It ain't flashy, social media is way more complex than you think and bloggers are not the same as journalists...

If you're studying PR you may be interested in this - what a PR person thinks they should have studied at uni. I'm glad to say we cover almost all of what they suggest!!

http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/48061.aspx#

Mastercard masterclass in how not to handle journalists?

Great example in the media this week of PR gone too far and the backlash that social media can precipitate when journalists feel too 'handled' by overly demanding PR agencies.

House PR, in their enthusiasm to get the press engaged about Mastercard's sponsorship of the BRIT Awards, sent an email to journalists offering tickets in return for a few small favours…sparking a big backlash on Twitter, which has reached even the Today programme Radio 4 (listen from about 2hr50min for 4 min) (thanks to Tom's dad for spotting this).

Here's more of that email - how would you feel if you were a journalist??

as part of our Priceless Surprise we are putting on cars to take guests directly to the awards – we will be booking your car to take both yourself and Katy from the office at 4:30pm. Are you happy with these details?

In addition – in return for this ticket we would like to ask that you agree to the following…

Social media support from both publication and personal Twitter feed

Pre event – e.g. Really excited to be heading down to @BRITAwards tonight with @MasterCardUK #PricelessSurprises

Event night – live tweeting from the event including @MasterCardUK handle and #PricelessSurprises and to retweet @MasterCardUK tweets throughout the night where appropriate

Post event – tweet directing followers to @MasterCardUK BRITs YouTube videos

Pre-event coverage of MasterCard’s Priceless Surprise video edits with either Laura Mvula, Kylie Minogue and/or Pharrell Williams – to include full credit for MasterCardUK and #PriclessSurprises

All features to be pushed on publications social feeds – to include @MasterCardUK and #PricelessSurprises

MasterCard inclusion in post event write-up (print and online) including #PriclessSurprises hashtag and somethingforthefans.co.uk URL

Post event write up presence on publication homepage (where possible)

Inclusion of MasterCard branded event night images in post event piece

Post event - coverage support for MasterCard music activity in 2014 (Beyonce & JT)"