As the group sessions are winding down, students are beginning to evaluate their tactics. They know they need to reach their audiences, and they are currently attempting to create the most effective plan to make that happen. Thus far, the buzzwords have been: podcast, Facebook, You Tube, Second Life, RSS feeds and widgets.

Students are beginning to transform their perspectives and are seeking creative solutions to engage their audiences. Not only that, but they are excited about it! Edelman professionals are inspiring and engaging their students. College students are excited about learning on a Saturday, a feat not easily accomplished!

By inspiring these students to put the messages and lessons they learned at the bootcamp into practice, Edelman experts are “paying it forward,” and passing their genius onto the next generation of PR pros. Thank you Edelman!

At the Edelman Digital Bootcamp, students are currently hard at work. With the help of the Edelman pro’s, students attending the bootcamp begin to realize that word of mouth marketing is no longer limited to friends talking to friends over a latte at the local coffee shop.

WOM marketing now involves blogging, tweeting, flickring and engaging audiences in a personal way, even if you are not engaged in face-to-face communication. How can you reach your audience in an increasingly technological world? Students at the bootcamp are working on just that question.

Students started their brainstorming conversations talking about press conferences, speaking to company manufacturers, holding community events and engaging different audiences. One particular group has audiences ranging from professional baseball players to tree huggers. How is it possible to reach all of those people?

The key is “micro-targeting,” and the easiest way to do that is by using social media. Students are beginning to understand the importance of taking issues that had traditionally been handled off-line and bringing them to an online audience.

(more…)

Kaye Sweetser’s favorite tools

1. Microblogging — Twitter (and Twemes.com/edb)
2. Facebook — example: use the gift function to send gift to nonprofit volunteers, etc. Also creating groups, an alternative to ProfNet, pitching. (Most of us on Facebook let students add us but don’t invite them.) Also, you can create a class to post announcements and reminders (@scullyke12). Can also buy ads and target them very narrowly (@rdfrench)
3. YouTube — example: Bateman team created two videos with middle school kids to promote auto safety. Could do a contest with an entire class or campus.

(more…)

Where all this started: Phil began with a brief history of PR in the blogosphere. As tech costs have gone down, there’s been an explosion of creativity, self-expression, and access in organizations.

Phil’s magnetic poetry: the usual suspects can’t handle a failure to communicate (in reference to PR people). He shows a clip from “Crazy People” in which Dudley Moore is an ad exec who tells the truth about products (”Buy Volvos. They’re Boxy but They’re Good.”) Makes the point that this is how people want to be dealt with online.

How do I get started? “Information wants to be free” — and a user-writeable Web is inherently profound. The ah-ha moment occurs when you click “submit” and realize you can publish anything to the Web.

Tendency to think of PR in silos — the media relations part, the digital part, etc. You can tell when the digital is part of the overall program or when it’s just bolted on. Digital smarts can’t be siloed anymore. In addition, digital media is no longer a “tech” thing. Now, you can set up a blog, syndicate it, and measure it to an incredible degree … for free.

Phil then discussed what Edelman’s doing to educate its staff, including a week-long immersion (graded) program and on-demand distance learning.

He also contrasted the assistant account exec job description for PR 1.0 (such as administration, coverage tracking, list-building, activity reporting, AP style) and PR 2.0 (administration, conversation tracking, community and member-list generation; team knowledge management, Web style).

“No plan leaves the company without a digital component.” Woe to he who attempts to do so!

Phil also discussed searching URLs in addition to names. For example, if someone says “This guy is a jerk,” with the link on “this guy” heading to Phil’s blog, it won’t show up in a name search, but it is part of the conversation that other people are reading.

What I look for in people who graduate from undergrad programs: Phil shows an “Ask a Ninja” video, then lists intellectual curiosity, up-managing skills, an examined, omnivorous media-consumption life, basic understanding of social media concepts and technology.

Phil’s dream courses include History of Online Communities, Writing 2.0, Online Law and Public Policy, Comminications Technology and Society, Critical Consumption, and Corporate Online Engagement.

Perceived challenges include: struggle to teach technology at the same time serving as an academic institution rather than a trade school; curricula is difficult to change; finding room.

Advice for someone getting into this: “Do things for the first time, all the time” - Don Nielson, Stanford Research Institute

Welcome to Edelman Digital Bootcamp!

After a lot of planning and hard work, we have finally come together to share knowledge, information and Ah Ha moments to create a foundation for educators and students in the social media realm. With attendees from Auburn, Texas, Kennesaw State, University of West Florida, this is a great opportunity to garner lesson plans and professional insight into the 2.0 world which can be used much like traditional media in crisis management situations, public affairs, and public relations.

After a brief introduction from Edelman’s Erin Caldwell, a social media guru and graduate of Clemson Auburn University, as well as the other presenters - Monte, Phil, Erin, Chris, Steve, Jenna, and Stephanie, we had the privilege to talk to some of the top social media educators attending today’s conference.

Check out Robert French’s podcast and Dr. V’s video interviews.

Breaking out into small group sessions, topics include audits and monitoring, client relationships, and research.

Students are asked to consider clients and what’s being said about them, as well as who is saying it. Is there negative or positive information floating around? Browsing blog search engines, including ask.com, Ice Rocket, Google Blog search and Technorati are wonderful way to conduct the research to find answers to these questions in order to create a justified recommendation for the client.

Don’t forget to watch updated pictorials of the conference at Edelman’s Flickr site.