Must Be Redesign Week in Social Network World

Four sites I visit regularly have been redesigned, lately.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and Poynter have all gone throught redesigns of varying degrees.  Poynter’s will launch on August 23rd.  Bill Mitchell, Director of Poynter Online, sent an email to all members yesterday announcing the much anticipated new site.

Mitchell offered a mockup look at the new look. It promises to have enhanced social media aspects. The video below, from January 2008, highlights their desire to create a “journalism social networking experience.” The Alpha version of the site is visible here.

I must say, of all the sites I visit with any regularity, Poynter is easily one of the best Web sites anywhere. Nope, check that. Poynter is the best.

A previous Poynter redesign had its critics. Poynter.org redesign woes. The Online Journalism Review, did a story on that redesign effort. Overall I still liked the site. The new version makes me eager to see it in its full glory on August 23rd.

I’m curious to learn what, if any, impact the Poynter Eyetrack research had on their choices during the redesign process, too.

For budding PR practitioners, you have to understand journalism. You must understand journalists. There is no better place online to gain that knowledge than Poynter Online. Now, with the social networking aspects, it is even more of a must join, must read site for students. Oh, there are other things you can do, to be sure. For instance, you can join the HARO - Help A Reporter list from Peter Shankman. You don’t ever have to respond to anything on that list, if you don’t want to … just read and listen to what journalists look for and how they go about finding it.

The other redesigns have met with mixed reviews.

I like Facebook’s new look. It is cleaner and provides better navigation, as well as a less cluttered look. Downsides, along with the redesigned look, Facebook has changed some of the functionalities. They’ve not given users enough control over what appears in their news feed. Sure, you can get less of someone’s feed items, for example, but it is difficult to block their content totally. Finding pages is more difficult than before, too. Those are my experiences, so far.

LinkedIn has a rather mild redesign. It is cleaner, too. More white space, easier navigation and a bit of improvement in the admin areas highlight their changes. I like it. They’ve made the site better, in what I’ll call a slight, or minimal, redesign.

Ning’s redesign is really in the admin areas. They’ve made the “Manage” section look more like the backend of some open source CMS platforms or even an old version of Plesk, for instance. (That’s server admin software.)

I really love Ning. It is powering six of the sites we have running for class activities right now. In fact, one of the recent student campaigns was to design a site for the Dadeville/Lake Martin Chamber of Commerce. Their board recently voted unanimously to adopt the site and campaign the students designed. I want to work more Ning sites into class activities in the future.

If you’re interested in great resources regarding Web redesigns and the daunting process all of these organizations faced, look no further than Karine Joly’s CollegeWebEditor.com Web site redesign articles and her Web standards articles, too.

Don’t forget this other terrific site, too. eduStyle from Stewart Foss is a wonderful gallery of hundreds of college and other education Web sites. One cool aspect is this Social Sites Foxx describes as a “collection of sites that you may use outside of your official college pages to connect with your school’s prospects, students, alumni, friends, parents or community.”

OK, that’s my look at some recent changes in my favorite sites. Poynter’s launch on August 23rd is still much anticipated. What do you think of all these redesigns?

Obama to Announce VP Choice via Email and SMS :: Maybe, We’ll See

According to an email I just received, Barack Obama is going to give his supporters the news of his pick for Vice President via email and SMS, before anyone else.

Hmm? Well, it would be a first. I must admit to a wee bit (OK, a lot) of skepticism on this one. All the news organizations are signed up for all of his mailing lists, after all. They also see mailing lists we never see. So, will his supporters really be the first to know? Read more

PitchEngine :: Social Media Release Building Tool

Jason Kintzler created a new site devoted to the building and distribution of social media releases (SMR). It is private now, in the Alpha development stage, but he shared access to the site with all the members of PROpenMic. Many thanks, Jason.

I imagine he’s slowly adding to his alpha testing group. Who knows how many have looked at it so far, but with the PROpenMic membership and his own group at MediaPitch / PitchEngine, Jason now has almost 2,000 people to poke and prod the site in an effort to help tweak and and share suggestions.

Jason describes PitchEngine, in part, as follows: Read more

Edelman Studios :: CGM as Classroom Project and more

A recent video post to PROpenMic drew my interest.

Luke Walker shared a video he created for submission to the Edelman Studios project.

Read more

Invisible Children :: Nonprofit Video for Social Change

This post has two parts, actually. First, we’ll discuss a good CGM video shared recently in PROpenMic. Then, we’ll look at how the person that posted the video entered the social network and started to engage with people.

First, the video. Read more

Three Links :: Excellent Posts and a Video For You

Still exploring the Revolution theme and the featured posts capability. So, this week, I’m sharing three posts from great people. You’ll enjoy them, I’m sure.

First, we find an article about social media perhaps producing social change and helping someone with a terminal illness. Then, we learn that the SEC has recognized the spread of online / web communications (particularly social media) and they’ve now updated guidelines for publicly traded companies with regard to their Web sites and (if you read it into the speech) social media. Finally, we find the most wonderful video. You’ll want to watch it. Look to your right and you’ll find it is our featured video today. Read more

UGA Connect ‘08 :: PR is changing. Become part of the conversation.

Connect, the Public Relations & Social Media Conference, hosted by the Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, is set for September 19-20, 2008 at the University of Georgia.

Please note Karen’s comment below. They are “taking educator and professional registrations now but student registration info won’t go out until August, when classes resume.”

Last year’s conference was a a great inaugural event. This one promises to be worth your time and effort to attend, too. A video from Dr. Kaye Sweetser is today’s featured video here, on the front page. It is embedded below, too. Read more

Sprout Builder :: Student Multimedia News Packages for Submission to Online News Sites

Always looking for new ways to create news releases for newspaper Web sites, I had a little epiphany regarding Sprout Builder and multimedia news packages for submission to news outlets.

Mindy McAdams’ book has me intrigued. I’ve been going through it in preparation for including it in this fall’s PR Style & Design course. It is a great book. Her site, flash journalism, even offers class tutorials. Visit her blog, too. Read more

Utterz for Digital Resumes, Portfolios, Spot News and Crisis Comms

Offered up a demo of Utterz in class tonight. Students may incorporate it into their final projects - digital resumes & portfolios - for the PRProspects.com site.

During the chat, we talked about how Utterz might be used for a client. Read more

One Reason Nonprofits Should Use Video :: Testimonials :: Two Video Examples

For almost three years, Camp ASCCA has been using blogs, podcasts and now a full blown niche social network - ASCCA Friends - to connect with ASCCA’s campers and their parents.

Danika Kmetz, a great PR intern from Illinois State University (and President of her PRSSA chapter), has created two very fun videos with the best kind of testimonials possible. The first is from Hope, a camper at ASCCA’s Teen Week taking place this week on Lake Martin. The second is a mashup of clips from last week’s Adult Mentally Disabled camp.

There are many ideas at work behind these sites. The most important is to provide a look inside camp that will reach out to our campers, their parents and anyone that has yet to consider a therapeutic recreation opportunity. Read more

Gary Goldhammer, SVP Edelman :: Video Interview from Edelman/PRWeek Academic Summit

Gary Goldhammer, Senior Vice President at Edelman in Los Angeles, joined us for an interview at the Edelman / PRWeek New Media Academic Summit in Chicago.

I saved Gary’s interview for last because along with his practitioner experience, Gary teaches a graduate level PR course at the University of California-Irvine. A unique course, at that. Read more

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