Indeed it is, and our younger staff members – thoroughly skilled in its execution – are kindly on boarding me to the ranks of social media. Believe me, I hemmed and hawed, created excuses, and generally pshawed at the idea that anyone should, or could be “chatting” online while during the day there is just too much real work to accomplish. It may makes me sound ancient, but even at the ripe age of 34, the concept simply seemed audacious.
Enter Twitter (and Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and this blog…). After one of our clients was featured on a CNN segment, directly attributed to Twitter outreach, I was hooked. 64% of journalists use Twitter and other social media to get news NOW, not tomorrow - see Twitter 1, CNN 0. Print media has long been feeling the crunch (and well before this overdue epiphany), relegated to print yesterday’s news. So, now I get it.
There is something perfect, and somewhat symphonic (sorry) in how each specific platform works together to exponentially increase viewership, fans, and exposure. It’s true that so few know how to manage this behemoth, let alone how to measure real success in the publicity industry. We believe, however, that the same tenets of solid PR practice can be translated to the social media platforms to reach new audiences, or rather – the same, but in a new and improved ways.
Listen, I’m a believer in “old school” practices. And yes, I have personal calling cards and visit the opera on Tuesdays. But publicity is evolving in tremendous ways, and if solid practitioners of communication (i.e. publicists) are able to grasp social media in a way that doesn’t bastardize the good efforts of journalists, I think we are destined for very good things and poised to change long-standing stigmas associated with ”handbag publicity.”
twitter? that’s for teenagers to tell their friends which shopping mall they’re hanging out in. right? i guess i was wrong. my business partner twisted my arm and yep, now we’re using it, and i hear we’re getting some attention from it.
btw, i’ll be at the chick-fil-a at the sunnyside mall food court til 2:30. holla!
Twitter…the one line blog phenomenon, although still a strange concept for me, I’ll admit I enjoyed following Lance Armstrong through the first stages of the Tour de France…instant gratification with updates straight from the athlete himself.
Twitter provides not only pure entertainment but a sense of real people connection, and with this, no matter how well a journalist may write it…Twitter is-”straight from the horses mouth.” Hmm, What’s next?
Aww, yes – “tweeting”. Still a very foreign concept for me as I can’t begin to explain a simple thought let alone convey a message in 140 Characters or less (guessing, of course, on actual character count as I don’t tweet); however, I will say the social, connected media conduits are a fantastic method of getting “it” done. Point in case; I marveled at the way I settled a lawsuit this afternoon while sitting on the tarmac of Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport using instant messaging and a tethered mobile device to conduct an impromptu conference. All said and done, I say do it – never look back. How else will we get flying cars?
–Chad
Social media is such a hot topic in the higher education world right now. As a small college PR specialist, I use Twitter (@InsideWLC) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/wisconsinlutheran) to reach out to prospective students, current students, alumni AND the media. This stuff really works! If we can get five students to apply, two alums to donate or a reporter to bite, it’s all worth it.
Social media seems to make our world go round.
I was first introduced to Twitter a year ago by a friend who I met for dinner down town. He was ‘tweeting’ on his iPhone and I, with great disgust, grabbed the phone out of his hand and said, ‘whoever can wait’. With that, he explained that he was “tweeting” where we were so that others could meet us. I truthfully had no idea how this would work. Within an hour, some friends and coworkers along with people who followed my friend’s posts joined our gathering. We ended up having dinner with ten other people and I made some great contacts.
While I am lead to believe this was an odd occurrence, I learned that the world is indeed evolving. We have the ability to exchange random thoughts, ideas, and to converse at the click of a button. I still prefer a good old fashioned dinner party, myself, but I have learned it never hurts to welcome more people to your table.