Pure Thinking

Justice for all

A few weeks ago, I read a creatively, intriguing blog by PR & social media strategist Mike Schaffer, titled “Justice League of Communications”. I couldn’t help but take a sec to be nostalgic…stealing my brother’s Superman pajamas in elementary school so I too, could be ‘faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,’ all with my red cape proudly flowing behind me…but what kid didn’t want to grow up to be Superman??

Shaffer cleverly connects the PR profession with superheroes, stressing the significance of teamwork and how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. So although we all want to be the Man of Steel, we still need a genius inventor and strategist (AKA Batman) and the man with skills in multiple areas (AKA Flash).

And since every superhero needs a villain, I give you The_Practioner. His post “Say hi…to the Bad Guy” was inspired by Shaffer, but takes a look at who the hero needs to defeat, the villains of the PR world, e.g. Board Man, the narrow ‘in the box’ thinker’, the self-destructing Flack Hack, and of course, the unmerciful Clientus.

I found myself to be a little bit of each superhero. Which superhero (or villain) are you?

--Janis

And how do you take your news?

A recent Pew study revealed that 50% of those surveyed rely on people around them to keep up with their news. It makes sense - we all link to articles that are of interest to us, and even recommend that clients link to relevant information to engage with potential customers in their social network.

But the word "rely" made me nervous. Sure, when this news clip from Alabama popped up in my Facebook news feed, I thought it was entertaining (honestly, how did that reporter keep a straight face) but I certainly can't rely on my news feed for my news, or I would have a very narrow, albeit humorous, view of our world's current events.

As part of a generation where guys are even popping the question via social media, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that this is how we're keeping current on news now as well. And the platform is proving successful, with things like The Flipboard iPad app, which personalizes your news experience based on what your friends share.

This makes "getting the news" streamlined and perhaps easier, but I fear for the content and the experience that we'll lose in the process. A couple of weeks ago, I saw on a friend's Facebook status that legendary Coach Dean Smith is "likely suffering from Alzheimer's." This may not be a big deal to a lot of people, but I grew up in a basketball town screaming at the television with my parents and dreaming of my first trip to the Dean Dome as a student, ever since I was old enough to understand the game. 

Getting a local NC paper from a friend in the mail, with an article that covered the legacy of Coach Smith at length meant a lot more, and told me more of a story - something I would have never experienced from only sharing news socially. I think this new trend leaves out some of the most important topics, and a lot of the experience.

Our intern, who is only a few short years younger than me, had an entirely different take on how taking news in via his iPad actually enriches the experience.

Maybe there's benefits to both. What's your take?

--Kate

Kids Say the Darndest Things

While reading a few blogs to try and come up with an idea for what to write about today, I came across a blog post from Simon Mainwaring. He had taken his daughter to a children’s museum and while there, saw a quote from a nine-year-old girl. The quote read:

“When I make my art about a flower it is not showing you who the flower is, but to tell you about me.” Elyssa, Age 9

To Simon Mainwaring, this quote effectively distilled the essence of social media. And I agree with him. Whether it is our Facebook page, our Twitter account, or LinkedIn profile, we are all trying to show ourselves off as art form. Art is expressive and creative, much like the social media outlets we use today. Art tells us about a generation or historical time period, much like social media will do in the future. (They have already started to archive Twitter posts so that we will always know what Aston Kutcher had to say, even in 2050.) Art embraces the individuality of the artist and lets them interpret the world in whichever way they want. Social media does the same.

My point here is that we all want to tell the story of ourselves. We decide which pictures stay up on Facebook so friends or employers get a taste of our artistic lifestyle and we decide what we want the world to know about us via Twitter. Brands do the same and use the same social media outlets to express who they are. So next time you post something on your favorite social media, decide what that means to you in terms of you as an art form.

-Courtney

@cmill34