Grace Halbert News Profile Slightly more than 50 Auburn University public relations students have the potential reach more than 67 million people through Facebook and Twitter. Reach, which is generally studied in advertising, is the total number of people exposed to a message during a given period of time. Robert French, an Auburn University public relations professor, is now illustrating how this phenomenon can be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of using social media and social networking sites to reach potential audiences. French had his 53 students in three classes provide statistics for the amount of contacts they had on Facebook and Twitter, the amount of friends that five of their friends on Facebook had and the amount of followers five of their Twitter followers had. With this information, he began averaging. Although not precise, his estimates for potential reach of his students are staggering. “When you talk about six degrees of separation, it used to be one to two, two to three, and so forth,” said French. “Now it explodes because of the number of potential contacts.” What French shows with these statistics is that if these students, who have an average of 1,000 contacts, share information on Facebook and Twitter and then their contacts, who also have an average of 1,000 contacts, share that information again, within just three degrees of separation, 67 million people are exposed to that information. French acknowledges that realistically, no students are going to have 100 percent of their friends or followers repeat the information shared with their friends, but if only
10 percent are reached 670,000 people are still seeing the message. “Lets say we only hit 10 percent, in direct marketing or direct mail 3-10 percent response is excellent,” said French. The implications of French’s findings is that social media websites are potentially just as effective, if not more so, than traditional media, such as television and newspapers. Now he’s trying to impart these findings onto his students. His Style and Design in Public Relations Messages class are required to write weekly feature stories on student life for the Auburn Family Social Network, a site created by a previous class. French encourages students not only to submit their stories to their blogs on Auburn Family, but link to the stories through their Facebook and Twitter accounts. If students point their friends and followers to their writing, they will simultaneously be promoting their own work as well as the Auburn Family Social Network. “I never really thought about how useful it could be,” said Laura Hancock, a senior majoring in public relations. “I’ll definitely be doing it now.” This research is gaining attention from some important figures in the public relations field, including the president of Edelman Digital, the digital side of a leading public relations firm. French’s next step is to study the level of influence achieved by his students. Using web-based tools to determine how often the students are retweeted on Twitter, such as Twinfluence and Twiangulate, he can begin to see the students’ level of influence. “Just looking at a message is enough to be considered influence,” said French. “But if someone is constantly being retweeted by their audience, it may tell you that there’s influence there.”
French, who is currently in his tenth year of teaching at Auburn, began his time at Auburn as an undergraduate student. After graduation, he worked at Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults (Camp ASSCA), located on Lake Martin in Jackson’s Gap, Ala. for 10 years. In his time at Camp ASSCA, he served as the first public relations director for the camp and Alabama Easter Seals, thousands of inches of copy in state newspapers as well as producing public service announcements, television ads, radio ads and billboards. After Camp ASSCA, French returned to Auburn to work on his master’s degree. Upon his graduation, he was offered a job as the director of student activities at Auburn, where he planned events and even started Eagle Eye television station on campus. Then, after 10 years, he was offered a job teaching in the communication and journalism department. “I don’t think I can do anything for more than 10 years, I think that’s the problem,” said French. Now that he’s finishing his tenth year teaching at Auburn, French has begun thinking about the next step in his career. “I’m a builder,” said French. “I like to go in and find something and build something, and if I can’t do that I won’t be happy. Now I feel like we’ve built this program up and its gained visibility, but now I think I’ve gone as far as I can go with it.” Although he says he’s open to finding a new position, he also says he isn’t actively looking.
“He’s a great teacher and I’m glad I got to have him,” said Brooke Glassford, a senior majoring in public relations. “Anyone who misses out on his classes and teaching style is really going to regret it.”