Only last weekend (December 11, 2010) I started reading my book The Social Media 101 Michelle White . I know. I'm late but some professional constraints et personnelles m'y ont tenu à l'écart... Je ne voulais pas non plus en faire une lecture trop rapide et, le cas échéant, en rédiger un compte rendu expéditif.
Pourtant, je me l'étais procuré dès son lancement, le 27 septembre dernier. En fait, je m'en suis procuré deux exemplaires, un pour moi et un autre que j'ai fait tirer sur Twitter à l'intention de mes étudiants. C'est Frédérik Nissen qui l'a remporté, un des méchants garnements des interwebs . Je savais bien, même sans l'avoir lu, que ce livre marquerait une étape charnière dans la très short history of social media in Quebec.
Let me say straight away that I personally know Michelle White for quite some time but I appreciate his posts since my first readings in 2007-2008. This period corresponds roughly to when I started looking more seriously at the phenomenon of social media. Yet it was not until early 2009 that I started blogging and I immersed myself not only in research and reading but also in testing various channels and social media applications.
What has therefore past? How could I be so far behind? I who in 1991 was getting my first email address and learned some basic code from Unix System University Lynx to use and access to Internet without pictures?
But more importantly, how could I miss the wave of social media, I who created the course REP2400 Internet and public relations in 1999 ? Why do I always gave a course on Web 1.0 in the fall of 2008 and through the closed system WebCT? Why was I put in a position Very Late Adopt ? In doubt? By perplexity? Laziness? For the comfort of a course already installed and mastered (well almost)?
I had to face facts. I participated, at the micro and personal, two-year delay in Quebec (estimated here by Michelle White) for the adoption of new technologies and social media in particular. I hope that I'm caught in 12 to 16 months and my account is now overdue by months rather than years ...
This catching, I'm, well Naturally, my awareness of this new social ecosystem-digital shake all areas of human activity. But I'm also the influence of people like Matt Moore and of course, Michelle White, not to mention all the other bloggers and analysts experienced 2.0 Quebec, France and the United States.
When I think of my reading Social Media 101, I have only one regret: that of not having started earlier. Why? Because I discovered that I was unaware of the information and food for thought which had escaped me. An example to demonstrate this: I gave my last class session on crisis management during the week of December 6, 2010. I discuss, inter alia, the case of listeriosis in Maple Leaf 2008 and I show how video on YouTube of its president signaled a new era in communications in times of crisis.
However, I forgot the "detail" keyword and the purchase by a law firm specializing in class action, the words "Listeria" and "Maple Leaf" at the height of the crisis ... (See the chapter entitled The company, the Web and social media : fear of losing control of his message ). This is especially curious since I am sensitive to this strategic element of SEO (organic but it is true nonetheless). Besides, I am referring in my course on media relations and I almost wrote a post in the comments section Michelle's own ticket on the White optimized press releases. ..
Although this book is about two miles from the tickets written since 2005, it is certainly a best-of . That is to say, a compilation of notes most enlightened and enlightening on social media and their impact on human relations, business, marketing communications (including PR), politics and journalism.
On this last point, it seems that some have not quite digested the chapter on journalism and the media. Yet to read the article by Nathalie Collard published December 13, 2010 entitled The Foreign Correspondent 2.0, where the reporter quotes extensively from a Institute study Reuters Michelle White is on target by taking the recommendations Edward Roussel absent ... The only reference in this chapter, in my opinion, and not least for his historic contribution, is Dan Gillmor and his We the Media of 2004, which I think is as important as the evidence Manifesto and The Long Tail . But that, it is discussed ...
The Social Media 101 is not a "How to ... " but rather "Why be ... . Without denigrating the importance of how and means to do so, I believe that stage where we are, and in a purely educational perspective, the why remains more relevant than how . And in this respect, the book Michelle White admirably achieved the target.
Since the winter semester 2010, I require my students to create a personal blog. This activity accounts for 50% of the final grade, which meant the importance I give.
Will I surprise you if I say that only 10% and in the best case 15% of my students had a blog? Of my 30 students in Fall 2010, only four were writing tickets, and this, more or less regularly. For students in communications and public relations benefits to build a digital portfolio no longer be demonstrated. But there is still much work to do. Youth on the one hand, but also among older who's blog can reveal all the expertise and, in turn, ensure the company memory ...
this in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by what tweet from my colleague Guy Litalien about his recent reading of Social Media 101 :
I am also pleased to announce that the most persevering and motivated my students enjoy the blog, understand its relevance to their career and pursue the activity beyond the course. By cons, many students are also part of me fears that their employer as soon as the news spread. Many organizations see their blog a bad eye and it's very unfortunate.
Here, too, that Michelle Blanc done useful work in reminding us that the most risk for an organization, it is just to ignore social media.
Moreover, some critics have attacked a bit silly to form of structure rather than substantive . It seems to have forgotten that social media are first and foremost a matter of substantive . In this regard, this first book has done nothing wrong, quite the contrary.
His collection of notes took the form of a narrative. Michelle White tells stories and shares his best references in course betting on the potential of media social but also warned us against its pitfalls. It does so with clarity, authenticity, humor, openness and generosity. These are indeed some of the ingredients for successful communication of tomorrow.
I advise you to get yours as soon as possible, while still remain. This first edition will be worth one day's weight in gold, if only for its depth and historical value.
Make it as gift to your professional colleagues or any brother or sister in law who still doubt the importance and relevance of the media social at the dawn of 2011.
Thanks for reading!
Patrice Leroux
0 comments:
Post a Comment