Picks of the Week: Dec. 18-24, 2010

Our Christmas gift to you, our blog readers, is a collection of the week's articles. Today, we take a look at: more updates from LinkedIn, tips for email marketers, PR predictions for 2011, and the popularity of email among Generation Y.

Enjoy the articles, and Happy Holidays!

Social Media

Professional Social Network LinkedIn Takes Groups Public

In this article, TechCrunch’s Leena Rao details LinkedIn’s latest advancement: public groups. This feature enables group administrators to make discussions searchable on the web and on LinkedIn. As a result, users no longer need to be a member of a particular group to join in the conversations taking place within it. This makes it significantly easier for professionals to find and participate in conversations related to their interests, and for discussions to spread online.

This is the latest in recent advancements from LinkedIn, joining better administrative and tracking capabilities for company pages, enhanced sharing features, and updated LinkedIn Polls.

Content Marketing

290 Email Spam Trigger Words to Avoid 

Is email marketing in your plans for 2011? Check out this list of potential spam triggers, compiled by Mirna Bard, to make sure your messages reach the inboxes of your recipients.

PR Trends

11 Public Relations Trends for 2011

In this article, Keith Trivitt shares 2011 PR industry predictions that were submitted by PRSA section members across the country. A few standouts:

• There will be a growing demand for proper PR measurement and accountability.
• To succeed, agencies must take a nimble, strategic and multi-faceted approach to campaigns and client engagements.
• PR pros need to become content producers, and think beyond traditional media relations pieces to develop content such as website copy, white papers, case studies, articles, and more.
• Professionals need to refocus on industry core competencies of relationship building and management.

Communication

E-mail Use Falls as Young Text and Chat

Driven by Facebook’s recent Message updates, Matt Richtel examines the popularity of email among millenials (A.K.A. Generation Y). He finds shares that overall, this generation deems email to be “a boringly long process of signing into an account, typing out a subject line and then sending a message that might not be received or answered for hours.” Thus, they tend to prefer the more immediate forms of digital communication, such as text messaging and online chats.

In addition, experts weigh in on what “social intensity” and casual, often abbreviated conversations mean to communication in general.

In my opinion, there are two key takeaways here for PR and marketing pros:

1. If you’re using email to reach Gen Y audiences, it’s time to think of a new delivery method. As time goes on, this may apply to broader audiences.
2. We’re in a field that’s driven by communication and writing skills. It seems as though up-and-coming pros may fall behind previous generations in these core competencies. 

What were your favorite articles of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

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