcasting or television. Well, I didn’t like either of those areas of journalism, but I did become intrigued and fascinated with Entertainment PR.

However, up until about six weeks ago, I decided my heart just isn’t in entertainment PR. What I really want is to work in public affairs, with policy making, specifically targeted on public school systems. In this blog I hope to mostly discuss those specific areas of PR. I also hope to discuss steps and strategies to take in different areas of PR, and any other interesting and helpful PR tips there might be out there.

This blog will be dedicated to my love for PR and will contain all PR information. I hope that all readers coming across this blog will enjoy the material that is posted and please do not hesitate to join in the conversation.

 Thank you!!