Recently, everyone at TC Public Relations participated in a team building exercise that our high energy Melissa planned for us. The goal of the exercise was to find eight things the team had in common (it was too bad that EVERYONE did not share my love of pizza). As it turns out, we all had some affection for cats, regardless of size or color.
After the meeting, I looked at the top searches on Yahoo to see what the outside world had in common. I learned that French bulldog puppies was the #3 top search on July 13 at 10:00 am Central. When I clicked on the link, it took me to mostly listings like Wikipedia and places that that provide general information on these dogs. I did not see one significant news related item from a trusted source.
Recently, I’ve become fascinated with the rankings of on-lines searches and hits that certain stories or YouTube videos get.
While I know that information is no longer in the control of traditional media outlets, I trust that people question all the online rankings. How do young people looking for information learn how to “test” the information they find on-line? How can they understand that the most “popular” is not always the best? I wish I could answer that in a logical fashion.
The PR laugh for me is how all these on-line outlets are tracking clicking, linking, without the consumer even “blinking” to pause and ask: “What does this really mean?”
One side note. Michael Jackson is being honored as a god since his death and all the on-lines rankings have been pointing to his name. Yet, in his later years, he was far from a role model worth tracking. (Of course, the PR laugh there is how his family members are thinking his death was the result of foul play without mentioning his “foul” public image toward the end.)
