by Jessica Slevin
This afternoon I had the opportunity to attend Internfest, an event put on by the Council of Public Relations Firms for PR interns in New York City. The panelists spoke on a variety of topics but soon enough the discussion inevitably turned to social media.
Let’s face it – social media is becoming increasingly relevant for this industry every day. There is no way to ignore it, and as one speaker pointed out, if you try to ignore it you are only doing your clients a disservice. However, just because social media is the hottest thing in PR right now and “everyone is doing it” does not mean that you should dive right in and try to be involved in every single social media outlet that exists.
When using social media for public relations, it is important to always keep in mind your strategy for each individual client. Maybe some brands would do great with a blog or a Twitter account, but it’s something that deserves some careful consideration. Is this client’s audience active on Twitter, do they read blogs? A strategy that is perfect for one client may be a waste of another client’s time. Which brings me to the next point from this discussion. Is the client capable of maintaining all of these various social media sites? Some clients have more time and budget to devote to these activities, while others just may not be able to afford it right now. This line of thinking is important for personal social media use as well. While it’s great to establish your personal brand through various social media sites, there is no point to setting up all of these different profiles if you don’t take the time to update them frequently.
There will always be new social media tools coming out, but it is important not to get distracted by the “next big thing” just because it’s new. As public relations professionals, we have to keep in mind the fundamentals of our industry and remember our original strategy before we can implement these tools effectively.
Comments