March 9, 2009

Rising to Stardom YouTube study

Dr. Yuping Liu and I are waiting to hear back on a research proposal we entered in the MSI & WIMI User-Generated Content Research Competition. Hopefully we’ll get some funding, but either way we’re working on our study, Rising to Stardom: How Do Some User-Generated Contents Become Popular? The key questions are how to predict UGC’s eventual success during the early stage of dissemination and what makes one piece of UGC extremely popular and others not. Continue Reading…

Tags: research study, user-generated content, viral video, YouTube
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January 6, 2009

A new year, a new research study

After taking a long, much needed break, I’m excited about starting the new year with new research opportunities. I’ve been collaborating with Yuping Liu, professor of marketing at Old Dominion University, on a research proposal exploring user-generated content (UGC). We’re curious, what makes some UGC more popular than others? Continue Reading…

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January 7, 2008

What makes u click? It’s all right here.

Check out the full study:

What makes u click?: Best practices in public relations for effectively communicating with opinion leaders of virtual communities
Download isdp_final_project_michelle_dragas.pdf

Presentation slides
Download final_project_presentation_michelle_dragas.pdf

Short and sweet: a handout summarizing the 12 best practices
Download handout.pdf

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November 12, 2007

Top 10 recommendations for effective Web 2.0 public relations

Finally, some of my research findings! Based on analysis of 19 articles from the public relations and marketing industries, the following is a list of best practices for incorporating Web 2.0 into public relations programs. I will be altering this list based on my own primary research of online opinion leaders.

1.    Monitor online conversations. Find out what is being said about your organization online. Technorati and Google searches are a good place to start. Identify your industry’s “blog stars” and subscribe to their RSS feeds.  Make sure to extend your monitoring to videos, podcasts and online community forums as well.

2.    Offer multimedia press releases. Create online press releases that incorporate video, tagging, links, images and comments. Be sure to include all of your information online because bloggers are not going to call you for additional details. Allow interested stakeholders to subscribe to your press releases via RSS.

3.    Be transparent. Public relations practitioners must trade off controlling the message for credibility. Online publics are savvy and will not tolerate astroturfing or other forms of fakery. Rather than pitch an online community, offer a valuable information exchange. Always be upfront with who you are and the organization you represent.

4.    Collaborate with online publics. Rather than simply expressing your message, facilitate a discussion. Allow publics to collaborate with you to find solutions for your organization. Allow publics to create, participate and share ideas for a mutually beneficial relationship. This is the key principle of Wikinomics.

5.    Learn about Web 2.0. It is not acceptable to plead ignorance regarding new media.  Your publics are using Web 2.0 technology, which means you must understand the various elements of online social media. Read blogs, download podcasts and videos, and join the online communities that are particularly relevant to your industry.

6.    Participate online. Join the conversation. Share comments and position yourself as a thought leader. Add sincere value to the online conversation, rather than merely observing.

7.    Be a content creator. Create your own blogs, podcasts and videos to share online. This is a proactive way to engage in dialog. Make sure your content has a strategic purpose and ties back to your overall public relations goal.

8.    Keep in mind real-time. Monitor the online environment in real-time. The Internet is always on, so it is important to act immediately. Often the Internet is a source for breaking news in traditional media. Acting while stories are unfolding online is the best way to approach a crisis. Also, realize that once you release content or make a comment online, there is no taking it back.

9.    Establish an organizational Web 2.0 policy. Allow employees to blog and share other content online. Blogs carrying your organization’s name are an extension of your brand, so establish ground rules to keep the content within your organizational standards.  Train employees who wish to represent your organization online.

10.     Seek new ways to measure your success. Establish measures to evaluate the success of your online campaigns. Monitor feedback from online communities and track comments about your organization. While top agencies offer sophisticated tools for tracking online conversations, this can be done on a budget by using online monitoring tools (e.g., CoComment.com).

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November 5, 2007

Wanted: opinion leaders of virtual communities

Do you digg, Twitter, Facebook, blog, podcast, Flickr, YouTube, SecondLife, etc? Do you have more friends online than you do in real life? Are you always sharing information with others online? I need your help!

Finally, I am working on the original research portion of my capstone project. I’m looking for opinion leaders of online communities to answer a few questions over e-mail. If you qualify for my study and complete the interview questions about your Web 2.0 activities, I’ll send you a $10 iTunes e-gift certificate for helping me out. Just send an e-mail to whatmakesuclick at gmail.com to be considered. Be sure to include links to your online profiles or Web sites/blogs so I can see if you are a good fit to participate. I’ll select the first four people who contact me that meet all of the following criteria:

• They are frequent users of and active participants on one or more Web sites that sustain an online community.
• They have a large number of social connections with that Web site, respective to the number of social connections of other members within the same community.
• Their contribution to the virtual community includes frequent posting of information or user-generated content relevant to the community’s topic of interest.

Additionally, participants must be 18 or older. Also, if you participate in the study, your responses will be kept anonymous.

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July 19, 2007

A look at how PR will change in the next 5 years

The Council of Public Relations Firms recently published a white paper exploring how top communicators at leading companies use social media. The findings outlined four themes impacting corporate communications over the next five years: (1) information and influence coming from new sources, (2) corporations and marketers having less control, (3) the convergence of corporate communications, advertising agencies, online marketers and web design firms, and (4) more emphasis on corporate communicators to build trust with audiences. The researchers noted public relations practitioners must develop skills in social media or they will become obsolete.

Read the full report:

Relating to the public: The evolving role of public relations in the age of social media

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July 9, 2007

Members of Virtual Communities

When considering implications of Web 2.0 for public relations, it helps to take a look at the marketing literature. In his article “E-Tribalized Marketing?: The Strategic Implications of Virtual Communities of Consumption,” Robert V. Kozinets identifies various types of virtual community members based on their interest in the consumption activity and social ties within the community. The result is four distinct types of virtual community members:

Tourists simply pass by the community with only superficial interest or social ties.

Minglers maintain strong social ties while marginally interested in the consumption activity.

Devotees maintain a strong interest and enthusiasm in the consumption activity but have few social attachments to the group.

Insiders have strong social ties and strong interest in the consumption activity.

If you’re wondering why Web 2.0 media is important for public relations, consider the Insiders. Insiders are opinion leaders whose high informational and social exchanges make them key influencers in a virtual community. Word of mouth ranks high on credibility and having highly influential advocates online offers tremendous advantages. Insiders can help or hinder your reputation, making them important stakeholders for public relations.

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June 26, 2007

Take this quiz to learn your Tech Type

Thanks to Pamela Cox Nulman, APR for passing along this latest information from the PEW Internet & American Life Project on Internet and cell phone usage. The summary “Don’t Blame Me, It’s the Phone’s Fault!” identifies various types of communication and information technology users. Which one are you? Take the quiz to find out.

According to my results, I’m an Omnivore. I guess we’re the type of user you’ll find standing in line for the iPhone Friday.

This study calls attention to diffusion of innovations theory and reminds us that it takes a long time for new innovations to diffuse deeply in society. It took electricity 30 years to gain widespread adoption, and the Internet and cell phones may not be much different. After all, the study showed half of all adult Americans have relatively distant relationships with technology such as the Internet and feature-rich cell phones. But years from now, it’s quite possible we’ll be using our feature-rich cell phones with the same ease as flipping a light switch.

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June 19, 2007

Data on social media usage by generation

BusinessWeek.com offers a nice chart of what people are doing online, broken down by generation (Forrester Research data).  The research defined the following roles for Internet users:
Creators – publish Web pages, write blogs, upload videos
Critics – comment on blogs, post ratings and reviews
Collectors – use RSS, tag content
Joiners – participate in online social networks
Spectators – read blogs, watch peer-generated videos, listen to podcasts
Inactives – online, but do not participate in social media

 

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June 5, 2007

Reading about social networks and opinion leaders

Thanks to Professor Longstaff, I’ve got an extensive reading list for this research study. In addition to what amounts to a small forest of journal articles (thanks to Dr. Liu), I’m reading a few books that discuss the nature of networks and opinion leaders:

• Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcom Gladwell
• Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Lszl Barabsi
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
• Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam

My study builds on the notion that online social networks are much like traditional social networks in that opinion leaders are critical to communicating an idea or introducing a product. This goes along with Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory and Paul Lazarsfeld’s Two-Step Flow of Communication theory, which I’ll include in my literature review.

I’ll be going straight to the original sources, but I’ve included links to Wikipedia as information. Incidentally, Diffusion of Innovations and Two-Step Flow of Communication could use some help on Wikipedia.  There’s hardly anything written about either of them.

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