Intarwebs changes our minds

I was reading the most recent edition of Wired Magazine that landed on my doorstep this week.  There’s an interesting piece written by Clive Thompson using research from the Stanford Study of Writing organized by Professor Andrea Lunsford.

The argument is that we write more than we ever have despite as critics bemoaning that the the internet ruins students’ writing skills.  We’re probably vastly different (and more participatory) writers than humans have ever been.

Old-school reference material

That got me thinking. What else does the intarwebs change about us? I’ve noticed that people in my program at school who are also working in jobs where they are online the most are also the people who are most likely to cite internet sources, or cite sources at all.  Does the internet make us better referencers? Are we all becoming librarians of a type?

And what about kids with mobile phones that access the internet? Are they more social than we’ve ever been? Teens have always been highly social animals, but the opportunity for constant connectivity wasn’t there before; at some point you had to go home and try to sneak privileges to the corded phone. No longer. In another Wired story (apparently my source of choice today!), it’s explained that texting in the company of others isn’t rude – “texting those who couldn’t be there lets everyone feel they’re part of a larger social network.” This was according to research by Mimi Ito, a well-recognized researcher in the electronic culture of Japanese teens.

Another point made by Ito, this one to the New York Times, is that this persistent use of social technologies is not (as many adults would see it) a waste of time, but rather training for the future digital literacy that we’ll all need to get through our lives.  Ito’s point reflects much of what Henry Jenkins argues in his book ‘Convergence Culture’.  All of these new toys and games are really a practice grounds for generative tools that will become part of our social and economic fabric – it’s just that in human culture, those things that become important innovations often start as ‘novelties,’ widely seen as objects of fun or play but not ’serious’ value.

So the next time I walk around quoting websites like a librarian quotes books – you’ll know why.  My brains are being changed by the intarwebs!

“Where you at?”

Do you remember those commercials from Boost mobile where they made rappers and their friends into bubble-people to represent the dots that show where your friends are on a Boost phone?
It strikes me that I haven’t seen any ads like that in a while; not just the creepy bubble-people, but ads touting the ability to ‘find your friends’. With how frequently people post their location on tools like Twitter or Facebook, I still don’t see much adoption for GPS location pin pointing your location.
I think it may have something to do with the fact that people want to choose when to tell others where they’re at – and when that’s the case, there isn’t ENOUGH sharing to make those GPS location tools worthwhile. I’m not rushing to check where the three or four people I know using Google Latitude are at. There’s just not enough critical mass. Tools like Dodgeball, Google Latitude, Brightkite, Loopt and many others have been available for some time now. Maybe we’ve found a limit to what people will share? Or maybe this is just an idea who’s time hasn’t yet come.

PR tools in social media

In the last session of my class (Social Media Marketing @ UCLA Extension) we wound up spending some time discussing public relations and social media; how they tie together and what tools you might use.  We focused primarily on the press release as a SEO tool but it’s great to note that in general social media are perfect for public relations efforts, especially efforts of an 0ver-taxed many-hat-wearing marketing/PR/etc professional at a small company.

Thanks to a post by Patrick Evans (“You don’t need a press release wire service“) and another post by Todd Defren (“What wire service should we use?“) there’s a wealth of discussion on wire services.

On the other hand, there are plenty of (free!) social media tools to use in your PR efforts, some for press release distribution, others for making the most of your time and finding connections where your efforts will be most likely to be mutually beneficial to you/your company and the blogger/journalist/etc you’re trying to reach.

1. HARO – Short for HelpAReporterOut.  Created and managed by self-admitted ADHD publicist Peter Shankman, HelpAReporter is a 3x daily e-mail that shares requests from people (generally journalists, but also includes bloggers, public relations people looking for outside sources, etc) who need an interview or expert commentary.  Shankman also posts urgent requests to his Twitter microblog through @skydiver
2. Pitch Engine – This press release distribution service is the next ‘hot thing’ in PR.  Pitch Engine helps you land your press release on web-based news services like Google News where it’s available to the public and not just journalists.  This is key for your search engine optimization efforts, too.  Check out @PitchEngine on Twitter in addition to reviewing the site.
3. Campus Buzz – A press release distribution service that gets your story to the staff members of student-run newspapers across the country.  While most media relations programs only offer the generic ‘editor’ e-mail contact and a faculty advisor contact, Campus Buzz reaches directly to the writers.
4. #JournChat – A weekly Twitter discussion moderated by @PRSarahEvans, it draws together public relations folk and journalists (as well as any other interested parties) for a great discussion and networking.
5. #MicroPR – Another Twitter tool, this was created by Brian Solis as a sort of Twitter-based HARO.  Journalists can publish their queries and PR folk can respond.  To date, it doesn’t seem to be working as intended as most of the requests I’ve seen pushed out have been promotional from other PR types.  Given the initial warm reception, though, I think it’s worth keeping an eye on.

These tools can provide a strong, free base for someone who needs to do minimal PR outreach for their small business and are great tools to work into the PR mix for companies that give their PR efforts more resources.

**Update**

@dana_willhoit keeps an extensive list of free press release resources here.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

**Update2**

Another resource for a longer list of free press release resources from Blogging Secret here.