The Sophistication of Public Relations: Uncovering the Latest Trends – Social Media

Public relations has grown up or matured, rather, with the dawning of the social media age. With the emergence of blogs, Twitter and social media networks, PR practitioners are looking at online communities as new and credible media for consumer dialog. Think keeping your eyes on your local newspaper or trade magazines is sufficient to stay on top of the conversation being generated about your business or product? Think again! Social media has opened the door for consumer-driven conversations online, which should be monitored and even fueled by your public relations efforts!

For years, public relations has been defined as the management of the flow of information between an organization and its target audiences with successful practitioners relying upon their established relationships with (or at least a list of) media contacts in your area or industry. However, in today’s virtual world, managing this flow of information has become increasingly more complex as new blogs, tweets and social networking sites emerge daily. Nevertheless, Web sites and applications exist to bring you into the new generation of public relations, reducing the growing pains your small business might be experiencing.

The Latest Trends

The Blogosphere – The New News Source

Building a relationship with local reporters and editors or trade industry writers has always been key in the public relations profession. However, there is a new type of journalist emerging that cannot be ignored – the blogger! Don’t be fooled into thinking bloggers aren’t viewed as credible sources by people searching the Internet for expert opinions. Often bloggers are viewed as the experts! Therefore, it is imperative that you reach out to this new field of journalism with arms wide open.

“Bloggers are now being recognized as a source for information and their voice is getting louder. You can ignore it or participate. As a business, why not embrace it and help it work to your advantage?” said Laurie Dunlop, Web content writer, NetStrategies – an Internet marketing optimization company. “You must keep on top of what people are saying about your company or product and become a part of the conversation.”

Check out www.technorati.com for an expansive directory of blogs, which will help you navigate the Internet and find the communities that are a fit for your business. This site operates like an Internet search engine combing through the Web for blogs that meet your search terms. Once you find a blog that is a match with your business or industry, become a member of the community surrounding that blog by participating in the online dialogue through post comments and subscribing to the blog via an RSS feed. RSS feeds essentially create a personalized online newspaper that will save you time and effort needed to regularly check blogs and Web sites for updates. (Don’t have an RSS feed aggregator? Sign up for Google Reader at google.com – it’s free!)

Many traditional media outlets in your area have jumped on the blog bandwagon. Learn who is in charge of the content for these types of blogs and add them to your media contact list. Such blogs attract a local audience, which may include your customers!

Note: Before you start pitching press releases to various bloggers, be sure you have established a noticeable presence in that online community by subscribing to the blog and regularly participate in the online conversation through post comments.

“If people are talking about you online, then use that opportunity to help frame the conversation,” said Laurie. “Use that as an opportunity to become recognized as an expert in your industry.”

The Power behind Twitter

There is a new and powerful social networking site that has caught the interest of public relations practitioners and for good reason. Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. While Twitter has been available since 2006, it recently has taken off with over five million visitors in the month of September. While Twitter provides users with a great tool to keep in touch with family and friends, it has also proven to be a meeting place for consumers to discuss products and companies.

You may have heard of the “Motrin Moms” kerfuffle that took down a multimillion-dollar ad campaign and essentially launched the need for corporations to monitor social media sites like Twitter in order to stay on top of the online consumer-driven conversation. The events of the Motrin Moms’ saga began on a Friday night in September when a Los Angeles blogger, Jessica Gottlieb, tweeted about her distaste of the new Motrin Mom ad campaign. As her angry tweet spread, more moms jumped on board and by Monday morning a furious community of moms had been created. Upon hearing the complaints of the disgruntled moms, Motrin took down their Web site, which displayed the ad, removed all of its advertising spots that were using the ad and sent personalized apologies to those affected moms.

Surprisingly (or not) this is not an isolated incident. Twitter has proven to be an effective platform for consumer-driven dialog in the form of complaints, queries and, yes, even praise of companies and products. Monitoring that dialog is essential for a public relations practitioner in order to stay on top of what is being said about your business – it is your first line of defense. Catching an angry tweet and personally responding with a method to rectify the situation may not only stop the tweet (and anger) from spreading, but you may raise that customer’s level of satisfaction in the process.

In the case of Motrin Moms, if someone in the marketing department had caught the initial tweet on Friday, efforts could have been made to quell the domino effect that resulted over the weekend.

You can navigate and organize your Twitter account with Tweet Deck, saving you time and effort. For more assistance on how to make Twitter work for you and your business, download this free ebook (http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/2008/12/24/the-twitter-power-guide-ebook/).

If you are waiting for the social media bubble to burst before delving into the medium, you are missing out on conversations and dialog spearheaded by your customers and putting your company at risk of being surpassed by your competitors.

Check out ProMoter Marketing Communications’ blog for more information and tips to upgrade your public relations and marketing efforts. http://promoterinc.blogspot.com/

Call out: This article is the first installment in a three-part series spotlighting the latest trends in public relations. Next month in Kentuckiana Business Forum watch for a discussion of online media databases as a means of building your presence in both local and national media, including print publications and Web, along with their power to help monitor your company’s media presence.