Ah, the power of progress! Last year, according to msnbc news, Queen Elizabeth released her Christmas Day address as a podcast and a television message. This year she further embraced the digital media era by releasing a viral on YouTube. Hmm...I wonder what Shane Watson would have to say about this? (see my post "I Don't Want To Grow Up for more details) If she thinks 30-somethings should no longer be using social networks because they need to embrace their adulthood, she certainly must be freaking out that her 81-yr-old monarch has her own channel on YouTube. I love it!
This is exactly my point about digital media: it reaches a much wider audience than traditional print and even broadcast media and is a powerful component in the public relations toolkit. Granted, once you put yourself out there on the social media, it is hard to control feedback, parodies, negative comments, etc. But isn't there some saying like there's no such thing as bad publicity? Sometimes all you need to promote yourself or product is to build awareness through discussion and debate. It doesn't necessarily matter what the content of each bulletin is...just that you are being mentioned. Hmm...I wonder where I can find research numbers on this...if you know the answer, I'd be happy to hear it...
As a sidenote on this particular issue, I am currently reading the fourth installment in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (if you haven't read these books, go get them, they are awesome). It is called Extras and is set in a kinda post-apocalyptic future society obsessed with techno-gadgets and 24-hr viral newsfeeds and which is in recovery from a social revolution against mind-controlling governments...whoa! Anyway, the main character is a girl who is seeking to increase her facerank (fame ranking) by finding an mind-blowing story to release on her personal news feed. Which, really, is relevant to the current discussion in my random thinking way. Basically everyone gets their news from these viral feeds, which seem to be somewhat similar to a futuristic social network like Facebook, and the number of hits on your feed plus the number of times other people discuss your feed on their feed all increase your facerank in society, which is how people earn credits to buy things and rent apartments, etc. I.e...Shane Watson's worst nightmare society!!! Haha...
If you could see inside my head, this is what it would probably look like...
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5 comments:
I've personally always been very careful with new and social media, as you never know what is truth or rumours, and who is behind everything... So I didn't really involved in them until recently, I prefered getting news from newspapers and meeting people in person! And I also thought that was unfair for some really interesting or talented people who don't know how to use new medias,and therefore are less known that some bullshit buzz on the internet... But at the end of the day I agree with you, because to me the internet is the most democratic media: it really gives everyone a chance to be known for what he/she wants, you just have to find a way of catching the attention thanks to the amazing tools it offers... Would that lead to "self-PR"?
Having Her Majesty the Queen broadcast her 2007 christmas message for the first time on 'The Royal Channel', the official channel of the British Mornarchy on You Tube, proves the extent to which new media and technological changes have been embraced in today's world. As at 21.31pm tonight when I watched the video, it had been viewed 897,882 times. And come to think of it, it was posted only two weeks ago. From all indications the internet, social media, and new media look quiet promising if intergrated well into the traditional media. Having said that, I think, the internet can be very effective in targeting general audience as in the case of the Queen, but I am not sure how easy it is when targeting a specific audience.
the 897K visits to her majesty's 2007 Christmas speech on YouTube is impressive, but if the queen was truly embracing new media technology wouldn't her PR office be pasting a specifically 'edited/adapted' version of her speech on YouTube, designed for YouTube audiences??
I cant believe the Queen used youtube! It is impressive and higjlights the point even I have been trying to make, that new/social media has become increasingly important and cannot be ignored..I know there are some concerns as far as blogging etc is concerned but it finally give you a right to say what you want to and get honest opinions. Also the feedback and comments that you will get are invaluable in a way because they come directly from the people itself!
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