I am admittedly a compulsive multitasker. I am known to have 10 windows open in my Internet explorer at one time, to text on my phone, to check my email and to read the paper all at the same time. A new study makes me wonder if I’m not as good at multitasking as I thought.

The study finds that people that multitask using several types of media (email, word processing, wathcing online video, IMing, browsing the web) do worse in attention tests than those who don’t. On top of that, heavy multitaskers are more easily distracted by irrelevant or useless info, which is retained in short-term memory. Multitaskers also had slower response times.

Now, doctors are trying to figure out if our brains modified based on our multitasking behavior, or if the brain automatically just multitasks. This question will be important in determining how to reverse this multitasking habit.

I never thought of multitasking as a problem, but now I am going to reconsider some of my everyday tasks.

Read the full article here.

A recent study by iPressroom found that PR professionals are leading the management social media activity for organizations, beating out marketing professionals. Not only are PR pros handling social media engagement, they’re surpassing marketing’s efforts in blogging, microblogging and social netowrking.

• Public relations leads the deployment of digital communications at 51% of organizations (marketing takes charge 40.5 % of the time)
• Public relations manages the use of blogging, (49% to marketing’s 22%), microblogging (52% to marketing’s 22%) and social networking (48% to marketing’s 27%)
• Among survey respondents who are responsible for hiring public relations and marketing employees, more than 80% said knowledge of social networks is either important or very important. Other new media communications skills that hiring decision makers found important or very important are blogging, podcasting and RSS (77 %), micro-blogging (72%), search engine optimization (62%), email outreach (56%), web content management (52%) and social bookmarking (51%).

Marketing pros hold the lead for email marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I handle a lot of digital communications for Touchpoint Communications and am the least familiar with SEO, so this makes sense.

Another study found that approximately 70 percent of all social media programs are being driven by public relations professionals.

The next obvious question is why organizations are seeking PR pros for their social media efforts. Here are the explanations that I completely agree with…

Social media puts the consumer in control, and public relations professionals are accustomed to operating in an environment that cedes control to others. Too, public relations has always been about engaging with key audiences to establish mutually beneficial relationships. Plus, public relations is a two-way discipline; it disseminates information about an organization and brings back information for analysis and response.

Among those survey respondents who are responsible for hiring public relations and marketing employees, more than 80 percent said knowledge of social networks is either important or very important. Other new media communications skills that hiring decision makers found important or very important are blogging, podcasting and RSS (77 percent), micro-blogging (72 percent), search engine optimization (62 percent), email outreach (56 percent), web content management (52 percent) and social bookmarking (51percent).

When I originally looked over Charleston County green initiative, I was a little disappointed with measures such as “buy one hybrid car.” Last month, the county announced that they saved $350,000 in just four months with their Energy Conservation Program, which was an internal effort of county staff.

Additionally, the county used 7% less kilowater hours since the program began in March. The ultimate goal is to reduce energy use by 10% by July 1, 2010.

The staff took measures such as turning off lights and equipment at night, setting temperature no lower than 70 and no higher than 74, turning off cooling and heating in noncritical buildings on weekends and replacing light bulbs. These simple measures are a great example of how small steps can save money and reduce our environmental impact.

Congrats to Charleston County and keep up the good work!

In July, a study was released that confirmed what marketing and public relations professionals had been thinking: companies with deep brand social media engagement had 18% increase in revenues over 12 months. Finally-evidence to show the importance and value of social media for businesses.

The Alimeter Group began their research by looking at the 100 most valuable brands (identified by BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands ranking), and then they quantified these companies’ social engagement based on number of social media channels utilized and level of engagement (e.g. replying to blog comments). Finally, each business was given a numerical score. The top 10 companies:

1. Starbucks (127)
2. Dell (123)
3. eBay (115)
4. Google (105)
5. Microsoft (103)
6. Thomson Reuters (101)
7. Nike (100)
8. Amazon (88)
9. SAP (86)
10. Tie - Yahoo!/Intel (85)

The four best practices of these top companies include:

• Emphasize quality, not quantity
• Make social media part of everyone’s job
• Doing it all (social media networks) may not be for everyone, but you must do something
• Find the sweet spot (aka get in where you fit in)

Click here to read the full announcment.

Everyone has heard the horror stories about someone losing a job because a boss saw a photo they didn’t like on someone’s Facebook, but employers are increasing doing their social network profile homework when considering candidates for a position.

Last year, 22% of employers used social network info to screen applicants, and this year, 45% of employers are doing social network research in job screening and 35% have rejected a candidate because of something on a candidate’s social network (source: careerbuilder.com survey).

Here are the activities that turned off employers and got applicants dinged from the position…

• Provocative or inappropriate photos or info-53%
• Drinking or drug use-44%
• Bad-mouthing previous employee, colleague or client-35%
• Poor communication skills-29%
• Discriminatory comments-26%
• Lied about qualifications-24%
• Leaked confidential info from previous job-20%

Most of these reasons seem reasonable, but as a person in the communications field, I personally see a major issue with the “poor communication skills” reference. When I write on someone’s wall or update my status, I rarely capitalize proper nouns and use abbreviations. This is a practice that in not done in business (but may hurt my job application) and doesn’t accurately reflect my actual business qualifications.

The reasons why a social media profile helped someone get a job: the candidate was creative (38%), “solid communications skills” (35%) and the profile made candidates look “well rounded” (33%).

The latter just reinforces my concern with these pseudo-evaluations.

What are your thoughts?

Join other Lowcountry businesses for a FREE, 20-minute “Quick Connect” webinar on Wednesday, September 23 at 8:30 a.m.

The topic is “Why Smart Businesses Win By Targeting Nonprofit Customers.”

Webinar description from the Pluff Mud Connect website:

Time is limited and your to-do list is long. We get it. But we also have some great ideas on how and why businesses should be targeting nonprofits as customers. In the time it takes to finish that morning cup of coffee, or idle in traffic, we’ll give you five ideas on how to profit from working with nonprofits. Participants are invited via web and phone. Click here to register and don’t forget to tell your business colleagues.

I am a self-proclaimed germophobe and get the creeps when I see people not wash their hands after using the bathroom, kids eat food of a restaurant table and people cough without covering their mouths. A friend sent me an email about the bacteria found on purses and that really freaked me out (think about putting your purse down on the floor of a bathroom!). My mom always told me that money was one of the dirtiest things I touch, but it never really became apparent until I saw this headline: “90 perecent of US bills carry traces of cocaine.”

Apparently, 90% of US bills have traces of cocaine on them. Scientists say that the amount of cocaine on bills is not harmful, but 90% seems like a high number to me. But how did cocaine get on some many bills? The article explains, “Money can be contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or if a user snorts with a bill. But not all bills are involved in drug use; they can get contaminated inside currency-counting machines at the bank.”

Higher bills ($5, $10, $20 and $50 bills) were more likely to have cocaine traces than $1, and the scientist’s explanation for this-”Probably $1 is a little too less to purchase cocaine.”

The story reinforces that cocaine of money is not hazardous to a person’s health, but also warns it could “cause in a false positive drug test if a person, such as a law enforcement officer or banker, handles contaminated currency repeatedly.”

Another interesting finding shows that money can be used to evaluate regional cocaine use. For example, 100% of bills in big cities like Miami, Boston and Detriot tested positive for cocaine, but 67-87% of bills in smaller cities like Salt Lake City and Dearborn, Michigan had cocaine on them.

Here’s how other US and international cities compared:

• 100%: Detroit, Michigan; Boston, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California
• 88%: Toronto, Canada
• 77%: Salt Lake City, Utah
• 75%: Brasilia, Brazil
• 20%: Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, China
• 0%: Zhuzhou, China

When I first got on Facebook, my biggest issue was getting friend requests from people that I was never friends with in high school. Then, the news feed was introduced and the “friend” problems escalated. From seeing when someone ends a relationship to a boyfriend being tagged in a photo with an ex to seeing photos of a wedding you weren’t invited to-each of these situations have created the perfect environment for feuds between friends, family and couples. Most people have heard the term “Facebook stalk”, but wow a study proves this notion.

A CyberPsychology & Behavior Journal study found that there is a “significant association between time spent on Facebook and jealousy-related feelings and behaviors experienced on Facebook.”

The study was part of a larger study on Facebook use among 308 college students (skewed female), and included questions like “How likely are you to monitor your partner’s activities on Facebook?” and “How likely are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?”

Here are the four themes that researchers identified that contributed to jealousy on Facebook…

• Accessibility of information: Increased info about the interactions of significant others lead to increased monitoring and jealousy for 19.1% of participants
• Relationship jealousy: 16.2% of respondents were explicitly linked to Facebook use contributing to jealousy
• Facebook as an addiction: 10.3% of participants had major difficulty limiting the amount of time he or she looked at his or her partner’s Facebook profile.
• Lack of context: 7.4% of respondents referenced how Facebook can be ambiguous and that, without context, jealousy can be spurred over misunderstandings.

The study addresses the issues of uneven number male to female respondents, and the use of technology by someone with predisposition of being jealous.

The study’s final conclusion: “This study provides evidence of a relationship between Facebook use and the experience of jealousy in that context, though further research is needed to better understand this feedback loop because the nature of our data could not fully explain this process. Future research must directly examine the effects of various triggers on the experience of jealousy and on the time individuals spend on Facebook.”

Fortune 100 companies have taken a liking to Twitter according to a recent study. The study does note that Twitter may have had an advantage over Facebook since fan page status updates were just introduced at the beginning of this year (which is a major advantage to using a fan page for business).

Of Fortune 100 companies:

• 54% use Twitter
• 32% have a blog
• 29% have an active Facebook page
• Of companies using more than one social media tool, 76% said their top pick is Twitter
• 17% use all three social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, blog)
• Of the companies using Twitter, 94% use it for news/announcements, 67% for customer service and 57% for deals and promotions

I recently read an interesting article on researching and pitching bloggers. I struggle with this because there are new blogs popping up every day, and our media database tool include top blogs and leaves out the majority of smaller blogs.

I always remind clients that a blog with 1 million page views monthly is great, but smaller blogs may have just as much, or more, influence because media and other industry professionals may be viewing blogs with less traffic to get ideas for stories.

Here are some helpful tips on researching bloggers:

• Use sites like Technorati and search the tags because this is a good way to see if the blogger writes on the subject regularly
• Research competitors in your industry in the blogosphere. If a blogger is already writing about a competing business in your industry, they probably cover this industry regularly and are a good contact for blog pitches.
• Rank the blogs for pitching by their traffic, number of comments, how often they update the blog, rank and how many blogs/websites link to that site. Prioritize pitching by each blog’s overall ranking.
• Don’t send press releases to bloggers. Instead, send them a note with various options for story ideas so they can pick their story angle. Include links to videos, photos and more info.
• This tip seems like a no-brainer, but it needs to be said-Read the blog before pitching to familiarize yourself with their content and sections.