Edelman Digital Bootcamp coverage

After After much encouragement from my professor, I have decided to comment on the Edelman Digital Bootcamp Conference coverage. Edelman’s Bootcamp was hosted at the University of Georgia this last Sunday. The university chose to promote the conference by using Flickr, Twitter, and by creating both a Web site and blog.

I decided to start by checking out the Web site. My first reaction to the Web site was that it seemed a little too crowded. Visually, I had trouble deciding where I should be looking. There was no main focal point, which made the purpose of the Web site a little unclear. After some digging, I discovered that the Web site contained lots of helpful information and resources. In conclusion, I found the content of the Web site to be interesting and relevant, but the delivery was lacking.

I especially enjoyed Edelman’s use of Flickr and Twitter. The Flickr account acted as a great visual aid, and gave the whole concept a more personal feel. I liked having the ability to match faces with the names of the conference participants.

For attendees of the conference, I think the use of Twitter must have been especially helpful. I can imagine being away at a conference and wondering what my peers are up to. Twitter is an excellent way for large groups like this one to keep in touch with each other and comment on happenings of the day. The Twitter updates were also helpful for me, an outside viewer, because it gave me an idea of how the conference was going through many different perspectives. For me, it acted as a summary of the conference.

Overall, I believe the use of social media to cover the conference was a good idea. It was an interactive and fun way to gain insights about the content of the coverage and its participants. The only critique I have is that the Web site could be more concise and visually appealing.

The Antiauthorities

As I was reading the assigned chapters for this week in “Made to Stick,” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, I came across an interesting concept: the antiauthority. According to the authors, an “antiauthority” is an external source of credibility who is not a celebrity or expert. Chip and Dan suggest using antiauthorities to add credibility to our public relations practices. Credibility is an important component of persuading a skeptical audience to believe a new message.

One example of drawing credibility from antiauthorities that caught my attention while reading was the Doe Fund in New York City. The Doe Fund is an organization that takes homeless men and turns them into productive citizens through counseling, drug rehabilitation, and job training. What is interesting about this organization is the way they use men who have benefited from the Doe Fund program to help promote and gain funding for the organization. For instance, a few years ago, representatives from a grant organization were going to visit the offices of the Doe Fund. The Doe Fund decided to use an antiauthority, a previously homeless man named Dennis, to pick up the representatives and drive them to the offices. In the car ride, Dennis explained how the Doe Fund helped him become a successful citizen. Dennis acted as living proof of the effectiveness of the organization, persuading the grant organization representatives to provide funding.

I thought this was a smart tactic used by the Doe Fund. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and that’s exactly what the Doe Fund’s philosophy seems to be when it comes to promoting its own image.