Social Media, and Why It’s Here to Stay

Over at my favorite PR blog, PR 2.0, run by my favorite blogger (so far) Brian Solis comes a great and informing article about the future of social media.

We have all been talking about social media. Twitter, digg, etc. Its not going away. Nor should it. As budding PR professionals, we need to adapt to the changing environment. Brian Solis does a fine job of putting it in perspective. Things are changing. Constantly. And more people are finally realizing it. In his blog he reported how blogging is finally being recognized and becoming mainstream, based off a report by Technorati.

This is a long blog that deserves a full read. The “conversation prism” will be recognizable to a lot of people and his attached post is informative as well.

Brian makes a point to say “Social media is about people and not the tools.” He also writes about how our generation is growing up in these networking savvy era. But I find that a lot of people in my various classes still find the foundations of social networking, aside from Myspace and Facebook, to be challenging. How have you adapted and come to understand new mediums like blogs and social networks?

-TALLfore

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Since our class has been focusing on the topic of effective presentations, there is one particular presentation that immediately stood out to me. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was told by his doctors that his time left to live was limited. Instead of dwelling on the terrible news, he created a now famous presentation, “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.“

While the presentation topic is not related to PR, it is worth watching and I suggest everyone take the time to do so. Pausch delivered a speech that was so effective, that it gained a large amount of media attention and is still being talked about today, a year after the presentation took place.

During his presentation, Pausch incorporates videos, photos, and props. He engages the audience by telling jokes and laughable childhood stories. He is active on stage, at one point he even does pushups. The slides that he used were simple yet still creative. His presentation is successful in telling a story, a story that also offers really great words of advice.

Pausch was faced with having to deliver an effective lecture during a very trying time in his life. In PR, if we are faced with a having to give a presentation on a topic that is not so audience friendly, or maybe we are representing a client that is going through some troubling times, how can we still create and deliver a presentation that doesn’t dwell on the negative? What are some ideas to make the dynamics of a presentation more engaging and interactive and how can we effectively deliver a positive outlook in our presentation during a crisis situation, just like Randy Pausch was able to do.