The Pew Research Center’s “Pew Internet & American Life Project” released a new report about the future of public relations last week. The report looks at overarching trends in the Internet and media between 2000 and 2010 and has the following “punchlines” about public relations today:

  • You and your organization can act like nodes in people’s networks
  • You can take more advantage of people being nodes in your network
  • This changes the old “industrial media” reality that information and influence follow a 2-step process.

So what does this mean for the future? We found their breakdown of the Tom Rosenstiel mode: Journalism as a service- not product, most translatable to PR. Tom Rosenstiel is the founder of another Pew research project, the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The Eight Functions of 21st Century Media

  • Authentication
  • Watch Dog
  • Witness
  • Forum Leader
  • Sense Making
  • Smart Aggregation
  • Empowerment
  • Role Model

How can PR professionals adapt to serve the new functions of media? Making corporate messages more transparent and integrating social media into traditional communication plans is a start. What else is your company doing to adapt?

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Exciting news for fashionistas in need of some quick advice about what to wear! Fashism.com launched its first iPhone application today, available for free in the iTunes store. The application enhances the “crowd-sourced” fashion advice offered through the site and offers users the flexibility to upload pictures and receive instant feedback and browse images for inspiration on the go! Take a look at the Fashism PressLift for more information and images and download the application today.

Exciting news for fashionistas in need of some quick advice about what to wear! Fashism.com launched its first iPhone application today, available for free in the iTunes store. The application enhances the “crowd-sourced” fashion advice offered through the site and offers users the flexibility to upload pictures and receive instant feedback and browse images for inspiration on the go! Take a look at the Fashism PressLift for more information and images and download the application today.

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Our favorite startup for food-lovers (and really, who isn’t one?), Foodspotting, recently released their second PressLift to announce the launch of a new and improved site and iPhone app. We had a chance to speak to Foodspotting’s Community Lead, Fiona Tang about their PR outreach.

Here’s what Fiona had to say about Foodspotting’s approach to social media:

 We think of it as the best way to talk to our users, press and friends of Foodspotting. It’s an instant way for us to keep everyone updated all at once. It’s a key communication avenue for us, and we don’t think Foodspotting could be as successful today if it weren’t for social media.

Including multi-media with their news release:

Because of Foodspotting’s focus on the visual aspects of life, we felt it was very important to provide video and images with our press release. These elements provide so much color to our announcement that it was essential for us to include them.

And trends in news releases:

We think that PR is definitely moving toward social media releases in general - simply because it’s natural for consumers of all kinds to want to know what a product looks like, why they would want to use it and with the rise of social networking, share it with their friends. As for Foodspotting, we are a visual guide website and iPhone app, so it makes sense for us to talk to our users and press through the social media channels.

We’re excited to see much more of Foodspotting in the next few months! Take a look at their PressLift for more about the recent launch and their partnerships with Travel Channel and Zagat.

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How to Optimize Your Social Media Release: The Target Audience

One of the most common questions we receive at PressLift is how brands should distribute their releases for maximum exposure. It’s a great question and there are several things companies can do to ensure their releases are being seen, but before sending out your SMR and even before writing the text portion of your release, it’s crucial to determine your target audience.

Your audience is most likely very broad and in this case, it’s important for them to engage with as many people as possible, directly on their SMR.

  • OR does your announcement pertain to a smaller demographic or contain embargoed information?

Your objective should be less about getting the maximum number of impressions and more about getting the right impressions.

 There are several cases in which you may not want an announcement to be broadcast to the public, and instead opt for a more targeted approach to outreach.

  • Settings like PressLift’s security and checkpoints allow you to control who’s seeing your PressLift and when.
  • Research into the journalists and bloggers that are most likely to be interested in your announcement is key to ensuring that your PressLift has quality impressions.

Thursday, August 19, 2010 — 1 note   ()

CNN Student News returned yesterday for its 21st season. The daily program is a ten minute news show targeted to middle and high school students, parents, and educators. Student News looks at the top news stories in a wide variety of subjects each weekday and presents them in a classroom friendly format.

“CNN Student News delivers the most important and inspiring news of the day to middle and high school students around the world,” said  Donna Krache, executive producer of CNN Student News. “I’m honored that CNN’s commitment to education continues to be so valued by educators and parents everywhere.”   

Find out more about the program on this PressLift by CNN.

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