The differences between marketing, advertising, PR, and branding are now blurred with the adoption of social media. According to the definition of social media found inWikipedia:
Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers.
Social media uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs,wikis, podcasts,pictures, and video.
PR is about the details, the stuff your public cares about. It’s about you building and constantly renewing relationships with people (not just the media) to increase the goodwill towards your organization. Ever since the recent Presidential election, many companies have woken up to the fact that yes, it can be done – engagement and relationships can be ignited. Even when scale is a question.
Social media is the latest communication technology, allowing you to extend and share content further – either by allowing your community to spread it for you, or by inviting it to co-create it with you. But building a dialogue with the community, building relationships have always been part of the work of public relations professionals.
When you ask – what social media sites should I target? The answer is who are you trying to connect with, and where are they? Identify and know your audience and then communicate with them where they are.
If you’re looking to begin the conversation, you still need to know that what you’re going to say is credible, relevant, and resonant to these audiences. Then there’s the part where you stay consistent in every interaction. What is the one impression you’d want everyone to take with them?
Is there someone who can communicate about your product or service with that consistency and knowledge? That is your spokesperson(s). The number of channels through which that conversation happens – directly and indirectly, with you or about you – today has multiplied.
Every time you share a piece of content, which may well be the new way to give your supporters a platform for their use, you have the opportunity to engage in a micro interaction. Because relationships have always been at the root of PR efforts, I believe it is much easier for a company to test these concepts there first. Especially if your organization is in B2B.
The differences between marketing, advertising, PR, and branding are now blurred with the adoption of social media. The democratization of information has injected real people in all of them. You’ve gone from one-to-many to many-to-many. Enjoy, it can still be all about you, if you make it about them.
by Taylor Fitzgerald
Subscribere to uncluttered white spaces for FREE and save money on magazines. (Receive uncluttered white spaces via email for FREE). Click in between the comma’s. Its like a target and if you do it, you will receive a free copy of our eBookThe White Room #1
Related Articles:
3 minutes a day on business | marketing | strategy | design | people
Design by [6.2] an innovation lab
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2010 by uncluttered white spaces
