President's personal blog

Every day an increasing number of politicians create and maintain blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media are excellent communication tools for recasting yourself, by pass the media and get out your own unvarnished and unedited message immediately and with the minimum cost.

Moreover, this direct way of communication is perceived by the public as very real, and intimate while it enriches the conversation and provides a forum for an exchange of ideas that, for a public official, is very important.

President Medvedev is one of the public officials that extensively uses social media in an effort to reach his people and create a techn-savvy but at the same time fatherly profile (sports.themoscowtimes.com) .

Since 2008, Medvedev organised four online conferences where his 83 public offices were giving people a chance to set a complaint. Moreover, in the begging of 2009, an official blog for the Russian President had been launched on Twitter, under the name KremilinRussiaE in which reports, announcements and press releases were posted while last month was announced the launch of his second Twitter blog. MedvedvRussia will be a private blog where the President will personally write all its posts.
As Medvedev stated, speaking to the public through his blog is organic in order for hims to maintain direct contact with the public.

Facebook Safety Center

As new communication channels are introduced, new areas for consideration are generated too . One of these is the cyber bullying! A recent research shows that cyber bullying is very common practice and it can have a much more negative impact on the victims than physical beating or name calling. Unlike traditional bullying which involves a face to face confrontation, online bullying is most of the times anonymous and therefore victims experience feelings of isolation and dehumanization.

Facebook recently launched a campaign under the name Facebook Safety, with the aim to provide users of social networking, with information to help keep them safe while using Facebook or surfing on the Interent.

David Beckham has partnered with Facebook for the purposes of the campaign encouraging his fans to “like” the page for Facebook Saftey.

David Beckham's contribution is important; His profile as young, trendy but at the same time parent with concerns about his family safety, is an ideal choice for reaching the campaign's target group.

...Twitter's hope

Twitter has developed a corporate responsibility program named HOPE140 in an effort to be “ a force for good”. Among others HOPE 140 aims to help people of Haiti. Months just after the devastating earthquake, Haiti now faces another crisis: the outbreak of cholera.

Social media are excellent tools that can contribute much during crisis periods such this. The immediate, direct and open exchange of information, proves to be of great value, as it provides vital information to people in danger and updates to the rest members of the worldcommunity.

In the Haiti case, with the support from Voila, one of Haiti’s leading wireless communication providers, local citizens were encouraged to follow @kwawouj’s cholera updates via SMS, even if they didn’t have a Twitter account of their own. Since the launch of this service, thousands of people received important Tweets related to the cholera crisis, which in many cases were vital for their survival! The procedure followed, in order victims to be connected with resources can be seen here!

Twitter for SM

One of the key advantages of Twitter, is real time communication. Individuals, businesses and social causes, use Twitter for SMS to connect directly to anyone with a mobile phone. With the recent launch of Fast Follow service, anyone in the US can now receive Tweets on his/her mobile even if he/she hasn't signed up for Twitter (blog.twitter.com) .

Although Twitter for SMS is offered in 56 countries, unfortunately at the moment, the service is not available in Greece. People can receive Tweets only when they are connected via their computers and this is a main reason that Twitter is not widely used for business purposes in the country.

We hope that this status will change soon, as Twitter for SMS is a valuable tool for contacting your clients but also for receiving info about what your competitors do!