At the beginning of this month I wrote about the EuroBlog Social Media Award I have received for my use of social media for research and more. The University of the West of Scotland (where I pursue my PhD) picked up the news and shared it with the Scottish press. As a result of their efforts, sick two short articles were published.

See them below:

At the end of October 2011 I had the honor to give the keynote speech the thematic session of the DICID 9th Doha Conference of Interfaith Dialogue. Asked by the organizers, decease look I also developed and hosted a series of workshops on social media for beginners.

Soon after the conference was over I have received the letter of appreciation enclosed here. I am humbled.

I just got the news that an article I wrote together with Kevin Moloney for the International Journal of Public Relations (Revista Internacional de Relaciones Publicas) featuring a comparative study on the uses of social media by Occupy protest groups in the UK was published. It can be downloaded from here.

Abstract

This paper explores the persuasive communications (public relations and branding through social media) of a micro Occupy event, seek
namely a nine-day appearance of the global protest movement at Bournemouth University (BU), on the south coast of the UK. It reflects on how student and town protesters used digital and social media in comparison to the wider and more successful UK movement. It interviews the student leader, and asks questions about the role social networks like Occupii.org played in formulating communication strategies as well as how they integrated with more popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The conclusions coming from our micro case study suggest that without a supportive geographic and civic location; clear and focused messages, and robust strategic communication planning and execution, Occupy events will remain very small.

During the past days I had the honor to offer the keynote address opening the thematic part of the 9th Doha Conference of Interfaith Dialogue organized by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) and sponsored by the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has been an event that I have been waiting to happen for a long time partly because it consisted of my first keynote address, and partly because of the interesting and complex theme of interfaith dialogue and social media and partly because my participation in this even is a direct result of my EUPRERA award obtained this year.

Although I have attempted to livestream and record the speech, technology has failed me this time. The livestreaming was transmitted and recorded with no sound and as of now I have only the video tape of the official film from the conference.

However, leaving the technology challenges aside, I am happy that my talk resonated with the audience and managed to intuitively address many of the points that the speakers that followed addressed in their presentations.  I have attempted to make 3 points:

1. that technolgy, and social media included, are not inherently good or bad
2. that online and on social media representatives of opposing movements coexist
3. that success (as in communication and engagement) relies on strategy, vision, transparency, authenticity but mostly on having clear goals, plenty of practice and accepting a relativist view of communication and truth.

This is a series of tutorials for social media beginners that I have recently created. While they do show how to set up an account, syringe
the tutorials do bring attention to privacy policies. Feel free to share! For a list of other tutorials around the web, check here. 

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