As we talked about it, I went online and asked those on Twitter at that time to chime in with their reasons why they used Twitter.

Hey, I’m in class … the students need to know … why do you use Twitter? is it a useful tool? convince them, please! ) 04:44 PM September 23, 2008

I was amazed at the number of people that so kindly responded. Thank you all very much!

Here are their tweets. You can actually click on their photos and find their Twitter accounts to follow them, too. It really is a great list to start with as it contains journalists, PR students, faculty and practitioners all in one string of about 60 to 70 Twitter users. There are some multiple responses from a few people, so it looks like about 60+ people for you to follow. That’s a great starting point.

Some terrific insights in all of those responses. Key themes that seem to repeat are:

• networking
• following news
• finding breaking stories (before MSM gets them)
• opportunity to meet people you’d not have a chance to meet, otherwise
• connecting with the industry
• discovering new trends/ideas
• experimenting with new tools
• finding internships/jobs
• news organizations use Twitter to find leads
• and many more…

Since then, some great posts have gone up on that same topic.

Barbara Nixon shared her class exercise for Twitter. She also pointed to a post from Ron Jones at Search Engine Watch entitled Using Twitter as an Education Tool. Jones, in turn, pointed to David Parry, assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dave has his students using Twitter. You can also follow David Parry at academicdave on Twitter.

One of the responses even had a link to another post about why you should explore Twitter. It is from Kipp Bodnar: Microbloging: 10 Reasons Everyone (Especially Non-Geeks) Should Use Twitter. You can follow Kipp at kbodnar32 on Twitter, too.

I’m loving finding all of these examples of other schools (and “Non-Geeks”) exploring Twitter. Thanks for sharing them!

Want to use Twitter, but not through your browser? Try these various Twitter applications:

• Twitter Toolbox
• More Twitter Tools
• Twitter Applications
• Twitter Downloads

P.S. Don’t forget @journalisttweet as a resource to find journalists using Twitter. There is an RSS feed you may use to follow them in Google Reader (or another RSS reader) or you can click on the “Following” link in the sidebar and add them to your own account one at a time. There are some interesting examples of journalists using Twitter. @journalisttweet is a sampling of about 500 from the overall total of over 4,000 journalists using the service. You’ll find journalists from newspapers, television, radio, trade publications, online publications and much more.

I am compelled to share a great post with you.

Jeremy Pepper has, once again, said what needs to be said. Oh, he may say it in a form that some find distasteful, but don’t many social critics do that?

Check his post. I initially commented, and want to share this follow up.

A comment came in from Shannon Paul. Her comment is a perfect example of local PR. “I spent half my day today working on putting press materials together for a local nonprofit organization that offers refuge for women and families that are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.”

For the uneducated (and there seem to be a lot of them), the vast majority of PR is done locally. The vast majority of PR is done in areas and markets where online communication just won’t cut it. Most of these social media self-proclaimed gurus are so myopic in their focus, yet feel compelled to project their beliefs about online PR to the entire practice.

Using Shannon’s example, try doing that kind of work – or any other for local nonprofits, organizations, schools, businesses – and solely use online communication. In the vast majority of instances … You’d be negligent. You’d fail at due diligence. You’ll do your clients no favors.

It is the sheepish sycophants calling themselves gurus and such nonsense (primarily in the tech world) that wouldn’t know real PR if it was staring them in the face. They spend more time fawning over their blogroll circle-jerk friends than they do offering anything of value to the community.

I’m really sick of it. Evangelists for themselves. They make Elmer Gantry look like a good guy. If many of these social media gurus are true believers in anything, it is themselves.

In so many instances, if you meet or read someone that self-proclaims they are experts or gurus in social media … run! Run, fast … the other way! Be afraid. They serve only one master. Themselves.

Sigh.

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

Edelman Studios launched in April of 2008. It is an opportunity for students and others to create content for their portfolio. So, as you can imagine, it appeals to me as one more way to involve students in CGM – consumer generated media.

Their initial clients? “Burger King Corp., Butterball, Expedia®, and PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese (Kraft Foods) had signed on to participate in the search for fresh content through Edelman Studios.”

Now, how cool would it be for a student to wind up winning the attention of such a client through their project? Yeah, very cool. Still, the prize isn’t really the big opportunity here. For most students, this is one more chance to create content that may well grab the attention of a future internship provider or employer.

Check it out …

Edelman Studios

Edelman Studios connects you to clients and industry professionals in five easy steps:

1. Join the Studio

Join now and get access to creative projects from major brands. We’re looking to you for new ideas that will keep audiences engaged and entertained. Unregistered visitors cannot view available creative studio assignments, nor can they submit their ideas. So sign up and take full advantage of our connections. It could be just the opportunity you need to expand your creative horizons and advance your career.

2. Check out our open projects

Once you’re registered, hit the Studio Assignment Room and check out the open assignments from our clients for your inspiration. They’ll be updated regularly, so check back often. You can work on as many projects as you choose and submit as many ideas as you want. Just remember – your best may be the only one that will stand a chance.

3. Submit to the Studio

You’ve read the assignment, done your concepting and really massaged that big idea. Now it’s time to upload your concepts and submit your pitch to experienced Edelman Studios Executive Producers. At Edelman Studios the idea is everything, so make sure yours answers the unique challenges found in the assignment.

4. Check your progress

If your idea is selected as one of the top 3 on a particular assignment, you may get the opportunity to present it to the client in a face-to-face meeting. If your idea is chosen to move forward, you’ll receive a fee and be considered for inclusion on the production team as we bring your idea to life!

5. Keep it up!

If you have more ideas, submit again anytime! As our client roster continues to grow, so will your opportunities. Look to Edelman Studios as your chance to build your portfolio with innovative work that shows the full breadth and depth of your creative imagination.

Here’s Luke’s video. Read his associated post in PROpenMic.

Given the state of our nation, there is an article with some speculation that Democrats may pick up as many as three seats in November – Alabama Democrats eyeing delegation majority. I’m not really into politics, so I won’t speculate. Also, I have written about our alumnae, Shea Snider, who is Roger’s press secretary (the incumbent in the race). So, I don’t need to get into the politics … because, well – we love Shea. She is the best, ya’ know.

It is fair to point out a look at Open Secrets, showing Rogers more than doubling Segall’s campaign contributions. More on the myriad of sites with this type of information, below.

My Focus Here

What interests me is the possible use of social media by Alabama candidates. Segall may well be the only one with even a modest blogger outreach.

Let’s look at his site, Segall2008. Now, before some folks go and get their noses out of joint, I frequently do these types of site reviews and share them with my students. So, no harm intended.

• First up, he uses a splash page at the front of the site. Not necessarily a good idea. Yes, he seems to be seeking a major strategic goal by capturing email address first, but why make people click one more time. Seriously, splash pages are considered to be bad Web design by many, if not most. The only other option is “Skip to Website.” While the “Skip to Website” option is in the ‘golden mean’ area of the page, the color choice for the text doesn’t pop out. Would yellow or white be a better color choice? To me, it seems just a bit lost on the page. It would be interesting to know if their strategy is working re: gathering email addresses. How many do they have? (Resources for golden mean: The Golden Section, Design and the Divine Proportion, Mundi Design’s Principles of Graphic Design, go to 3d for the golden mean.)
• Segall went outside of Alabama for his Web site development. He went to CDPolitical.com which is part of Chong Designs. Where is Chong Designs? Well, Washington, D.C. – of course.
  1. I have to question the online savvy of this move. First off, people here in Alabama are quite unhappy when folks go outside the state. Anyone want to speculate on the expense incurred by Segall with Chong Designs?
  2. Also, I really think Segall would have been better served by using Ning.com and letting eager supporters in Alabama help drive the site. There isn’t a great deal of interaction taking place in the Segall site.
  3. What would that Ning.com site cost? Less than $35 a month … and it offers so much more than his site has for visitors. It would even help him capture those email addresses and involve the volunteers in discussions.
• Look at the video presentation on the Segall Google ad site. The video is a YouTube embed and not well presented. It has a single sliver of a black area on the right side and large one on the top. I mean really, this is poor. I would make my students re-do such a video presentation.

I really think Josh Segall could have done a better job of incorporating social media into his site, but have to give him credit for at least trying. (Click image below to enlarge.)

When you get to that page, you’ll see that the campaign is asking the following: “Please tell us about your blog. (Traffic, topics of interest, your audience, and anything else you think we should know.)” So far, he is getting some blog pickup. This Google blog search reveals 236 blog posts with “Josh Segall” in the copy (236 to-date).

Overall, I’d give the site a C+ because it is just above average overall, and it barely dips one toe into the social media arena. At least he’s paying some attention to blogs. Maybe I’ll try to get an interview with the candidate or someone on his staff and see what their strategy is re: social media.

By the way, Rogers does have a campaign site, too. He has video on his front page and it is a much better presentation. The site is Mike Rogers for Congress.com. It is quite a static site with little more than the basics like: volunteer contact forms, ways to write a letter to the editor and the usual sundry online tactics. So, that’s why I didn’t focus on it re: social media.

Neither candidate links to their Facebook sites, for instance, so it seems they are not really sold on the idea of using social media in their campaigns. Finally, regarding video use, both candidates are simply regurgitating their TV ads, so there is no creative use of online video going on here.

An interesting sidebar to all this, Josh Segall is an Ivy League graduate. Yep, he went to Brown University (University Web Site). All we see is Segall’s focus on his law degree from the University of Alabama. That’s understandable, of course, as voters down here don’t necessarily take a likin’ to them there Ivy League fellers. Rogers, on the other hand, went to Jacksonville State University. JSU resides in his district. Both candidates are lawyers: Rogers attended Birmingham School of Law and Segall attended The University of Alabama School of Law.

Other Aspects of Online Political Campaigns

On another front, it is interesting to see how much information there is out there regarding candidates, their campaigns and their campaign finances. Below is a list of sites I found during my search.

• AL-03: Josh Segall Outraises Rogers for the Second Quarter is the report from “Left in Alabama.” Yet, they fail to point out that Rogers has much more in his war chest.
• Segall Holds His Own in 2Q Fundraising from the Progressive Electorate. Again, no mention of the overall totals for each candidate.
• “He Stood up To His own Party” : New Republican Mantra from a diary within Daily Kos, not Kos himself, by someone calling themselves alpolitics – also the author of the Progressive Electorate, above.
• Open Secrets tally of the money raised and spent by both Segall and Rogers. There we get the broader story that Rogers had $948,940 cash on hand while Segall had $209,114 – as of May 14th and a lot has happened since then. Who knows where they both are now.
• Open Secrets page for all Alabama races.
• NewsMeat listing of all contributors to Segall by last name.
• NewsMeat listing of all contributors to Rogers by last name.
• Josh Segall’s SEA listing re: his views on science issues. SEA is the Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization. Segall has nothing on file.
• Mike Rogers SEA CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE has been filled out.
• Josh Segall’s ActBlue page. ActBlue claims to be “the nation’s largest source of funds for Democrats.” (Source)
• Open Secrets info on Mike Rogers’ personal finances. He’s a millionaire.
• I could not find similar information about Joshua Segall in OpenSecrets.org. Perhaps their files are not up-to-date, or they only track that kind of information for incumbents? Don’t know, for sure.

My students will get a kick out of knowing that Segall used a free Web template site for his first site, JoshuaSegall.com, which has been since replaced by his Segall2008.com site. The site he used for his template is gorotron.com, of all places.

Segall is in Facebook with a fan page touting 116 supporters, to-date. Update: Thanks to the anonymous comment below, I did another search for “Joshua Segall for Congress, as the comment states, and did find yet another group. So, there are two groups for Segall on Facebook. I must admit, I missed the second group in my previous search. Can’t remember what I used for the search, so I can’t tell you why. This search for Josh Segall gives both groups in the results. This search for Joshua Segall also reveals both groups. So, my apologies for missing the second group.

Mike Rogers is there, too. His fan page has 581 supporters, so he’s way ahead of Segall in that regard. Update: Yep, the anonymous comment below is correct. I used the wrong Rogers page. Mike Rogers has a page in Facebook, but not a group. And, there are no friends listed on that page. So, Segall is ahead on that mark.

I only found one Joshua Segall and two Josh Segalls in MySpace and neither is the candidate. Mike Rogers wasn’t there, either.

There is a Rep. Mike Rogers account in Twitter, but has no updates. I could not find a Joshua Segall.

So, that’s my look at one race and their use of emerging digital media. I guess I’m not surprised at the lack of social media use by Alabama candidates. I still get some deer in headlight looks when I mention it down here.

Yes, I’ll be pointing the students here and saying, “Hey, now there’s a success story. Admit it! You want to be like MK.” 

You see, it is quite true to say that Mary’s so wonderful. You know the type of person you meet and say to yourself, “Now, that’s a truly nice person. If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be like MK.” Yeah, that kind of person. That’s Mary.

So, I asked Mary about the conference, why Edelman chooses to host it each year, and generally what she’s doing. MK gives us the straight story in her inimitable style. Here it is. Thanks, Mary!

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Neville recently wrote about his Summit experiences in What academics think about social media.

I had a chance to pull Neville away during one of the breaks, and he shared his views of what is happening in Europe, regarding digital practice and higher education’s involvement. He noted that two themes seem persistent: measurement and pitching. Everyone wants to get to a position where there is accepted best practice that delivers results.

Thanks, Neville, for taking time to do the interview.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Starbucks recently launched (March ’08?) their site – my Starbucks Idea. This BusinessWeek article explains more. 

So, it was great to hear what she had to offer academia re: what’s new in emerging digital media. You can, by the way, see her entire presentation panel by visiting the Edelman site for their joint summit with PRWeek.

In the video below, Alex shares what Starbucks is looking for in new hires. Also, she relates the difference between today’s practice and the digital landscape at the beginning of her career, a little over a decade ago.

Many thanks to Alex for agreeing to the interview. She was very nice and quite helplful. You can see all seven videos I made from the conference, with eleven different interviews, by checking out the Summit ’08 collection at PROpenMic.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Paull Young, of Young PR and Converseon emailed me the other day with news. He reminded me of the two people at Converseon that found their way to the firm through social media, and PROpenMic, in particular. 

Maria Garcia De la Ossa (right) and Lindsey George (left, and her digital resume) are both working with Converseon today. Maria is a new hire and Lindsey is doing her internship. She’s from Auburn, too.

Maria’s story revolves around her involvement in a student competition that Shel Holtz discusses … actually, raves about – in his blog. It is the National Student Advertising Competition sponsored by AOL.com. Maria is participating as a member on the Emerson College team.

Each of these students joined PROpenMic in its earliest days. They were active in creating contacts with people within the network. That’s how you get where you want to go, folks. And, they did it.

So, here’s the video from both Maria and Lindsey. Thanks, Paull!

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Ya’ know, there’s another Auburn alum at Converseon, too. The wonderful Christi Eubanks began working with Converseon last year, actually. ) And, let’s not forget a shout out to the great Constantin Basturea, too! ) Hey, Constantin! Thanks for taking care of the students/alums and helping them grow and learn.

Rick Murray shares why Edelman Public Relations has taken a leadership role in helping academia better prepare students for the future of public relations.

This conference is an excellent model for others to follow. We need all the help we can get, folks. I appreciate Edelman’s leadership in this area. The Summit, along with their Bootcamps, shows that Edelman is clearly in the lead. I wish more of these types of opportunities were taking place now. We don’t want to have to catch up, do we?

Video from the Edelman/PRWeek New Media Academic Summit held on June 26-27, 2008.

Keith shares, what I believe to be, a great overview of why PR agencies should seek to work with academia and why experimenting with emerging digital media is so important for both students and educators.

This video is from June 26-27, 2008, in Chicago.