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Michael: Welcome to this session and we want to examine how other countries are using new media, how much are they using it overseas and is it changing how PR is practiced or is it a “cool new way” to communicate in the same, old way? Does it change how we communicate messages? We have a panel of four experts to help guide us answer these questions.

Neville: Started blogging back in 2002, early adopter of blogging, write about business/technology issues and the collision of those topics. Also participates in Podcasts with his blog partner. There are a lot of parallels in social media between the UK and US but the UK is actually behind in adoption of the technology. Big topics covered today on social media include measurement and pitching. We’re seeing so much disruptive change that’s happening in the social media community and experimenting with how to interact with this medium. Financial Times is a good example of a mainstream media source who is immersed with the social media evolution and reaches out to bloggers to get their feedback on its connection to them. UK is embracing on thing around social media not seen in the US, moving from being newspapers that are solely based online and no longer available in print. More online-only content available overseas. For example, the Financial Times has invested a lot of money in virtual newsrooms, which are low-cost, to equip reporters to shoot live video. What we’re not seeing enough of is that shift to the evolution of communication in our society. Mobile phone communication and exchanging of messages is big in Europe, especially in the younger consumers through SMS and text messages. A lot of innovation in the public sector in the UK in media and it is a great time to be a communicator. There is an educational need for the older audience in public relations because of the way we now share messages and information, the older generation helps the younger generation how the corporations work and communicate and the younger generation helps with the new way their generation share ideas and news.

Michael Maier: Young people are missing the understanding of media. Everyone has a voice but not everyone is a member of the media because they are online, etc.. People need to find how to immerse and communicate their messages in a new way in this new wave of PR. The internet has a strong origin in environmentalism in Europe. My company Blog Farm works with companies and media on the internet and the new ways of communication. We are seeing the death of PR in a way because everyone and anyone can be a publisher themselves and that PR has changed so much since it was founded. All the corporations can do their media work themselves now and that’s also the place where journalism has changed, to be media is not something to just say, you have to really know something. European outlets have internet and more interactive content than the US. What is missing in this debate is: transparency, we need to learn that and apply it. Previously, journalists protect their sources , but now everything is open. Technology – something everyone can use, aggregation – how can you bring aggregated things into context? How do you tell the difference between aggregation and media? How do you still deliver content in the video culture of YouTube and TV productions? Interactivity – how do you interact with your reader? People are sharing news all the time, so how you do interact with them without telling them what to say but hope they will communicate correctly to their friends? Gaming – How is gaming an expression of content and a new media language for young people? It’s the younger generation’s language so how do we reach them? Tubethevote.com will be the first-ever 3-D online magazine with aggregated content available for free reading, melding the media and YouTube on the 2008 Presidential Campaign. (Note: the Web site is not available for public viewing yet.)

Wolfgang: The most successful sentence from a European CEO said, “there is no Europe.” Blogs are popular in France, every other student has one, Wikipedia is popular in Germany while blogs are not as readily available. Poland’s local Facebook club is the most popular online resource in that country because it is only understandable to its native people. Russia bought Live Journal and now all high-quality blogs are housed in that country through Live Journal. Facebook doesn’t have a strong German presence. Linked In is not a big deal in Germany either. There is a local competitor to Linked In in Germany but people are not actively moving there, same with China. Australian online community that now prints a local newspaper with its content and hired an outside staff of reporters to help develop this. Print papers are not dead in Europe. Hyper-local, hyper-focused publications are growing too, for example, a print-only German newspaper in London for German-speaking citizens and it’s very popular too. Journalists do not read a lot of blogs in Europe, 90 percent of reporters looking at blogs is not the case in Europe. Students are not engaging in social media as well. There is a huge space in the online world for companies to move in to because media doesn’t get social media so companies can establish their own media presence in this space.

Marshall: From an international perspective, there is a tension between language and geography, people think about their businesses in markets, focusing on only one place, which is hard in a connected world. The reason people connect with one another is a shared language and interest. Companies have a hard time focusing on that because people will continue to share no matter what. Social media defined broadly is equal in terms of uptake across Europe but the different kinds of technology that was picked up is different. Facebook is big in Europe while blogging is not. People are always connected through some medium. This is not a technology story, it’s a change in cultural norm. We as Americans need to take our blinders off and realize that the impacts on our brands and communications are as much shaped by what’s going on overseas as what is happening here.

Rick Murray: Response to comment about PR being “dead,” any company that isn’t re-examining their business model through the prism in techonology and those changes will be probably out of business because they have to adapt to it. We will look different in 3 years from now, new roles, titles and skills for everyone.

Neville: Agrees with Rick, journalism is dead. If everyone is a communicator, what is their role. We’ve got to add something of value to our clients that’s strategic and beyond press releases.

Marshall: No body naturally instinctively would ever write a press release, you have to be taught to do that, rehumanizing communications, no one should ever write like a press release again in the current dynamic, stop teaching people to write like that, the first thing I have to do to people on our team is “unteach” them the press release language and teach them to write like they talk. Have to communicate like human beings. We don’t understand the sociological/anthropological approach to social media outlets like Facebook.

Neville: There are niche communities in the UK and they have the ability to connect to a specific, targeted group and people are looking for that information. People are trying to figure out how to filter in all the information they are being given and no one has the answer of the best way to do it.

Marshall: I think about the professional journalist market in a different way. I look at Gannett and look at a hopeless decline of quality. As a mass consumer of information, I don’t read those papers because they are a waste of time. I’ve asked journalists about shortening the paper but making that reporting high quality and many feel it is already there and it’s not. We’re in an informational marketplace and journalists should offer the best information.

Question: How do countries share information because they write in different languages?

Wolfgang: People are able to talk share information overseas because there is an elite group that takes information written in the main language and translates it for overseas audiences (in Europe or the US). People don’t engage in conversations if you just communicate in English because it’s no longer just that one universal language.