BECAUSE IT'S TIME, I'LL LEARN ONLINE

With great anticipation I will be attending a social media for business course next week. I will be a rookie.

OK, I Tweet and Facebook, I’ve got my Google Alerts, I blog and I have used social media for clients and their PR, and so on. And I have attended various seminars that have been hugely interesting but, equally, baffling. Not, I must add, because the speakers weren’t good, far from it.

But, clearly, I am nowhere near an expert and that makes learning more essential. After all, I struggle to put links into my blog text properly (hopefully this effort will prove me wrong.)

On the web, there is wall-to-wall expertise, mostly free, too. Some of the information is riveting, some too geeky for me, but it all goes to show that social media/digital media, call it what you will, isn’t going away in a hurry.

The thing I really like about Twitter, for example, is the willingness of clued-up people to share their tips or, the pitfalls, the etiquette and the dos and don’ts. I am way behind when it comes to guidance and reference points.

Already, I have been grateful to the likes of Craig McGill at www.contently-managed.com and Michelle Rodger at www.brazenuk.com for many snippets of invaluable instruction and help selflessly supplied. Indeed, all of those I follow on Twitter amaze me with the links they readily and gleefully put up.

Some day, I hope to be equally informative and helpful to anyone logging on to my blog or following me on Twitter or elsewhere. At the moment, however, through lack of knowledge, I wouldn’t feel confident to advise anyone too closely.

So, in the interests of making a start, I am pleased to reveal that next week’s course is organised by Glasgow Opportunities GO Group http://www.go.uk.com whose personnel were hugely efficient in arranging for a 50 per cent fee reduction.

The day-long event is being led by Kyle MacRae http://blethermedia.com/ whose reputation is deservedly very high in this field.

I just hope I don’t end up wearing the dunce cap with a capital “D” at the end of it.

NEW AND TRADITIONAL: BOTH, PLEASE

IT’S intriguing looking at and digesting discussions about the future of the print media when new/social/digital media is flourishing and exciting.

From the age of about twelve, all I ever wanted to be was a newspaper reporter and that was my job continuously for almost 30 years, even though the loathsome crook, Robert Maxwell did make me swither for a while.

In the most recent past I’ve been running my own PR business and a fair bit of time involves dealing with newspaper and magazine journalists, plus the broadcast side of the business.

Never a day goes by when I don’t read a couple of newspapers, although nowadays, my first scan of the morning news is either on the radio, TV or online. That I read a newspaper maybe later in the morning doesn’t bother me: it’s a natural merging of new ways to get up-to-date news and the traditional. During the MPs’ expenses scandal, I have to say I devoured the story in the Daily Telegraph and got more from its coverage that any other news outlet. Of course, I greedily scoured online sources for updates and latest revelations as well.

I’m embracing social/digital media because I definitely recognise its merits, not least its speed and ability to reach huge audiences, which is a bonus for a PR practitioner. Getting my head round some of the possibilities has taken worthwhile time and effort, but it is hugely interesting, if daunting as well.

I like newspapers, magazines and books to read at the breakfast table, in a coffee shop, on a train or plane journey. In bed, too, but I usually only manage a couple of pages before I crash out – so a book lasts me ages.

For those reasons, I don’t think newspapers etc will become extinct, blown away by the social media whirlwind as there are plenty of readers who think like me.

So it was heartening to read today the view of Brian McNair, Professor of Journalism & Communication at the University of Strathclyde, particularly when he wrote about reading “in the kitchen at breakfast, in bed at night and in the bath, books are organic and unobtrusive. Much easier to use than the lightest laptop, and much less bother.”

And he continued: “I could go on about the pleasures of print, but I don’t want to pretend that I don’t love online technology too. With the Internet I can do things that print never allowed. It is, without doubt, the biggest leap in communication technology since the invention of print.”

You can read Brian’s full article on the allmediascotland.com website here http://www.allmediascotland.com/press_news/24880/the-allure-of-print-brian-mcnair-writes

I share his views and I admire many individuals, such as Craig McGill www.contently-managed.com who are storming into the social media world with great gusto allied to a fearsome determination to make sense and purpose out of it all.

I’m a mild-mannered guy and I reckon there’s a place for both the new media in all its forms and, hopefully, a re-vitalised traditional newspaper scene.