All of us at Frause were so excited about starting a blog; we spent hours fighting over who would be responsible for the content. We drew straws, played rock paper scissors, even thumb wrestled for the honor. It turns out our interns have some strong thumbs (not to mention opinions). They also have the best opportunity to provide a “fly on the wall” look into the workings of Frause. Without further ado, we present Frause – through the eyes of our interns!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Twitter Has Staying Power


The social networking service Twitter was a rather new thing to me when I started interning here at Frause. Unlike Facebook (which everyone, including my professors has) none of my friends at college have a Twitter account.

Yet despite this, Twitter is all the rage in the increasingly changing world of media relations and business. The spring issue of The Public Relations Strategist is dedicated entirely to social media, and there is a very interesting article about the role of networking sites either helping or hindering good business communications.

Despite the extreme popularity of Twitter, I’m surprised how many businesses continue to cling to the old guard of less progressive media communications. Certain companies outright ban networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and place restrictive media formats on internal email accounts.

Other companies have opted for an entirely different approach, creating their very own social media services independent of the larger, more established services. But are these actions serving to harm or help business communications?

Mark Kolier, a blogger on social media and president of Canterbury Graphics Strategic Marketing insists that, “social networking is what’s coming, and it’s what people want.” Long term studies conducted by the Public Relations Student Society of America also underscore a growing sentiment, that social networking sites are here to stay and are changing the way we communicate during the workday.

Whether or not this trend reaches higher education, it is certainly prevalent in business, and is an increasingly important tool in media relations, business communications and smart business practices.

-Mike Scigliano

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