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Wrong! It CAN be a chat — and a great one, at that — as I learned this week.

This past Monday night, I participated in my very first “Journchat“, and I had such a great experience that I thought I’d write about it for all of my readers.

For the uninitiated, @Journchat is a live chat on Twitter for journalists, public relations professionals and bloggers, run by Sarah Evans (@PRsarahevans). Designed for media industry professionals, the chat takes place from 7 – 10 pm on Monday nights, and is monitored and tracked through Cision, which then provides a neat transcript of the three-hour chat shortly afterward.

I’d never heard of “Twitterchats” before, but after my follower @MissVersatile invited me to participate, I was instantly curious (as I always am with new media), and was eager to jump in.

And jump in, I did…

I had no idea what to expect going in, but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and came out with some meaningful connections in the industry.

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@Journchat works primarily through crowd-sourcing questions from its participants, pulling questions from knowledgeable industry folks in the industry. Here’s how it works: All are encouraged to send in questions to Sarah, up to fifteen minutes before the chat begins. Individual questions are then posed to all of the chat’s participants through the @Journchat account, one at a time, to foster a focused, engaging discussion.

Some are serious and industry-related (ex: “Is it possible to work in the media but not use social media?“, via @NicWirtz), some are on the sillier side (ex: “What’s one unanswered historical or current day story you wish you had the answer to (e.g. who shot Kennedy?“)… But it’s all fun.

There are about ten minutes for each question, which sounds like a lot of time for one question, at first. In actuality, however, the chat seems to move at a blisteringly fast pace, with so many people participating. The result is a frenetic Q&A session that truly gets people engaged. It was a lot of fun.

I was even lucky enough to have supplied one of the eleven questions published (not too bad for my first time!), and so I had the opportunity to ask more than 255 participants their thoughts. I have to admit, I was surprised by both the quantity and quality of the responses that I received!

Here’s the question that I asked:

“What do future journalists need to know about smartphones and how to use them? (What about mobile in general?)” #journchat

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In a fraction of an hour (they spend roughly 10 minutes on each question), my question generated more than 25 quality responses, that I personally saw. My guess is that there were dozens more that I couldn’t refresh fast enough to see.

Here are just a few of the best: (and yes, I did get permission from each to repost their answers)

“G20 reporting by civilians provided a great balance and reality dose for what was going on in trad. media #journchat -8:53 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @TheLTexpress

“Mobile puts the world around you online. If you’re a journalist without a smartphone; you’re not a smartjournalist. #journchat -8:54 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @PeteVossPR

“Smart phones certainly have fed the fire that is citizen journalism. #journchat -8:54 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @BrianJBradley

“Always have your phone on you. Quick pic, vid, tweet, or post is better than nothing! You can always write more later… #journchat -8:54 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @ThomasJArmitage

“Respect your audience & environment though. I hate people texting while I’m talking to them or phones going off in church! #journchat -9:02 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @ThomasJArmitage

“I do most my blogging and reporting from my HTC Evo, I think it has more apps on it then my laptop #journchat -8:59 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @MissVersatile

“They need a smart phone. End of story. #journchat Preferably a BlackBerry! -8:49 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @RolfeNorman

“Smartphones are your immediate connection to world’s events, sources and resources. A must. #journchat -8:54 PM Aug 23rd, 2010″ ~ @AndyCheco

“There’s an app for everything. We have #Marist apps. Learn how to use them. You have immediacy at your fingertips. #journchat -7:51 PM Aug 23rd” ~ @TcMassie

Again, thanks to the above people, and all others who responded to my question. Make sure to follow these people on Twitter, especially if you work in the media industry!

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Obviously, it’d be foolish to expect lengthy, drawn-out answers. For those who wanted to go into a bit more detail than Twitter‘s 140 character-limit allows, they simply more tweeted more often! But long answers aren’t the true purpose of @Journchat, as far as I can tell; it’s instead designed to highlight interesting questions that spark mini-discussions amongst users, in effect, generating organic, genuine discussion, much like Twitter. It’s a springboard, of sorts. Perhaps it’s the fact that most of the participants share a similar passion for the media industry.

And remember, this is just a small cross-section of the total answers that my question drew. These are just the best of the 25 or so that I could read and copy fast enough before refreshing my screen. The chat moves very quickly, though Cision regularly records thousands of tweets, all organized across the “#journchat” hashtag, for the ten or so questions Sarah asks each week, so you can always get a copy of the transcript.

All in all…

Through this experience, I learned that twitterchats are an excellent opportunity to:

• Make valuable contacts in the media industry by demonstrating expertise and value
  
• Crowd-source answers on questions you may have, from a pool of experienced professionals
  
• Have some fun with like-minded career folk!

@Journchat takes place every Monday from 7-10pm, CST. Learn more about @Journchat at: http://journchat.info.

I encourage you all to try it for yourself, and see what you think. I’ll be back next week. Will you?

What have your experiences been with Twitter chats like Journchat? Useful? Useless? I’d like to hear your thoughts. Join the discussion and comment below.

(Note: I’ve included a lot of hyperlinks in this post to add some context. Make sure to read them.)

There's a turf war brewing in the social media scene, and the 'mobile throne' is up for grabs.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Foursquare, the explosively popular social gaming platform based on  check-ins and badges? But did you know that Twitter, Google, Gowalla, Facebook and countless others are all fighting for the same territory? It’s true. What do these contenders have in common?

They all offer some form of geo-location-based service, which have been gaining popularity for some time now in the social media world. At a glance, it appears that each of these titans wants a shot at wearing the ‘mobile crown’.

And what about social media Q&A platforms– social sites built upon community question-and-answers, such as Formspring, Quora, Aardvark, and many more? They’re going mobile too. Aardvard and Quora have had cell-phone friendly versions for a while, and Formspring just released their mobile site a few weeks ago.

It’s clear: both geo and Q&A have been gaining steam recently in the mobile trend, and are important to the future of social media.

Why?

As the social media power players are duking it out, geo-location and community Q&A is getting bigger. Social sites and applications based on “check-ins” are quickly gaining in popularity with consumers, and it’s only naturally that businesses and advertisers are in turn responding. Social media going mobile means that ‘consumers’ are creating new opportunities for retailers and advertisers to make money. As Business Week explains about Q&A, for example:

“The attraction to business of this new flavor of search is that as users pose and answer questions, they’ll reveal more data about themselves and create discussion threads against which ever more targeted advertising can be sold.”

While I think it’s a bit early to know for sure who’ll win the mobile ‘turf war’, I’m confident about one thing: the words “cell phone” and “shopping” are about to become as synonymous as “peanut butter” and jelly.” You can bet on that.

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Geo-Shopping and Q&A are Trending Topics in the Social Media World

Consumers are snapping up Smartphones at a record clip, and there are no signs of slowing down. Smartphone sales are rapidly increasing, and predictions indicate that this trend will continue. In short: people really want their Androids, iPhones and Blackberries. And the power players in the social media industry have no problem keeping up with Smartphone technology; iPhone apps like Bakodo and Stickybits are giving all parties just what they want.

Smartphone apps like Bakodo are just the beginning of geo-shopping.

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For the last few years, industry experts have been claiming that web browsing (and by extension, social media) will go mobile on a large scale in the next few years. The limitations of currently available technology, however, challenged these predictions, as most cell phones web browsers were notoriously slow and clunky. With recent technological advances, things are changing, and according to research by International Data Corporation, for example (in addition to many more studies) there will likely be more than one billion mobile devices accessing the Internet by 2013. And IDC isn’t the only one predicting that mobile is expanding.

Mashable recently posted a list detailing their picks for the five biggest social media trends, and as expected, each of them are integrally related to geo-shopping and community Q&A. I’ve posted it below, for ease of reference (Make sure to read the original article here too):

1) Social Scanning

2) Q&A and Intelligent Information Discovery

3) Group Buying

4) Mobile Meets Loyalty

5) Checking-in to Entertainment

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So what does all of this mean for field of public relations?

Quite a bit. Here are just a few implications that these trends have for the field of PR:

• New Technology to Learn
  

At the end of the day, whether you like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, or any of the other location-based social incarnations is totally irrelevant: you’d better know how to use them, if you want to work in PR. Your clients will want to know exactly how Foursquare can make money or win press for a company. Guess who’ll be setting up an account and teaching them?

• Increased Immediacy

Social media’s immense popularity over the course of the last decade has already forever changed the way we consume news information. But as the social/mobile web grow, people demand information sooner and sooner. In terms of business, customer support are changing the way they operate to better accomodate consumers’ needs.  Smartphone-based scanning and intelligent information discovery, as Mashable notes, will only further drive the need for immediacy, even from PR people.

• Increased Transparency

It’s clear that community Q&A sites like Formspring, Quora, and Aarvark are seeing popularity like never before. Right now, only a few major brands are truly taking advantage of this opportunity to connect with their customers by providing answers to their questions, but if Mashable’s list is any indication, it’s only a matter of time. As more social sites go “Q&A”-style, the more chance they can make money from their users. PR people need to know that this trend will be linked directly to geo-location. If brands and their advocates (read: us) expect to keep customers, then we’ll have to be honest like never before.

While it’s no surprise that all of these trends are mobile-based, it’s important for that they each have the potential to take advantage of geo-location technology and community crowd-sourcing. The reality is, both of these features present major implications for the future of commercialism, and therefore public relations.

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Takeaway Points for PR pros

The main thing to understand here is this: the Web’s is not just coming to our Smartphones.

Smartphones are changing the Web as we know it — through features like geo-location and Q&A.

This means that we can’t ignore them; we must change along with the web — companies, consumers, advertisers, and even us, public relations professionals. Just as we adjusted our press releases for social media, we’ll soon have to do the same for a mobile format. We must be prepared to interact with clients, consumers and the media in countless new ways.

Here’s the question: Will you be prepared?

- Robert A. Burns, II

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Join the discussion and share your thoughts below.

So you’ve got a Facebook account, and you know how to use Digg. Perhaps you’ve even run a successful social media campaign or two. But do you know which social network will be on top a year from now? Tell me, which iPhone app will be the quintessential tool for public relations professionals in six months?

Relax, this isn’t a test of your psychic abilities; instead, I ask these questions for a different reason. As much as you might think you “get” new media, realize there’s always more to learn.

Change is inevitable. Are you ready for it?

Twenty years ago, the field of PR largely consisted of traditional media relations — newspaper articles, press conferences, etc. But as we ventured into the 21st-century with the birth of the Internet, and Web 2.0, PR has found itself an increasingly digitally-driven industry that is constantly changing to fit the marketplace.

As Web 2.0 has developed, so has PR 2.0. With the advent of the 21^st-century’s technological innovations, professionals now have access to many more methods of communication: blogs, social media platforms, mobile technology and more, each of which has distinct advantages over traditional methods, but presents challenges as well.

The field of PR constantly changing. You must be able to adapt.

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Your clients expect you to.

If the last five years have been any indication, nearly every facet of society is adjusting to new media technology. As of just a few days ago, for instance, you can now buy Delta airline tickets directly through their Facebook fan page. The majority of clients out there already expects that teams handling their account are new media-savvy, and this trend will continue. If you expect to have a job in five years, you’d better be up on the latest technology. Clients expect it, and studies project that they will continue to do so. In a recent study by the Pew Internet and the American Life Project, 67 percent of respondents agreed that by the year 2020, Generation Y-ers will still largely use social media as “ambient broadcasters.”

Why?

A big reason is that the immediacy of information made possible by the Internet and social media, in particular, has made it all simply too convenient for Generation Y.

For PR pros, this means the following: don’t expect a social media crash. My prediction is that social media will be around for a good while, and those who work in public relations would be smart to learn all that they can.

It pays to keep up-to-date… literally.

Not knowing how to use new media will lose you clients, simply put. If you don’t know at least a little about social media, clients will move on to someone who does.

Those who spend the time learning new media technology and become proficient are well-rewarded in today’s PR world. They’ve learned the culture and etiquette of various social sites. They know what’s happening across the industry. The recent marketing and ad trends toward mobile and location-based technology, for example. In terms of social media usage, they know what works, and what doesn’t. They know how to find out what’s being said about their client’s company, and more importantly, how to fix the less-than-ideal things. They have experience using social media to manage crisises, and can fully explain their reasoning and method to clients. In short, they “get” it.

But they never stop learning, and neither should you.

If you want a leg up on your competition, you need to realize that new media changes every day and you need to keep up.

You’re not done learning yet.

To keep up with new media technology in today’s fast-paced world, make a personal commitment to constantly be in a state of learning.

Many experts suggest regular participation in ongoing training. Kaila Strong (of TheSocialRobot.com) suggests that social media “webinars,” short virtual workshop-style sessions, are the way to go. These are a great idea, particularly if you can find free ones.

In my opinion, however, the best way to stay on top of new media is to literally keep yourself connected, being an ‘early adopter’ when new platforms are made accessible, and use them yourself as the site culture develops. In addition, read all you can, and take part in the blogosphere (if you’re new to the blogging world, and you’d like to get started, check out this excellent list).

Most importantly, however, take it all one day at a time, and never say that you’re a new media “expert“.

. . . Even if you think are one.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Join the discussion and add your thoughts.