I am so glad someone finally wrote a blog post about 4square. I have seen it on Facebook and Twitter in statuses and posts but had no  clue what it was! I assumed it was  new way for people to announce where they are and what they are doing. I’m not going to lie when I first saw that popping up on my mini-feed I thought “how creepy” It seemed like it was opening the door for people to stalk you.

 Today I read a blog post by the Comms corner that explained everything abut 4square and made it make sense. They also gave tips on how to use 4square to benefit social media and your business.   4square is a new type of  social media that allows you to”check-in” to various locations and leave tips and comments about where you go.

4square can be used to develop brand power. According to the post I read this is why:

• The brand / venue ‘owner’ can  feature a special offer in the tips section. “If you are in the store today and spot this tip, ask our staff about the exclusive 2-4-1 deal we have on product X” This essentially causes people who use 4square to basically advertise the venue at no cost to the owner.
•  Brands can encourage patrons to provide feedback on staff via the tips section. Customers can provide feedback in the tips section about a favorite food or waiter. The waiter can get a bonus and the food can be made a special item. The customer is able to improve the places they visit.
• The fear for some brands is that this feedback could be negative, having a detrimental impact on the brand and the staff in questions, but on the plus side, negativity can be dealt with immediately as opposed to not being flagged up whatsoever.  I like this sugggestion. Most business owners aren’t able to get honest feedback from customers without employees intercepting. With 4square any problem can be made aware to the owner and  handled almost instantly.
• Capitilization by nearby locations. You can check in at Barberitos and instantly get a notification from Ogeechee River Coffee Company. A company you may have never known existed before 4square let you know they were there.  

4Square sounds like they have the potential to become a “word of mouth” form of advertising for businesses. I was hesitant to embrace this form of technology but after reading this article I think it could be beneficial to business owners and people that travel and like to explore various places where they live. I am going to have to try this 4square; especially if i own a business one day.  

The only thing I am left wondering is if it is more fun in larger cities where there are more places to visit.

First things first, I really like the layout of your blog! It is so well put together! It looks like you have a lot of experience with designing and writing blogs. I like all of the “I wonders.” I wonder random things so much and hadn’t thought about making it a blog post. I have wondered some of the same things you mention in this post. I can’t believe you have so many siblings! I can’t imagine what that is like! I wonder about dreams, too.  I had never thought about Obama looking in the mirror and thinking that before, but that is definitely an interesting thought. I wonder if someone will ever ask him that question in an interview.

I really like how you actually bolded, italicized and did the strike through when you suggest that for tip number six.   I agree with you on number 10, too. E! news and shows like it are so much fun to watch and you really do see a lot of PR opportunities and examples.  I didn’t think about using it for PR connections, though. I really wish I would have thought about that earlier in the summer. Then my PR connections blog posts would have been a lot of fun and a lot more interesting to write about! Good advice and good post!

Good list! Somebody new to blogging could take this advice and really apply it! I know I was really apprehensive when I found out we had to blog for class! We all seem to have gotten the hang out it now! I like the suggestion to post frequently. There is no   point of even having a blog if you aren’t going to keep adding to it, so that is really good advice. Reading and applying the comments we get is also helpful. I know our blogs are for school related things but I can imagine if I had a blog about a topic I got to choose the comments would be beneficial.

I love that title, it is so creative! Chapter 14 was so long but it does have some good tips on materials that we will be writing when we are in the profesional world of public relations. I like the way you broke it up and used bullet points. Your blog post is really easy to read and informative. I know it’s difficult to outline chapters in our book while still making it look like a blog post. You did a really good job. It’s also really good to know to re-read emails before you send them. Most people just go ahead and send it without checking it first.

Your tips for a succedssful SMNR are really helpful. I did the same thing and created a blog post instead of attempting to make one. I think someone could read your blog post and make a successful SMNR.I looked at a few of the websites, too and thought it might be something fun to play around with. Which was a relief, after reading the assignment I thought oh no that is going to take forever to do.  You are right about a SMNR having the ability to be more creative. I’m interested to see how much more creative we get in the future as PR professionals. Great post!

This was such a long newslab! I liked it, though the storyboard part was interesting. I definitely had never thought about drawing a comic strip kind of story before writing an acutal story. It makes sense though, since we are telling a story. You are right about PR students/professionals learning how to do web editing. I think it’s a class that needs to be in the curriculum. I have a friend doing an internship now for PR and she said she is doing a lot of graphic design and she didn’t expect to have to do that at all. Good post!

You had a problem that a lot of people had that particular week on twitter. The “fail whale” was caused by way too many people trying to tweet and get tweets about the world cup. That just goes to show that twitter can be a powerful form of social media that we as PR students need to utilize. If that many people are on it so often that it causes the site to crash we need to be on it and get our information out there! That is, when the site is actually working. Lol. Have u tried it again? I’ve come to really like it. It’s like tailor-made news feed with only information you want to see. That’s a cool part to me.

Hey Evan! I chose to do a blog post about SMNRs like you did! I wasn’t sure if I could tackle actually making one yet! Your post looks so professional and I like that you imbedded a You Tube clip! I wish I had thought of that!  It’s crazy how PR really does have to keep up with technology and technology moved to the internet so PR professionals need to be able to use social media better than anyone out there. I have a feeling when we all get out into the PR professional world we will be seeing each others’ SMNRs on sites like PR Newswire!

I love the ostrich picture; it made me giggle! I really like the advice for blogging. I was so intimidated when I first learned we had to create and maintain our own blogs. I have been struggling to insert images into my blog because I can’t get them to go where I want. Everytime I insert a picture it’s in an awkward place so I just gave up! Thank you so much for this post! You make it sound so simple! Now I think I’m going to go back and add pictures t my previous posts before submitted my blog