What are Social Media Management Platforms?

Listen up public relations professionals! This blog contains information about social media management platforms, the latest social media trend that will streamline your communication and shave hours off your workday.

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New Twitter Promote Mode is in Public Beta

Now you can grow the reach of your personal brand or business with Twitter Promote Mode. The new advertising service launched into public beta last week. The goal of the service is to assist personal brands and small businesses in easily running automated ad campaigns on Twitter to grow a brands influence.  Continue reading

How Donald Trump Leveraged Social Media

The 2016 presidential election was anything but ordinary. This crazy election had polar opposite candidates, zealous supporters, and biased media networks. Social media was one of the most interesting facets of this election. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were extremely active across the big three platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Trump even went so far to say that social media played the key role in his victory.

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Goodbye Vine, a social network of the past

I remember when Vine first came out. I downloaded the app, followed my friends, and began scrolling through funny 6-second videos
almost everyday. Vine quickly gained popularity and the attention of one of the biggest players in the game: Twitter. Twitter saw Vine as the perfect compliment to their platform and purchased Vine in 2012. But now we have to say “Goodbye Vine”. Twitter just announced
they will be shutting down the app in a few months.  Continue reading

So what are Twitter Moments?

Twitter is stepping up their game. Today they introduced a new feature for all users: Twitter Moments. Twitter calls Moments “The Best of Twitter in an Instant.”

 

Twitter MomentsYou can check out Twitter’s very own moment here that explains the new tool. Essentially Moments allow users to curate their own collection to showcase a “moment” in time. This collection can include tweets, GIFs, Vines, images, and videos.

 

 

 

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The Open Loop: Are All-In-One Apps the Next Big Thing?

Imagine an all-in-one app that lets you post photos, live stream videos, message other users, purchase items and make other kinds of transactions. This idea of an open loop app is the next big thing, and it’s exactly what companies like Facebook and Snapchat are trying to achieve.

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Learn to Pitch on Twitter: A New Way to Reach Journalists

Forget picking up the phone, learn to pitch on Twitter

In the profession of PR, clients often expect to have their news covered in the media. But how do you pitch reporters that do not answer the phone or check their email? If done correctly, social media can be a powerful tool for story pitching. It may take a while to get used to, but many PR professionals have learned to pitch on Twitter. Even though this breaks all rules of traditional pitching, it can easily become a great resource. Continue reading

Presidential Candidates Use Social Media for Political Gain

Presidential candidates use social media to generate political momentum. Candidates from both parties in the 2016 election have turned to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for aid in the fight for the White House. Here is a look at how successfully the major presidential candidates use social media to spread their political views: Continue reading

The Sound of Music – Empowering Freedom of Expression through Social Media

Pandora and Spotify, two Internet Radio programs, have incorporated social media sharing capabilities to allow for their users to connect and engage on a global scale over the common interest of music.

Pandora and Spotify, two Internet Radio programs, have incorporated social media sharing capabilities to allow for their users to connect and engage on a global scale over the common interest of music.

Digital communication and social media platforms have transformed the way that individuals around the globe converse, share information, and learn more about themselves and one another. Whether it be through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Periscope, Tumblr, or Snapchat, communication mediums such as these have allowed for people of all ages, shapes and sizes to express themselves while engaging and sharing with others. Unlike these forums, which allow for a plethora of diverse opinions, expressions, dialogues, and interests to float freely, music platforms, such as Pandora Internet Radio and Spotify, focus solely on one passion that unites millions – music.

As unique as it is for the social media platforms mentioned above to act as unrestricted forums for really anything to be displayed, discussed, or analyzed, music programs such as Pandora bring people together over one common platform that spawns a plethora of variety. It brings people together over a shared passion for music, specifically personal musical taste, while also allowing for that passion to be shared with other like-minded users, both known and unknown. This social media and sharing component of music programs, particularly featured with Spotify and Pandora, is what has given them the competitive advantage needed in order to collaborate with rather than be outshone by their social media competitors.

To give a bit of background, Pandora, started in 2000, is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform with over 80 million active users. Spotify, launched in 2008, also allows its 60 million active users to play music directly from the cloud, and features more than 30 million tracks. One of the key differences between the two is their source of revenue-  while Spotify has about 20% of their 60 million users pay for the service, Pandora only has 3.5 million paying customers. This suggests that the benefits of Spotify’s Premium memberships outweigh the cost compared to Pandora’s offerings. The two programs have both joined forces with Facebook, allowing for users to share their playlists and music activity with their Facebook friends. Spotify also features a “Music Chat” component, which provides users with a free space to chat about anything music related. Much like how Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram allow for individuals to express themselves through design, images and graphics, Spotify and Pandora allow for the same creative expression but through the art of music. In the case of Spotify, it allows for users to use their own creative discretion in creating playlists comprised of whatever musical tracks, artists and genre that they want. When adding in the social media aspect, this provides an outlet for users’ creations to be shared to the world, giving them a way to represent themselves through a collaboration of sounds that they themselves have designed. In the case of Pandora, their use of the Music Genome Project, which is the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken, allows for users to be provided with the most personalized listening experience possible. By utilizing the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project, Pandora recognizes and responds to each individual’s tastes. “The result is a much more personalized radio experience – stations that play music you’ll love – and nothing else.” This too allows for users to represent themselves via personalized music playlists.

In a world where reputation is something that takes a lifetime to create and yet can be lost in a matter of seconds, it is important for individuals to have creative outlets to represent themselves in a more personal and less serious manner. There is no right or wrong when it comes to personal taste in music, and with programs such as Spotify and Pandora, creative expression through music is celebrated rather than critiqued. It allows for personal representation that can be shared and result in strong connections made with like-minded users on a global scale. Most importantly, it allows for people to choose how they want to portray themselves through their personal taste in music, empowering individuals to practice freedom of expression in a safe and unrestricted forum.

Twitter Campaigning: Social Media in the 2016 Presidential Election

Presidential campaigns spend millions of dollars each year on radio and television ads, but for the 2016 election this money is a waste. Presidential Candidates must look to social media for rankings, free advertisement, analyticVoter pin with the words"every tweet counts".s, fundraising, public feedback and opinion, engage with young voters, and immediate response to controversy.

More voters are receiving their news from social media and the 2016 presidential candidates are taking advantage of this medium. Social media is a tool for campaigns to reach out to Millennials and gain momentum in the polls and recognition in the news. Twitter has become imperative for candidates to use to gain the public eye and attention of potential voters.

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@God – Wait, What?! How Social Media & Communications is Expanding the SMU Catholic Community

 

Being raised in a conservative Catholic family, one of the most important values instilled was tradition. This value quite frequently comes into conflict with the not-so traditional ideals of the millennial generation. The only form of church “social media” was the old-school stock-paper weekly newsletter that was distributed to churchgoers as they exited Mass. Unfortunately, the few newsletters that were accepted were in turn used as a plate to pile on as many of the warm, highly coveted end-of-mass donuts that were served by volunteers immediately after every Sunday morning service. Absolutely an incentive to get out of bed at 8:45 on a Sunday.

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