The Great Equalizer

Chapter 3 of Brian Solis's book Engage opens with the statement "social media is the great equalizer." The idea that social media is the great equalizer is a underlying concept for many arguments about social media today or at least is an underlying concept for many of the arguments made in my Social Media for PR class.  I think it is an important idea but it is one I have yet to talk about here. That little lapse will be solved today.

So what is meant by the statement that social media is the great equalizer? It basically means that social media has put power in the hands of the consumer. Before social media, there was a "top down" form of communication between business and consumers in which businesses said things and consumers listened. Communication wasn't really a two way street. Social media changed that and made it so small consumers could talk to big companies as well as other consumers.

When explained that way the idea of social media as a great equalizer sounds very scholarly and not applicable at all to real life. In reality people use social media as an equalizer all the time. When you purchase a product, say a TV, it dies within a year of purchase, and you go online to leave a review about it, your using social media as an equalizer.

This past Wednesday I had some friends, Christine and Melinda, who used Twitter and Facebook to express their discontent with a company named Whrrl who had a contest to give away 2 Audis during SXSW. They were upset that no one ended up winning those 2 Audis but they were lead to believe that someone would. The girls tweeted Whrrl and Whrrl responded through tweets and email. Christine and Melinda used social media to start a conversation with Whrrl and although the problem wasn't solved, they were at least able to talk directly to the company.

I sometimes think that most of the public thinks of social media as just a way to have fun and connect with others. I think that the idea that it can be used to connect with companies and express either positive or negative feelings about them often gets lost. Hopefully after reading this you will know not to write social media off as just frivolous fun, it can be useful business communication tool as well.

-M

Social Media/PR Internships

For the most part, anyone who has met me in person quickly comes to know that I love all things Disney. I spent the spring semester of 2010 working at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on the Disney College Program. It was an experience I absolutely loved and I fully intend on going back to Orlando after I graduate and doing another internship. This second time around though, I plan on doing what is called a Professional Internship.

Professional Internships at Disney are internships that rather than a College Program internship where you could be working at an attraction like It's A Small World, you can work in actual business departments of the Parks and Resorts segment of the Walt Disney Company. The list of internship positions available for the Fall 2011 semester went up today and I am practically drooling over some of the amazing communication positions available.

Out of all of the communication positions 6 specifically list PR or public affairs and about 3 mention social media in the title. My particular favorite is the "Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons Social Media & Marketing Intern." I am positive that all of these positions, but especially the Fairytale weddings position, will  have incredibly competitive application pools.

The reason I am posting about these internships is to show that large companies like Disney are increasingly starting to use social media to connect with the public. These internship postings say to me that my interest in social media in relation to PR is justified. Hopefully this social media in PR class will give me an advantage if and when I apply for internships similar to the ones posted right now. At least, I can hope it will.

-M

In case anyone would like to go look at the list of Communication related Disney Professional Internships the link can be found here.

Well Hello There!

I always feel that when starting a blog, its a good idea to introduce yourself. I'm sure everyone likes to know a bit about the person behind the computer screen.

My name is Marion and I am currently a Senior at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. I am majoring in Communication with a concentration in Advertising, Public Relations, and Media Arts. This blog is a product of a class that I am enrolled in this semester called "Social Media for PR." I will be posting several times a week with at least one of the posts discussing the readings from the class. We have 2 books that we are using for this class are Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and Engage by Brian Solis.

At first I had a hard time deciding what this blog should be about but I recently decided that it should be focused on something that I am actually interested in. Something I am definitely interested in is the Entertainment and Lifestyle industries. By this I mean obvious things like films and music but also things like amusement parks and toys. Things that entertain us and are fun. This blog will look at these industries and examine how they use social media to communicate with and engage the public.

-M