How social media won NHLPA lockout PR battle

The National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) has convinced fans that they are indeed the victims in the current National Hockey League (NHL) lockout. Social media has helped the players paint a picture of the big bad billionaires that want to take away their right to the money they literally play for.


The players are the strongest brand ambassador one could find for the NHL but as they are locked out, fans side with them over the league. Hockey players have turned to social media to paint a digital fairytale. They are the knights in shining armour and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is the evil witch.


Before the lockout was even announced, players were tweeting their dismay with how the owners were handling business. Paul Bissonnette of the Phoenix Coyotes seemed offended after Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold approved two $98 million dollar contracts to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

Few players have been more outspoken about the issue than New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.



Almost daily, Lundqvist finds a way to appeal to fans by talking about how much he misses hockey. He sounds like he wants to negotiate because he chose not to flee to Europe and play for his hometown Swedish Elite League.

The NHLPA has uploaded a series of videos from the players that address the fans. They detail their love and passion for hockey. James Reimer of the Toronto Maple Leafs even states, "We don't want a lockout, we want to play. We love to play." Each player that speaks is sure to point out that although they want to play, like any other business partnership they want to be treated fairly.


The NHLPA has continually had the players use specific lingo; what's right, what's fair, for the fans, we want to play. Most of those things are debatable but one has to admit that the NHLPA is smart. These are calculated sound bites to stick in each fans mind, to make them take their side and so far it has worked.

Thousands have stopped using it and you should too

The notorious “r” word is a word that pollutes the ears and vocabulary of people of all assorted ages. The “r” word being the slang term of retardation or retard has no longer been acceptable in federal health, education and labour policy. So why does the word still exist? The word 'retard' exists as a derogatory term to classify something as being any variation of dumb or stupid. Medically, the word was used to define an impaired person but now is being replaced by “individual with an intellectual disability”.

For a kid growing up in the 90’s, I often heard the word ‘retard’ from friends on the schoolyard in

elementary school. My mind subconsciously accepted the idea of the word existing only to remain as something to say when I reacted irrationally to something that upset me. Unfortunately I made the mistake of saying it before I knew the definition around my mother who was a developmental service worker. With that being said, we had a nice sit down where she put it into a perspective I could understand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1TbFUs7zZQ&feature=relmfu

Following that conversation I gained a better understanding of having respect for individuals with disabilities and refrained from using the word ever again.

Rosa’s family who helped introduce the bill to the senate 

That was back then, this is now. In the 21^st century, governments are able to crumble at the hands of a social net-worker and colored people are voted into presidency which is a pretty good statement that says how far the human race has come in terms of equality. In 2009, two college students decided to focus on the word after interning at the Special Olympics. They decided to run pledge drives which had an impressive turnout of 30 schools running pledges in different ways.  This later developed into the signing of “Rosa’s law” which was passed in 2010 by President Barack Obama to abolish the word being used in federal lexicon.

So where do you stand? Do you believe such actions should be taken to abolish one word? If you do, join the movement and PLEDGE to end that one word.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q

Does This App Make Me Look Fat?

          Have you ever been out shopping by yourself and couldn’t come to decision about whether or not an item was worth purchasing?  PickN’Tell, a new application, is revolutionizing the way we shop.  Now, even our loneliest of shopping excursions have the ability to be social experiences.  It is the first app of its kind to link both the virtual and physical retail experience by using an app alongside an in-store display.  The app was released in late July and already has an extensive list of retailers on board.

PickN’Tell has three main objectives:

1. Instant Feedback:  Immediate opinions from your virtual friends and followers
2. It's all about you:  Keep tabs on your favourite stores and must-haves
3. Collect Prizes and Points:  Get the scoop on sales, events and discounts

How it works:

• Retailers that have partnered with PickN'Tell have inserted a high-tech mirror into their stores 
• The mirror or tablet allows customers to photograph or video themselves.  Customers can then either upload the file to Facebook, Twitter, or just their PickN'Tell account.
• Followers view the video or photo which also has the clothing store location and barcode information
• Users can then scan product barcodes for more information and save barcodes for their wish-lists.

Here is a video to better understand how the application works:

Here are some of the benefits:

• Provides incentives for both customers and retailers
• Earn coupons, prizes and discounts 
• Get honest feedback instantly from friends and followers
• Connect with bloggers, designers and stylists
• Retailers have access to "get-to-know your customer" toolbox which measures trends as well as consumer behaviour analysis

Availability and Pricing:

• The App is free and is available for download on ITunes and the Google Play Store.

Do you think this app will reach a critical mass in terms of usage?

Power to the People!

             Welcome ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy where I’m going with this one. I feel that the internet has changed the world, for the better! More than any other time in history, we the people are able to right the wrongs and change people’s lives via the global online community. A great example and probably something you've heard about was the woman in the United States, a bus monitor. Karen Klein was accosted by several youths on a bus, this was all recorded on video by 8th grade kids.

           As sad as that scene was, there came something out of it, a random act of global kindness. This video made its rounds all over the world via social media, eventually ending up on the front page of the internet, also known as Reddit.com . From here a Toronto man, Max Sidorov, caught wind of this and decided he was going to send Karen on a vacation. What came to follow was one of the most positive and selfless acts by humanity. Not only was there a fund started for her, but it ended up exceeding $700’000 so that Karen could not only take some time off, but retire out right! Random people, not knowing this woman, came to set what was wrong - right.

            The power of the people is even more present in the example of how the internet created the Tesla Museum (now soon to be). There was an article that popped up on Reddit, posted by the creator of the wildly popular blog The Oatmeal. Matthew Inman, created a list of all Nikola Tesla's inventions and contributions to humanity. Most are oblivious to what he created, as there is no museum to honour his accomplishments. So, here's where it gets good, the land where Tesla's lab was, known as Wardenclyffe, had been put up for sale and set to be demo'd. Seeing this travesty, Mr.Inman then put together 1 blog post called 'Let's Build A Goddamn Tesla Museum', honestly check it out. The goal was to raise $850'000 to split the cost with the state of New York.

 Put it this way, there were enough anonymous donations to not only buy the land outright, but pay for the costs of the building, see here. The power of online community not only brings people together, but helps to sift out those truly in need. Never have we, as a society, been able to harvest this much social momentum as individuals. The medium of information has shifted, transparency and whuffie (subtle, I know) rule all. The more open we are with helping others, the stronger we become as a society. Peace, love and boom goes the dynamite!


-DP


Tweet #HumberPR

Is social media changing the way we watch TV?

Today, social media has become a key aspect in television shows. Social media has become an essential part of TV viewing and has changed the way that many people watch their favourite TV shows. Now you can have to opportunity to interact with your favourite characters, actors and other fans.

Shows now have Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter accounts, and provide fans with the opportunity to "live tweet" or “live blog” with the use of hashtags throughout the show to interact with their fans.

Hashtags

Hashtags are now seen at the bottom of television screens, with shows encouraging their viewers to interact online and voice their opinion. Tweets and comments from fans are often displayed on screens as well, and can be used in television shows. You can also track hashtags, which allows other viewers to hear what other people are saying about their favourite show.

Talking to your favourite characters and actors

Ever want to talk to your favourite character? Well, it’s now becoming more and more common for fans to talk to their favourite characters. Television shows like Degrassi, Glee and Community have created character Twitter accounts.

Fans now have the opportunity interact with their favourite characters and even have conversations with them! This also provides fans with a behind the scenes look at characters lives “outside” of the show another way to see interaction with characters.

Do you like to interact with others through social media when watching your favourite television shows?

Illegal downloading: good or bad?

As a struggling musician, one of your biggest fears is to have all your music taken away from you. Or even worse, not to get the credit you deserve for the hard work you put in. Illegally downloading music has been an ongoing issue for quite some time and many people are still on the fence. But is it all really so bad?

Those for downloading music argue:

• The cost; no fee to download music.

• Easy access; Music that you would otherwise have to go out in stores and purchase is now a click away.

Those against argue:

• Artists don't get the deserved credit/pay

• It's illegal.

Both have valid arguments, but can there be a positive outcome for musicians?

Drake's album "Take Care" for example, was due to be released on November 15. But somewhere between this past Saturday night and Sunday morning the album got leaked onto the Internet.

The album became a trending topic on Twitter, getting nearly everyone to place one-liners from his songs as their statuses.

Drake didn't seem too upset over the leak though. Instead he tweeted Sunday night “Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it... and take care until next time." This had people tweeting "buy the Take Care album”.

Although there’s an obvious loss in album sales, through concerts and merchandise, money is still made. Word of mouth creates so much hype around an artist’s music and gets people listening to it.

More people will get to the music if it’s free, building attention around the artist. So in the end, is downloading music really all that bad? You tell me.

CIA now using social media to monitor international affairs

As I was reading through the Toronto Star, I came across an interesting article that took social media to a whole new level for me. When I think of social media I think of users being that of businesses, organizations, and every day people - so I was intrigued to find out that the CIA is now using it as well.

CIA using Facebook and Twitter

In Virginia and other agencies throughout the USA the CIA is following tweets (up to 5 million per day). The CIA is also using its' Open Source Centre to go through Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms and anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

Due to these social medias, the CIA knew about the uprising in Egypt before it happened, and used Twitter to create a report for the White House on what the public opinion was when Osama Bin Laden was killed.




Why social media?

The CIA realized that social media could be important to them in 2009 when they noticed the Twitter-sphere rock the Iranian regime during the Green Revolution. They also realized that they could track online use in China, or find out the mood of online users in Pakistan.


The people behind the computer

When I learned that the CIA was using social media, I pictured a bunch of college students sitting behind computers mindlessly monitoring Twitter feeds looking for information. When I read more into the article I found out that the people behind the computers are analysts that usually have master's degrees in library science and multiple languages. They are able to take the feeds in any language, cross reference them with local newspapers, and than translate them to compile them into reports.

Where will social media take the government

The CIA has integrated their social media findings into the presidential daily briefings. With this information they are able to give the president an international snapshot of what is going on. They also use this information to give him feedback on the effects of his presidential addresses in different parts of the world. For example, in the presidents address about Mideast issues within 24 hours the CIA was able to find that there was an overall negative response from Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and the Persian Gulf.

The government can now also use social media as a key resource to to follow any fast-moving crisis. Generally speaking, the public have now become the journalists being able to upload pictures and tweet about situations that are taking place across the globe.

Do you think that social media will take over the jobs of journalists to report news? Do you believe that the CIA is opening the door for other government agencies to use social media to monitor national and international affairs?

#WantAnR8?

I recently fell in love with Twitter. I've always been in love with cars. So, when I went on my search for accounts to follow on Twitter, I naturally searched car companies that interested me. Mercedes, BMW, Mini, and Audi were among the accounts whose "follow" buttons got clicked.

One day when I looked at what was trending in Toronto, I noticed

a hashtag that read #WantAnR8. I was curious so, I clicked.

What is it?

#WantAnR8 is a campaign by Audi that asks followers to tweet @Audi why they would "WantAnR8" and they then choose some lucky winners! The winners don't win the V10 R8 forever, only for a weekend, but it's just long enough for them to fall in love with it and maybe go out and buy one for themselves.

Lucky Winners

It all started with Julie McCoy who tweeted Audi everyday about how much she wanted an R8. They eventually replied to her telling her that they would be dropping off an R8 to her house for the weekend. She is now the "poster-woman" for the #WantAnR8 campaign.

Another recent winner, Dan Gross, who works in advertising tweeted this to Audi.

It seems that being clever would win you a weekend with your dream car in the case of Mr. Gross. Julie McCoy took the approach of persistence and pure love of the car.

How to win?

Although I'm not positive how Audi chooses their winners, through some careful examination I have found some tips to help you:

• Attach a video to your tweet.
• Tweet often!
• Be clever and genuine!
• And make sure you have a license to drive the R8 in case you are chosen.

Where to find #WantAnR8?

#WantAnR8 is not only flooding the internet. The Petit Le Mans race in Atlanta, Georgia that covers 1000 miles (1600 kms) had signs for Audi with the hashtag on either side. People who tweeted at the race were eligible to win on that day. Audi's Facebook page is another place where you can connect with people with their eyes on the prize.

Audi PR

The #WantAnR8 campaign is reflecting excellently on Audi's PR! They have used social media to promote not only their R8, but the lifestyle to accompany it. Their "Good PR" move has created a huge community of car lovers within all means of social media.

Now really, who WOULDN'T #WantAnR8?