PopSynergy

Twitter, Friday Night Lights and Vanderbilt

ksburns71 — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:10:28 +0000

In a convergence of pop culture, social media and the real world, a Vanderbilt admissions counselor responds to a television character’s Tweets.

http://blogvu.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/friday-night-lights-twitter-and-vanderbilt/

Recession Advertising

ksburns71 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:34:04 +0000

I’ve noticed that advertising–which has told us to buy, buy, buy–is now telling us how to be more smart in our consumption. Target was the first advertiser that I noticed. Now I’m seeing Bank of America doing the same thing. Who else?

Joe Marchese’s Reading List

ksburns71 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:38:14 +0000

Thanks, Joe, for sharing your social media reading list.

Click here to view list.

35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

ksburns71 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:26:14 +0000

35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

Posted using ShareThis

Jeff Bridges’ Blog

ksburns71 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:26:10 +0000

I’ll bet you never thought about checking out the blog of actor Jeff Bridges, but you should. It’s completely written and illustrated with his own doodles and sketches. This site will certainly inspire those with artistic talents who are interested in expressing themselves on the Web.

Click here to link to his blog.

Exploring Social Media x Research Methods

ksburns71 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:37:57 +0000

I’m teaching research methods this summer and writing (or trying to write) a paper about incorporating social media into a research methods class. When I’ve taught this class, I have used of Flickr for a photo ethnography assignment and blogs for focus groups. Any other ideas would be much appreciated. Any literature about social media assignments would be helpful as well.

Ideas from other professors are here (I’m looking for more links to add):

Assorted ideas from Kaye Sweetser

Social media press release from Tom Kelleher

Issue tracking with Twitter from Tom Kelleher

I have to admit…I’ve watched a few commercials on my DVR

ksburns71 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:16:26 +0000

I’ve noticed a couple of creative tactics the broadcasters are using to get people to actually watch commercials. Or maybe just to trick people into watching commercials. Last night, I watched two shows from my DVR: Lifetime’s Army Wives and TBS’s My Boys. By the way, it was my first time watching Army Wives. My sister has been recommending it and I finally caved in. And I’ve been a loyal My Boys fan from the very first episode and was excited to see it back for Season 3. Go PJ!

Army Wives was sponsored by some haircare brand (obviously, I didn’t watch too closely), but they used the main characters speaking directly to the audience to lead off the commercial breaks. I didn’t quite jump for my remote as quickly as I might normally have.

After the first scene or so in My Boys, I was expecting a commercial. I dropped my remote when I saw that there was another scene. But who were these people sitting around a kitchen table? It wasn’t My Boys, but a brief scene from TBS’s Bill Engvall show. It was so seamless. Sneaky TBS!

One other tactics I’ve noticed lately is that broadcasters will intersperse a quick clip of the show in the commercial pod. When fast-forwarding, I thought the show was back on, but it wasn’t.

Personal Expression on MySpace

ksburns71 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:04:44 +0000

I’m interested in learning more about how people express themselves on networking sites like MySpace, particularly with respect to banners, skins, or widgets for brands or pop culture products like movies or television. Do you have the “Sex and the City” skin? Do you have a “Get Smart” badge? Why do MySpace members choose to display these objects on their profiles?

What’s So Social about Television?

ksburns71 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:30:03 +0000

I’m exploring the links between social media and reality television. In much the same way that we have an interest in the lives of others from our favorite reality programs, we often have an interest in others that we can connect to online. Why do I look at personal blogs of people I don’t know? Why do I look at the photos of Facebook acquaintances? Do my online activities tap the same fascination I have with the lives of unknown people on reality television?

ICA Preconference: The Long History of New Media

ksburns71 — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:11:06 +0000

My paper abstract for the ICA Preconference called “The Long History of New Media” can be found below. If you are interested in reading the full paper, I’d be happy to send it to you. The paper includes lots of examples of social media applications (culled from PRWeek and PR News articles) and summaries of research reports on public relations and social media. The paper concludes with the results of an exploratory study of practitioner user.

A historical examination of the development of social media and its relationship to the public relations industry

Social media have directly impacted the processes of communication and relationship building, not just among individuals, but also between organizations and their publics. With communication and relationship building often the responsibility of public relations practitioners, these professionals have recognized their critical role in helping organizations succeed in this new environment as well as the need to rethink previous approaches.

While much has been written about the development of social media, the relationship between social media and the public relations industry has not been documented. This paper tracks the development of social media and the implementation of its various forms as public relations tools. Also discussed is how traditional public relations instruments, such as press releases, have been transformed to incorporate social media. Surveys of public relations professionals are used to illustrate the increasing acceptance of social media in public relations as well as changing expectations.