Twitter to the Rescue!

About a week before spring break, several students from the St. Edward's chapter attended the Public Relations Student Society of America's National Assembly. Luckily this year the event was held at downtown Austin's Hyatt Regency, so we had a very small commute compared to others!

A little sidenote-- This event was occuring during SXSW so I was a little concerned about parking (but then again, when in Austin are you not?) I had looked on the website at hotel parking prices and they were running at about ohh.. $18.00 per day. Panicking that I would spend close to about $60.00 dollars just on parking that weekend, I decided to call the Hyatt Regency. I was a little frustrated to be put on hold a few times, but that was really the least of my worries. I asked the concierge if there were any special parking permits that were available to students attending the PRSSA event this weekend.. and the answer was unfortunately a big fat "No."

I was pretty determined not to pay $60.00 so I turned to an alternate method of communication (drum roll please...) SOCIAL MEDIA! I logged on my Twitter account and found the account for the Austin Regency Downtown. I was already live tweeting with the National Assembly hashtag, #prssana, so I decided to tweet the Hyatt about their parking. I asked them, once again, about special parking prices for our event and was instantly retweeted by a few other students who also were concerned. A little less than 20 minutes later, I spotted the Hyatt's reply to my question and it was good news, FINALLY! They made parking only $5.00 for the weekend for us! YES.



I was pretty please that social media saved the day.

In the Words of Aretha Franklin...

In this week's readings, we read a little bit about the evolution of blogging in "Citizen Markerters." It was pretty interesting that today's blogger.com was really the Roman's Acta Diurna over 2,100 years ago. Imagine taking the time to carve this message right now into a huge stone and hanging it in the public square, who has the time for that?...my how technology has changed..
In addition, the chapter went on discussing the invention of the printing press. movable type 1.0, LiveJournal, podcasting, and even TiVO. Probably the most interesting of examples was the creation of TiVO. When I was in middle school, I can remember thinking that this was perhaps the coolest thing ever invented. I was very involved in dance, so I never had the time to watch much T.V., but when I did, nothing ever seemed to on. With TiVO, I could record the O.C. AND even pause it too, just like a movie! Much of the success came from the idea of personal FREEDOM. Audiences were no longer chained to their seats during their favorite show and were use the restroom and grab a snack for an extended period of time (longer than a commercial break at least).

Another interesting topic in this chapter discussed podcasting. From previously taking an advertising class, I was aware that radio is struggling in a world of iPods. However, until recently, I was not even aware of podcasting, and was really surprised with the 63 million podcast listeners that are expected for 2010. Maybe I just wasn't in the know? But it doesn't surprise me that since these are becoming more and more popular, radio is not only losing their viewers to music on the iPods, but to podcast. Again, we can hear Aretha in the background screaming "Freedom," for the cause of this shift in technologies. No longer do we have to be limited to radio stations on a family road trip, we can now play OUR chosen audio.

It's all about freedom.

"You Have Just Won the Superbowl.. What Are You Going To Do Now?"

".....I'm going to DisneyWorld!" This is perhaps the most classic example of the way companies use celebrity endorsements for their brand. In this week's readings, we were asked to read a document about FTC guidelines and advertising. Celebrity endorsements caught my eye (probably because I just attended presentation managing personal brands and how Tiger Wood loss his endorsements due to his infedelities). This presentation and few paragraphs I read about the guidelines really made me think about how celebrities are really an effective way to get people to buy something. Athletes, like Anna Kournikova, have been the spokesperson for the Canon "Powershot," and has been pretty effective ( I mean hey, I bought one).

Athletes are not the only people used for endorsements, Hollywood celebrities are notorious for it too. For example, I follow celebrity socialite, Kim Kardashian on Twitter. Many, many of her tweets are promoting the popular weight loss product, QuickTrim. Last night, I saw a commercial of both her and her sister, Khloe, both asking "How Hot Can You Be?" with QuickTrim. For advertisers, I think this is particularly effective. Many people soak up so much celebrity news, gossip, and trends.. it would almost be ridiculous not to use them for their leverage.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hilltoppers Attend PRSSA National Assembly in Hometown

AUSTIN, Texas (March 10, 2010) This week seven St. Edward’s University Chapter members will be attending the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Assembly. This year, the National Assembly will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency hotel down located in downtown Austin.

PRSSA will host students and elected chapter delegates around the nation from 248 universities nationwide to come receive leadership training as well as vote on the National Committee representatives. The conference will include a Day of Competition sponsored by CW network and numerous keynote speakers. The Assembly will begin on Thursday March 11th through Sunday, March 14th.

“We are very excited to have the National Assembly hosted in our hometown because it provides our chapter with a greater opportunity to send more students who want to participate and get involved,” says Ally Hugg, Chapter President. Local PRSSA Chapters at The University of Texas, Texas State, and St. Edward’s University will be hosting a “Networking Bingo” that will give students a chance to meet other students and other local Austin- area communication professionals, work on interviewing skills, and discuss recruitment opportunities on Friday March 13th at 5:30 pm.

The St. Edward’s University Chapter will be live tweeting at the Assembly and "Bingo Networking" from @SEUPRSSA and from personal twitter accounts. Students will also be posting information on the Chapter blog and Facebook account.

###

Contact:

Courtney Medford

St. Edward’s PRSSA Secretary

cmedfor@stedwards.edu

PRSSA Podcast for St. Edward's University 125th Anniversary Celebration

Show Notes

00:06 – Introduction to Podcast show

00:19.3 – Description of episode

00:13.1 - Introduction of hosts and guests

00:48.5 – Overview of 125^th campaign

01:16 - Sara asks about campaign, and why focus specifically on 125^th year?

03:03 – Incorporation of social media sites in campaign

08:59 – Service challenge

11:14 – Ally asks about incorporation of “real-life Topper”

12:08 – Upcoming events on campus

13:19 – Conclusion of interview

If at first you don't succeed or try, try again..or should you?

According to this week's reading "A Persistence Paradox," created a studied that tested the popularity of uploaded web video from YouTube based on how frequently someone uploads content. The results found that the more persistent you are, the less likely you are to have any success with your uploads becoming popular by an audience. What?

After reading only the first few pages of this study, I will admit that I was very confused. I was under the impression that a person who uploads more and more videos will begin to create an audience because people will be interested in what he or she might upload next. To my surprise, the wording of the study made it appear that this is not true and a person who routinely uploads video content somehow will "annoy" other users.

Reading a bit further, I discovered that the reason behind the study's finding is really that older video uploaders are less likely to create hits on their video than newer ones. A possible solution to this paradox is that amateur video producers and uploaders take less time than say, professional YouTubers, therefore the quality of their work is less than professionals. We then would want to watch something made with more substantial content by professionals than a YouTube video that is made by your average joe.

Even though this study may have supported evidence for these findings, I am still going to have to disagree. The very essence of YouTube is for ANYONE to post their videos and receive feedback. "Citizen Markerters" uses great examples of how amateaur YouTube videos create newsworthy buzz. You don't have to be a Hollywood director to make a video that people will talk about!

Pillow Talk

Have you told someone "oh, that's so easy, I could do it in my sleep..." Apparently that phrase can now be true with a couple who can blog with their sleep. Adam is a sleeptalker. Not just a mumbler, but a talker who slips out more than a few Zs during the night talking about unrelated topics that is paired with some naughty humor. His wife, Karen, has audio recorded and even started a blog to showcase Adam's outrageous nighttime behavior. Friends and family describe Adam to be a well-mannered individual during the day, but as we can read from the blog, it does a complete 180 by night. I guess this can be a new take on the the phrase that a full moon "brings out the crazies a night." Full moon or not, it is definitely certain that Adam's idea of pillow talk has taken a new spin. To give you an idea of some of his loony nightly monologues, here is a sample of today's post on the blog:

Mar 1 2010

"I'm sorry. I just ate asparagus. You'll have to clean the toilet."

"There you go again, wasting decent oxygen on talking."

Posted by Karen S-L at 08:00 17 comments

Seriously, is this not a great idea for a blog or what? I think it would also be beneficial for Karen and Adam to make a podcast out of this. Since Adam appears to be consistent in his sleep talking, it would be great to just make a podcast and those subscribers who sync their iPods while they are sleeping, could listen to Adam on the way to wor. Maybe include with some commentary from both Karen and Adam. Just a thought!