My name is Kathryn Boland, a public relations student currently attending Algonquin College. I am a 2007 graduate of Carleton University, where I received a B.A. in Mass Communication.
This past week, Bob Ledrew, Cait Lafleche and I spoke at an IABC Senior Communicator’s dinner to discuss youth and social media. Many issues arose during our discussions, but one in particular has stuck with me. With our current media landscape, people are always under surveillance from pictures at a party to a comment on a Myspace page and all of it being documented. I understand this now as I begin my journey as a public relations practitioner on how important my activities can be for my own personal brand and the company I work for in the future.
However, I still have a hard time with this because I grew up using different types of social media and it shaped part of my identity especially when I was young girl confused and unsure of my future. I remember using ICQ when I was in high school and pretending to be the other Katie Boland, the actress from Zack Files, because at that time I wanted to be an actress and I didn’t understand what I was doing could be wrong. Or the personal entries I wrote in my livejournal for over six years and how it kept me close with my best friends despite being in different cities.
All these things are true and they shaped the person I am today, and I have a hard time if an employer would judge me on my behaviour when I was nineteen and the person I loved broke my heart. I have grown a lot in the last few years, and I know that how you handle things can be a true reflection of who you are, but I think judging people solely on things that may have happened a few years ago is not fair, especially for someone my age. When you are young, a lot changes in a year.
Many people have their opinions about this, what do you think? What is fair game for employers to judge recruits on?
Scrolling down many of my friend’s pages on facebook, I am overwhelmed with the amount of facebook applications some of them upload daily. There are facebook applications for sports teams, music players, horoscopes, pets, movies, television shows, newspaper feeds, and pretty much anything you can think of.
But are these applications really effective? Are these applications attracting new audiences or new customers, or are they just adding to the clutter I have to sift through. I don’t think there is an answer to my question. Most people that use facebook do not use it to learn about different subjects or search for new products. Facebook is a place to socialize.
Many organizations and companies are trying to use facebook as a marketing tool, but it is not as easy as some hope. If marketers want to reach out to the facebook population they have to be more creative then facebook applications. Marketers should be connecting with how people socialize and interact with each other.
One company that I think acheived this quite well was Walmart’s ghost cookie free gifts.
One thing that has became popular in facebook world is giving your friends gifts. At first I thought, who would pay money for a virtual gift. But soon after it started to became popular and my friends were paying for thier facebook gifts with thier VISA’s. One application even came out with free gifts, but were not as visually friendly. But now Walmart released this facebook cookie gift for free to give to your friends. Walmart found an excellcent channel to market thier brand that works into the way many people use facebook.
I just think if you are planning to launch a facebook application, I would consider a more effective way to use facebook that could reach more people and communicate your brand, just as Walmart did.
Toronto radio station, 102.1 the edge , has created a contest using Facebook. The lucky winner will win 7, 000 dollars from the edge for creating the best group as judged by the edge for the number of members, interaction and the use of Facebook tools. Contest details are here.
I believe this is both an innovative way to create publicity for the radio station, and a smart way to create publicity. Not only will the contest attract the edge’s target market, but will actively seek out listeners to become involved in the contest.
It will be interesting to see who wins! Hopefully it will be someone who really deserves it.
