Tweeting for PR Students

I must admit, for a long time I couldn't see the point of Twitter. 140 character limits and a lack of any kind of formatting sounded more of a hindrance than an innovation. But alas, I caved into the pressures of the masses and got myself a Twitter account.

A quick leaf through my personal Twitter account will reveal a fairly large omission of substance; however Tweeting is perhaps more constructive when not entirely confined to the mediocrity of everyday life.

Twitter was named when creator Jack Dorsey found the word in the dictionary. It was defined as follows:

Twitter: A short burst of inconsequential information.

This humble name was chosen for a concept where its biggest strength is its simplicity. 140 characters prevents Tweeters from overly complex Tweets, letting them only put down a brief description of what they mean to communicate at that exact moment. It is for this reason many new media commentators have described it a stream of consciousness.

So, a service like Twitter is nimble, immediate and accessible. These three qualities are precious commodities in Public Relations to communicate to an organisation's message to its audience, and as such, Twitter is very much a part of the new media revolution, and is of great value to PR practitioners.

Word spreads fast on Twitter. Since reputation is a big part of PR — preserving the positive, curbing the negative, being Twitter savvy is a major bonus. The recent outrage at Daily Mail journalist Jan Moir for her article on Stephen Gately which she used as an excuse to criticise same sex relationships and marriages exemplifies this. Complaints quickly tweeted, almost virally, prompting a record amount of complaints to the press complaints commission.

It is for the aforementioned reasons that Twitter is of great value is of great value to those involved in PR, but it is its accessibility that is something that sets it apart from many other media forms. Anyone can tweet. From an almost inconceivable amount of sources — text message, mobile clients, etc. For the PR student, it is an immediate soap box on which to stand and shout.

P.s. For those of you that have more that 140 characters, you may just fancy Woofer instead. ;)

The Marketing of Paranormal Activity

On the 16th of October, Paranormal Activity was put to general release and is one of the more talked about new film releases at the moment.

The plot is one which sounds perhaps a little too familiar — haunting/possession by demon, strange and terrifying occurrences, being filmed from the characters' perspectives in a gonzo Blair Witch/Cloverfield sort of manner, and so on and so forth.

It is not however the plot that is behind the hype, rather the marketing campaign behind it.

This campaign then must have taken some painstakingly deep thinking through — how else could a $15,000 budget film rake in $7.9m?

Well, not quite painstaking, but more through a tried and tested two wave publicity stunt.

The first wave of this was to create the initial suspense for the film's release by following the X-factor Power To The People paradigm. Using the wondrous power of Web 2.0, by going to the film's website, visitors are invited via a large yellow button to "Demand it!" to be shown in cinemas near them.

Cynics amongst us may say that this is just distributor Paramount's way of filling people with a false sense of authority over where the film is distributed — and of course, they are right. They fooled us gullible bastards once more! Damnitt.

The second wave of attack consists of a pseudo-competition to get a Paranormal Activity party to come to your cinema. To do this, we are invited to get as many people together to sell out the 12:01 showing of the film on the 23rd of October. The first ten cinemas to do so will receive a Paranormal Activity party.

Here then, in a double blow from Paramount's PR team, hype is built up through people demanding — with a big yellow button — to see this film, and coercing their nearest and dearest to join them; and then to snag the rest, to get said nearest and dearest to buy tickets for the 12:01 showing of the film in an attempt to sell out the film. Meanwhile the marketing team at Paramount get a nice bit of time to themselves for a cuppa and a biscuit while they watch the fruits of their labour roll in.

Simples.

Sources

http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/

http://www.stopnato.org/was-paranormal-activitys-trek-into-theaters-a-viral-phenomenon-or-just-a-ruse-washington-post

http://screenrant.com/paranormal-activity-theatrical-trailer-ross-30920/

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=15416

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34064/paranormal-activity-throwing-ten-parties-celebrate-its-success

http://movie-critics.ew.com/2009/10/07/paranormal-activity-marketing-campaign/

Module Intro

Hello!

A welcome and apology to one and all that have discovered this blog. My name's Andy, I'm studying Journalism and Media at DMU, and as part of the media half of my course, I'm studying public relations and need a blog to accompany and document my odds and ends.

Comments are more than welcomed since this blog is part of my assessment for the module. More soon.

Andy