Now that Chris Avenir's academic fate has now been decided, his 15 minutes of fame is close to over. He's the first-year Ryerson engineering student that ran the risk of expulsion after creating a Facebook group for a chemistry assignment, that was supposed to be done individually. He wasn't expelled, which is a win, but received a mark of zero on the assignment and had his passing grade restored.
In a nutshell, "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you." It has only been around for four years and was first limited to connecting Harvard University students. Then they expanded to university students, high school students, and finally to any one over the age of 13.
If anything it might have given Ryerson some bad publicity and PR; why would you condemn a student for something he would have done anyway? What's the difference between having a group discussion on an online space or in person? My once professor, James Norrie has made numerous statements since the beginning. I heard him this morning on 680 News, saying that Ryerson doesn't discourage the use of technology, but rather have it used in the right manner.
The difference is now we can track it.
Events such as Chris Avenir's case isn't uncommon in today's social media world. We constantly hear social media tools being called to the forefront due to alleged 'misuse' - anything from the personal journal of a mass murderer, to racially charged social groups on the internet - the tool can vary, but social media is here to stay, and this can affect PR in two ways:
One
Facebook's PR (and other social media sites) must learn to deal with the publicity of its high profile effect on social media - from monitoring how users use the tool, to dealing and reacting to controversies regarding member usage.
Facebook itself is having PR issues: not banning pro-anorexia groups, but forcing a mother to pull pictures of her breast-feeding her child off the site. Sites like Facebook will need to learn how to balance the ability to network anyone and everyone by being smart about its terms of use and excluding the right people. Monitoring on a case by case basis will be essential, where as general, wide sweeping restrictions will negatively affect its popularity amongst users.
Two
As PR people, we have to understand the beast that social media is and what it means. As we've learned, we couldn't control the media then and we definitely can't control social media now. A case like Avenir's re-enforces Facebook's popularity and its continual growth. Another social media tool that the PR person has to handle.
We need to incorporate social media in our communication plans. We need to recognize the power of social media sites such as Facebook and learn to adapt to situations where our client or industry maybe "called out."
The goal here is not to develop a game plan to deal with when we need to react to a PR crisis related specifically to Facebook, or MySpace - but to be able to recognize social media and its long term effects on PR, regardless if Facebook eventually bites the dust as the "Friendster" of 2008. The tools may come and go and users will be quick to jump on the next big social media craze, whatever that may be.
The point is that the vision of social media and it's ability to network the entire world is here to stay.
What's your FTYG?
Here's a quick evolution of social network utilities, all of which I'm a part of. This is not an exclusive list and doesn't include any professional networking tools.
If anything it might have given Ryerson some bad publicity and PR; why would you condemn a student for something he would have done anyway? What's the difference between having a group discussion on an online space or in person? My once professor, James Norrie has made numerous statements since the beginning. I heard him this morning on 680 News, saying that Ryerson doesn't discourage the use of technology, but rather have it used in the right manner.
The difference is now we can track it.
One
Facebook's PR (and other social media sites) must learn to deal with the publicity of its high profile effect on social media - from monitoring how users use the tool, to dealing and reacting to controversies regarding member usage.
Facebook itself is having PR issues: not banning pro-anorexia groups, but forcing a mother to pull pictures of her breast-feeding her child off the site. Sites like Facebook will need to learn how to balance the ability to network anyone and everyone by being smart about its terms of use and excluding the right people. Monitoring on a case by case basis will be essential, where as general, wide sweeping restrictions will negatively affect its popularity amongst users.
Two
As PR people, we have to understand the beast that social media is and what it means. As we've learned, we couldn't control the media then and we definitely can't control social media now. A case like Avenir's re-enforces Facebook's popularity and its continual growth. Another social media tool that the PR person has to handle.
We need to incorporate social media in our communication plans. We need to recognize the power of social media sites such as Facebook and learn to adapt to situations where our client or industry maybe "called out."
The goal here is not to develop a game plan to deal with when we need to react to a PR crisis related specifically to Facebook, or MySpace - but to be able to recognize social media and its long term effects on PR, regardless if Facebook eventually bites the dust as the "Friendster" of 2008. The tools may come and go and users will be quick to jump on the next big social media craze, whatever that may be.
The point is that the vision of social media and it's ability to network the entire world is here to stay.
What's your FTYG?
Here's a quick evolution of social network utilities, all of which I'm a part of. This is not an exclusive list and doesn't include any professional networking tools.
- Asianavenue – where all Asians united. It was my first taste of simple html code, which then led to my extreme annoyance of thousands of "Angel.Music.Baby" names.
- Friendster – expanded my network because not only did I get to connect with my Asian friends but all of my other friends as well.
- Hi5 – which is more popular with Central Americans.
- MySpace – which everyone thought would be the "kicker-sticker." The one and only online friends networking website that would be here to stay. Was I ever wrong.
- Facebook flooded the online networking-sphere with a ferocity to behold no others before it.
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