Deirdre Breakenridge recently posted in her blog the article 'Are You a PR 2.0 Champion?' which created a space for me to reflect upon my own journey in learning about social media and its impact on communications and 'new' PR.

Essentially, she says that because of the way technology and social networking are transforming the art of communication and redefining relationships, the new PR practitioner needs to be a social media expert, a market analyst/expert and also a conversationalist and listener. These I agree and buy into, and you can read more about my thoughts on these issues on 'The Fall of Communication and the Rise of Dialogue in the Web 2.0 Era - Part 3.'

Deirdre also states that the new PR practitioner must also be a web marketer, customer service representative, a relationship marketer and a viral marketer. It is really a convergence of responsibilities brought about by the more intimate conversations with our customers (D2C) due to the blurring of lines between social networking, PR, marketing, all fueled by the push of technology.

How do you know if you are ready to champion for a change to the way we communicate?

Deirdre provides a checklist. Do you:

- actively listen and engage in social networks?
- try new technologies as they’re introduced (set up new  profiles and test various social networking communities)?
- have RSS feeds, and use social media tools including widgets, wikis, podcasts and streaming video?
- have a list of favorite bloggers and also comment on their blogs?
- share interesting blog posts and other news/information with members or your social networking communities?
- blog?
- ask questions so that you better understand social media and also answering questions to help your fellow peers?
- share valuable information to help people to make decisions?

So how did you fare?

For me, I must say that I’m able to put in an unequivocal ‘yes’ to most of the questions, Though I should qualify that the level and degree of involvement in each question are a different matter altogether.

I consider myself new to the social media scene and it’s been such a massive challenge trying to build an understanding from scratch. Oftentimes I feel like a fish out of the water, or one trying to swim upstream.

I’ve a traditional PR background back where I came from, and yes, that includes a heavy emphasis on media relations, speech writing, event management and those kinds of things. And I didn’t really start engaging with social networking until I came to the U.S. for studies because it was my colleagues who urged me to join their Facebook group to keep in touch.

While I didn’t baulk at the idea, it certainly took me a while to get warmed up to it. A few weeks into it, I remember a friend who wrote me on FB asking me what sort of a Facebook account is it without a face… how I’ve grown roots in it since then.

Today, I’m also maintaining a presence on Twitter (and learning how to be a productive tweeter without spamming others!!!), Flickr, LinkedIn, and many other platforms.

We must be prepared to learn and re-learn if we go down the new PR track. It must be a brand new mindset with an attitude towards openness and preparedness for dialogue and community participation.  

With the way the Web and social networking applications are growing today, nothing less will do!

I’m glad I stepped in to learn and get engaged already. I think I am a champion for productive and gradual change.

What about you?

I'm currently learning about Twitter - one of the many micro-blogging phenomenon that are slowing sweeping the Web. You might think it's a bit late, and it probably is. But what the heck right? Many of you may be like me. Eager to jump on the bandwagon to test out the stuff, but not knowing what or how far to go with it.

I suppose for currency's sake, Chris Pirillo's article yesterday about 10 tips on being a good Twitterer is a good starting point. 

Because I'm also coming at this from a 'business or professional application' perspective, I won't be covering all the 10 things he discussed, just five good ones. Some of the points are really trivial stuff you don't need to get bogged down with. As you'll see from point (3) below, it pays to forward only stuff of value...

And of course, like any good student, I've tried to paraphrase the tips too, not to mention rearrange some of the points for relevancy! 

Here goes:

(1) Be natural in what you write, but since it's the Web, be careful too. The stuff we post online has such a digital longevity that it may still be there long after we're gone. Like the cockroaches from Joe's Apartment, who were 'around' for a hundred million years and will be here long after you! For future presidential candidates, you don't want people digging up past dirt on you right? 

(2) Feel free to interact with others. When you mouse-over (or trackpad-over... whatever) a tweet entry, you'll see a curved arrow and/or a blurp that says 'reply to username'... use that feature to connect with the sender and let him/her know what you think of the post. The usual convention is to start with '@username' followed by your comments, for example:

"@Hot_Stuff I really liked the tips on Twitter provided. Some good stuff!"

But remember, you only have 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. And some URLs you copy may be exceedingly long, so take note.

(3) Better yet, Retweet the posts you like. Retweeting (or RT) is the third-party ink, or word-of-mouth (word-of-mouse?) endorsement that gives the source credit for the original post. But beware! Don't go around retweeting everything you see because it will diminish your own credibility. Nobody likes spam. Be selective and retweet only what's of value to others, and both your followers and the originator will appreciate you for it. How do you do it? Here's some suggestions:

(a) "Retweet: @Hot_Stuff Twitter tips http://hs_twitter - some really great tips!" or

(b) "RT: @Hot_Stuff Twitter tips http://hs_twitter - some really great tips!" 

Remember, you have 140 characters. So in a sense, option (b) may be useful since it saves on six character spaces. Pirillo says that by giving credit to others, you're sowing good seeds where others may return the credit when you publish something of worth yourself. For more on how to retweet, visit AJ Vaynerchuk's simple guide.

(4) 'Outsource' your ideas and questions and someone may just fill in your blanks. Pirillo calls this process 'crowdsourcing' and I kind of like the ring to the phrase. In fact, what led me to stumble on Pirillo's article was a CNN news clip I saw while working out at the gym this morning - one story about how doctors were using Twitter to make ongoing updates about a procedure being performed on a patient. It probably won't be too long before it is common practice for the scientific community to latch on Twitter to broadcast issues and source for comments and opinions, like a hyperinflated focus group.

(5) Follow others of interest. Pirillo says to look out for celebrities and government officials to follow. But I think the actual spirit of his point - from a business perspective - is to find people of common professional interests to follow and form your own community of practice. Make use of search.twitter.com to get going and find out what others are saying about you, your brand or your company.


ADDENDUM: For those of you who want to know more about Twitter, just take a look at this ABC news story "Tweet like a bird: Your guide." Even if you don't think you got anything out of it, it's still a great laugh!

[Author's Note: I've just started out exploring new media, especially on business applications. Please feel free to leave your comments, or even contact me via Facebook or email for discussions or clarifications.]