In a nutshell.

Before I start on my final blog post for the week, here’s something interesting.

Source: Mashable.com

I giggled when I saw that because Google’s algorithms failed! Michael Jackson DID die in 2007, but we are talking about an author here not the singer.

Quoted from the Mashable article:

“The attention to the issue likely means it has now been fixed, but it does go to show that Google’s algorithms, while always delivering relevant results for the keywords we enter, don’t always have the intuition to understand exactly what we’re searching for.”

So true!

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This week concludes the final week of my NCT lesson. It has definitely been one eye-opening semester with me and the rest of my cohort learning so many new things and discovering new and do-you-know facts about the social sphere. These few weeks have seen us through Twitter converts, augmented reality,  the power of Google, just to name a few!

I’ve conducted 2 presentations within the course of the duration and through the mountain of research, I’m proud to say that I am acutely aware of the emerging roles in online games like Habbo Hotel and…the future of PR!

And as if the vampires in Twilight haven’t been taking up enough air time, publicity time, advertising time. Before the launch of New Moon, Summit Entertainment teamed up with Habbo to roll out New Moon themed virtual spaces spanning across 31 virtual worlds around the globes. Injecting some business opportunities into this, various Twilight merchandises were being released too.

A very smart move I must say. Since the target audience of Habbo are from 13-18 years old and majority of the Twilight fans fall into that age category too. In this new age, what I can learn from these joint-promotions and marketing/advertising stints is to utilise the various different mediums available.

Which brings us to the topic of the Future of PR. I presented on the topic of Stowe Boyd’s brilliant idea – the Twitpitch.

It’s the elevator pitch (the brief overview of a product, service, or project that can be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator, usually around 30 seconds or so) summarised into 140 words.

WOW.

Imagine a PR personnel/team with the ability to do that and effectively at that! It’s so ingenious. In this day and age, where companies want to reach out to as many clients are possible, the Twitpitch is the way for them to go. That is, if the social media spreads and pollinate its influence on other big companies.

Face it. Do we really have the time for long, dry press releases anymore?

There was a question that came up in the presentation in relation to companies hiring bloggers to promote their products and services –
a)  If the entries that these bloggers write have to be submitted through the gatekeepers before being published, would that affect the credibility of the information?

Definitely I must say. The reason that people trust the selected bloggers for the respective product and services is because they are opinion leaders.

I reckon every suggestion made is made in assumption that the company has enough information on the respective tool and knows how to utilise it well enough.

There are so many PR, advertising and marketing tools emerging and I say, for those companies who are still focusing on the tactical way instead of the strategical way…

It’s time to DIVERSIFY.