Blogger ancestry.

Spring ahead to the golden age of news–from the time of the Civil War (when war photography really made its mark) to the age of the “muckrakers“, World War II, and then to Watergate and Vietnam. Journalism became a profession; and “citizen journalists” disappeared from the scene.  “Journalism” became a scholarly pursuit with the advent of “J-schools” and journalism degrees.  

And the then began the consolidation in the 80s, and finally, the beginning of the great newspaper extinction.  And the  journalist breed–the guy with the suspenders, rolled up sleeves, reporter notebook and hat with the piece of paper in it that said “press,” also disappeared…Right?  

They haven’t, of course. (though the medium of newsprint, I am fairly certain and happy to say, is going extinct–Mother Nature is happy.)

And we have blogs and citizen journalism to thank for this. Much like small mammals in the midst of the great dinosaurs,  blogs multiplied in the shadow of newspapers early in the 21st Century.  And as the fortunes of newspapers began to decline, the blogs and citizen journalists  have filled the void. 

And I’m glad to see the U.S. has returned to its roots as a land of citizen journalists. 

Many former journalists became bloggers too (and Tweeters, Facebookers, etc.).  But the best part about the growth of social media and blogs is the return of the “citizen journalist”–the Thomas Paines of the world.  People that have opinions and are not afraid to write about it.  I’m thrilled that bloggers consider themselves journalists. In my mind, they are one in the same.  (And, by the way, I think, The U.S. Courts, should extend freedom of the press to these citizen journalists. Citizen journalists, or bloggers, are the very best insurance against omnipotent government.) 

Bloggers, everwhere.

As a public relations agency and for company clients, the growth of bloggers has brought both challenge and opportunity. The media landscape is now more fractured, and it’s harder to persuade a “mass” that your product/company/service is “the shizznit.”  But as an American, and a lover of American history, I’m glad to hear that most bloggers consider themselves journalists (according to the PRWeek/PR Newswire study).  I’m glad because it makes me feel (Robert Duvall Apocolypse Now pause, please)…free.

This story by Mike Masnick @TechDirt tackles fair use and whether or not Channel 7 actually can demand people not use the clip, which until now had stayed semi-under the radar.  Of course, the very best way to generate more unwanted publicity for video, audio or text posted to the web is to hire a bunch of lawyers to spook the few people who posted the video and moved on, until they got spooked by lawyers.

It’s like poking a tiger in a cage.  First bloggers will echo the story, then pundits move in to dissect the situation (which is where we’re at now), then the story will get more blown out of proportion by mainstream outlets.

Of course, with events in the world being what they are this is not anything of consequence.  But still, there’s something interesting in watching digital media (mostly open) wrestle with legacy media (mostly proprietary, filtered) over control of content’s soul.

It’s no secret the PR and marketing industries are rapidly changing with the proliferation of social media and networking sites.  With this change come opportunities as well as challenges that we, as PR professionals, are embracing.

While some businesses (and industries) still approach social media, Twitter, and the blogosphere with reservation and sometimes trepidation (just think Mommy bloggers and the headache over the Motrin ad controversy), these outlets and forums are actually terrific ways to gauge customer interest, satisfaction, and engage with target audiences closely. 

And now, Forrester Research is out with its Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, confirming the growth and monetary backing we can expect to see in social media marketing.  Forrester is estimating social media marketing to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent – faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums. 

With this burgeoning interest comes the need to understand the impact of all this money being spent on social media marketing.  Did the messages resonate? Were consumers and customers engaged? Excited? Or even angry?  With so much opportunity to engage with the “right” audiences online and so much information being published, businesses are having a tough time grasping the real information from the fleeting comments. 

This is where social media monitoring technologies, like Lexalytics (one of our clients at PAN), comes in.  These technologies can help companies ensure that their business’ reputation isn’t in jeopardy because of what is being written online. And now these technologies can be easily integrated with PR and marketing campaigns to measure success – and areas for improvement.  

This technology, which is more accurate and comprehensive than human analysis, can help businesses analyze blog and Twitter content, etiquette for responding to stories, and how to best leverage the information that is already out there.  Because human analysis is still essential to the process, the technology is enhancing it and allowing PR and marketing pros to decipher the areas for improvement as well as outreach faster, with more accuracy, and with greater analysis.

Within online networks and communities are individuals who will not all feel exactly the same way, so having the ability to extract meaning from all the noise — especially in a crisis situation — and measure extremes of opinion makes a critical difference in important business decisions.  After all, being equipped with information and analysis about what sentiment is living inside tweets, blog posts, and more, is crucial in being able to make sense of all the feedback and live conversations.

And this isn’t just for crisis situations. Being able to determine what areas of market education might be lacking in one area will help companies proactively engage with the right audiences to share information and interact.

As we become a nation of over 20 million bloggers, social media enthusiasts, and citizen journalists, being able to make sense of all the information and online engagement will quickly become a bigger task than human tracking and analysis can handle, so being equipped with the know-how and technology to bring this task down to size for PR and marketing purposes will quickly become most important.

There have been many articles on PRWeek that have discussed the important of blogging and general social media outlets influencing the decisions made by consumers.  One article in particular, “Study finds social media equally influential to conventional outlets” (http://www.prweekus.com/Study-finds-social-media-equally-influential-to-conventional-outlets/article/126482/) written by Aarti Shah, talks about how user-generated sites hold equal importance to traditional media sources when considering technology purchases. Now that the internet-driven world is inherent, companies are making sure that they are reaching out to their audiences in ways that they weren’t even thinking about before.  This new way of targeting audiences, buying consumer products and even getting familiar with the messages that the companies are trying to sell proves that it is important to be aware of what is going on in society since ideas are constantly being created.  With blogging and social media websites being “in” right now, I wonder if the hype will still be as rampant five years from now or if a whole new kind of service that reaches out to the public will replace it. I guess only time will tell. 

In fact, not only won’t they leave their facebook pages alone during work, young journalists are likely to be using facebook for work.  Fully 100 percent of the Millennial respondents to the SNCR’s survey showed they believe “new media and communications tools are enhancing journalism, vs. 40 percent in the 50-64 year old demographic.”   While this disparity isn’t surprising, it is interesting to note respondents were likely trained by the latter group both in college and in the early years of their profession.

If we thought PR has had difficulty adapting to social media, just imagine the chaos today’s in editorial departments.  On the one hand, social media is not-so-slowly strangling the mainstream media’s lifeblood.  On the other, young journalists are cozying up to social media to help them do their jobs.

Key findings of the study include:

* 100% of Millennial respondents (i.e., 18-29 year-olds) believe new media and communications tools are enhancing journalism, versus 40% in the 50-64 demographic

* 87% of 18-29 year-olds believe bloggers have become important opinion-shapers, versus 60% of 50-64 year-olds

* 87% of 18-29 year-olds confirm that new media and communications enhances the relationship with their audience, versus 42% of 50-64 year-olds

Key findings among all journalists:

* 48% of all respondents use LinkedIn, and 45% use Facebook to assist in reporting
* 68% of all respondents use blogs to keep up on issues or topics of interest
* 86% of all respondents use company websites, 71% use Wikipedia, and 46% use blogs to research an individual organization.

So it’s not a leap to understand why millennials are turning to social media to help them do their jobs, these tools foster a deeper level of interaction while at the same time broadening one’s reach.  Just as in PR, relationships count for journalists.  Why wouldn’t it make sense for a reporter to directly connect with a source via facebook or LinkedIn?

The challenge on the PR side is for millennials keep up with their journalist peers.  Not long ago I addressed part of this issue and got a great response from Megan Maguire, a millennial working for the Medical Records Institute (link down at the time of this post) here in Boston.    Her point: “older” <ahem> PR professionals have to show the millennials it’s okay to bring their leisure time experience with social media into the workplace.

Where millennials might not have been comfortable doing that before because they thought social media was perceived by management as “toys,” I’m sure I’m not the first to say that’s not the case now (if it ever was).  Young journalists inevitably grow up to be older journalists, and they’re not giving up their social media.  The SNCR’s report underlines the fact that both younger and older PR professionals have to embrace Twitter, facebook, Linked In, blogging, etc. to stay relevant.  If not for yourself, then do it for the kids.

- Joel

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