In this week’s loosely edited PRobecast, Alison Raymond, Sarah Thomas and Renatta Siewert talk about social media, must haves for PR professionals, technology as a 3rd party and more.

MP3 File

Share on Facebook

The so-called “Cat Bin Lady” has been dethroned as the #1 Viral Video Villain after a recent video uploaded to YouTube of a girl throwing puppies into a river (which I have decided not to include) has sparked outrage in the social media world on websites such as Facebook, Reddit and 4chan. No sooner than the video was posted (and subsequently removed) 4chan and Reddit members began their quest to find out the identity of the girl and a Facebook group formed in the wake of the incident recruited over 3,000 members in one day.

I have personally seen the video which is quite nauseating, but I wonder if these actions truly reflect the power and potential of social media. Are we going to form blood-thirsty internet lynch mobs whenever a video of some idiot being cruel to an animal appears on the radar? Are we going to use such a powerful medium to simply get angry about these isolated incidents and point our fingers at these seemingly disturbed individuals?

The truth is, animal cruelty has been happening every day on a mass scale right under our noses for decades, and we have been looking the other way. How can we point the finger when most of our chicken and eggs come from battery farms, where the hens are force fed and stacked on top of each other in cramped cages, unable to move? How can we justify calling someone out for abandoning a cat in a dumpster when many, if not most of the clothes we wear are the result of (human) slave labor? Maybe if we saw some footage of a taskmaster beating a pregnant factory worker or a child assembling a pair of Nikes we might have a change of heart!

Most of the problem results from the fact that we are so disconnected from the products we purchase and consume because they come from “somewhere else,” out of sight and out of mind. Social media is the perfect tool to show where our products are coming from, and instead of getting angry at a mentally disturbed individual, we can get angry about a corporation’s lack of social responsibility (or praise a corporation for complying with fair trade practices). We’re much better off uploading videos that show the conditions of factories, battery farms, circuses, sweatshops, etc., and using social media in an attempt to change hearts and minds, and create positive and effective social change – only then will the true power of social media be released.

Share on Facebook

Technorati Tags: animal cruelty, battery farm, drowning, puppies, river, social change, Social Media, social responsibility, sweatshop

Earlier this week, one of our account teams did a webconference with a client sales organization, and this reminded me how important it is that a PR agency remain focused on the business development priorities of the companies it supports. When we created Topaz, one of our core principles was “PR with a business development mindset,” and this is a focus we maintain to this day (although now I’d describe it as “PR and social media relations with a business development mindset”). We’re not just working to arrange briefings, place articles and generate other types of coverage and visibility — but rather we’re focused on helping our clients with business objectives like generating leads, attracting investors and retaining customers. It’s essential that we understand what is important to our clients’ success and align our work with those priorities. That was the impetus for this week’s webconference — we wanted to understand their business goals and challenges and discuss ways we could better support them. In this case, the sales team also provided valuable insights into topics that are top-of-mind with customers and prospects — which in turn helps us develop more relevant, compelling content (fortunately for us, this client, Brazil-based outsourcer Stefanini IT Solutions, is in a market rich with topical issues…and their IT services story matches up nicely with these trends). We intend to build on this and participate on regular sales teleconferences — with this client and others. And I’m confident we’ll soon be able to point to more PR results that go beyond clips and impressions and speak to real business impact.

Share on Facebook