Relationship Building on Social Media Hot Trend in Ireland

Irish PR professionals have success in building relationships on social media.

Before leaving the States to conduct my study on how Irish public relational practitioners use social media to build relationships with key online audiences, I read a lot of research on PR and social media. Some studies found that PR professionals are successfully adopting social media tools to accomplish objectives, while others suggest that professionals are not taking full advantage of these platforms (i.e. using social media to disseminate organizational messages rather than facilitating dialogue).

While some may believe that Irish PR professionals fall in the latter category rather than former, my initial findings suggest something different: Irish PR practitioners ARE using social media to share company updates, but they ALSO use these tools to have conversations with key audiences.

Several key points that keep coming up in my interviews include:

• Social media is about networking.
• Research, research, and more research is needed to define the personality of a brand and to determine what the audience want to hear (this includes a lot of listening to the feedback of the audience).
• Social media is about developing community and relationships.
• Brands can keep fans coming back to social media sites through interactions.
• There is no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to developing a social media program. It depends on a variety of factors: the client, what the audience want, and brand culture.

Many of the things that Irish PR practitioners do with their social media programs is similar to developing a traditional PR program: research, planning, implementing, evaluating, applying feedback to program, and more evaluation (something to keep in mind MAIGC students when we get to our capstone classes this fall).

So, yes, Irish public relations professionals DO use social media to promote their clients and share brand messages, but they are more concerned with finding out what it takes to build those relationships. Sometimes it can be trial and error, and it may take a little tweaking to figure it out; but, the goal is to build a program that facilitates dialogue and community among the brand and members of its audience.

To read more about my research in Ireland, or to find out what the other students in the integrated global communication program at Kennesaw State University are doing, visit the MAIGC blog.

Dorm Life Ain’t No Good Life, But It’s My Life

My dorm room accommodations.

I had a privileged dorm room experience back in my undergraduate days at Columbus State University. I lived at the Rankin—a posh off-campus dorm/apartment building next to the Schwob School of Music. We had large, walk-in closets, full-sized kitchens and spacious bathrooms. I had to share my room with another student, but it was a small price to pay to live in an apartment that was nicer than the first one my husband and I resided in together.

Well, now I have moved back into a dorm room for my stay in Dublin…and it’s not much like my previous college campus living experience. I don’t have to share a room, and the one I have is nice enough, but I have a small closet, kitchenette and a tiny, shared bathroom with mold in the shower. Although it may not be much to look at, it is centrally located and within walking distance to all of my meetings.

Moldy dorm room shower, and crazy shower knobs (left controls pressure and right controls temperature).

However, I realized that some of the culture shock I have faced since arriving in Dublin might not be due to living in a different country, but to having a unique accommodation experience.

It has been quite a shock to the system to get used to dorm life again. First, the bathrooms are the hardest adjustment: I can’t bend over in the shower to pick up my shampoo; the water doesn’t drain properly, so I either have to run the water pressure at less than 50 percent, or wash quickly; and, it’s hard to feel clean after bathing in a shower with mold in the tile grout and on the ceiling.

Second, the kitchen is slightly different than what I’m familiar with at home—I have to flip various switches (similar to light switches) to turn on the appliances. That hasn’t been that hard to deal with though.

Must flip switch on wall to operate stove.

Third, there are always students coming back to the dorm at 2 a.m., no matter if it’s a Tuesday night or a Saturday night. And, when you’re already having trouble dealing with a new time zone, this can be problematic.

Finally, I’m living with limited WiFi access. I don’t have Internet connection in my room, and when I go on campus it’s never really strong. I never realized how dependent I was on Google until it was taken away from me. It makes me think of how lucky I am to live in a part of the world where access to the Internet is abundant; and, it makes me reflect on all of those debates we had in class on whether or not access to the Internet is a basic human right. Note to self: I will try not to take this advantage for granted again.

Left: Courtyard outside my window where I can hear late-returning students; Right: The closest place to get an Internet connection–the hallway.

Though, I think of my poor fellow cohort member, Tiffany, and her stories of waking up with roaches crawling on her toothbrush, and I realize how lucky I am to have a safe, roach-free dorm room.

But, it’s not just me who is lucky: All the students in the MAIGC program at Kennesaw State University are lucky to have this unique experience that will help prepare us for our international careers. This sentiment is reiterated by all of the professionals I have interviewed in Ireland who comment on how exceptional and impressive this experience is, and how much it will make us stand out to future employers.

But, don’t let me have all of the fun. Visit the Kennesaw State University website for information about this exciting and unique master’s program in integrated global communication.

Cultural Sensitivity in a Global World

In the M.A. in Integrated Global Communication (MAIGC) program at Kennesaw State University, we talk a lot about cultural sensitivity when communicating to a global audience. We’ve read case studies, discussed the various follies that have occurred when advertising campaigns ignore cultural factors, and debated about how we would go about performing various public relations tasks outside of the United States; all of which center around successfully communicating to a global audience.

I recently had the pleasure of learning about the real-world application of maintaining cultural sensitivity in a global world though my first interview here in Ireland. It was a wonderful experience that helped gear up my excitement about my research project on how Irish PR professionals use social media to build relationships with key online audiences.

Though I must protect the anonymity of the professional and the firm in which the conversation took place, I can share with you the insights on global communication that I learned from one of Ireland’s top digital media professionals.

• Communication efforts must be sensitive to the culture of the intended audience. This could include not using words that the audience may not understand or could misinterpret, or using words/phrases for promotional events that stir up negative emotions about a culture’s historical past.
• PR professionals should strive to localize content. For example, a metro-Atlanta public relations firm running a social media campaign for a Canada-based brand should not use Facebook as a platform to promote Music Midtown to its online audience. Instead, that PR firm should use information about a local music festival to spark conversation on social media.

In both of the above examples it is important for PR professionals to do all of the necessary research before launching a campaign.

The information I received in this interview provided a nice platform to bring what I learned in the classroom full-circle. It just goes to show that having knowledge about of how to function in an international market is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

To find out more about how Kennesaw State University’s MAIGC program can prepare you to be a global citizen/professional, visit the website.