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November 8, 2009
Caution: Social Media May Be Closer Than They Appear
I've just finished attending Day 1 of the PRSA International Conference in San Diego.
Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, was the Sunday keynote speaker.
Katie D. Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners, discussed Social Media Measurement: Establishing ROI.
And Peter Himler, founder and principal of Flatiron Communications, Rick Clancy, former senior vice president of corporate communication at Sony Electronics, Jessica Smith, Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard, Rob Key, founder and CEO of Converseon, and Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, participated on a panel entitled, "Looking Ahead: The Nexus of Social Media and Public Relations."
If PR people seem to be very interested in social media, they are. But they aren't alone. Search engine optimizers have been interested in social media for five years. And customer relations management is interested in social media, too.
Now, blogs started taking off in 2003. Facebook was launched in 2004. YouTube was launched in 2005. And Twitter was launched in 2006.
So, maybe we should cut many PR people some slack for waiting until 2009 to get their arms around social media. But life is unfair -- and PR people who waited until now will find themselves saying, "Hey, that's my job," to other people in other departments who didn't wait to get started.
Now, PR people bring a lot of relevant skills to the social media table, but so do SEOs and customer relations people. All this will generate some interesting discussions when it comes time to launch a company's first social media campaign.
I remember similar discussions in the mid-1990s, when I tried to make the case at my old employer that the corporate communications department should be responsible for creating the company's first website. I lost that argument -- and the IT department was put in charge of creating a new way to interact with "the public" online. The result was a website that wasn't user friendly -- and it used a content management system that wasn't search engine friendly, either.
So, we face another one of those pivotal moments when PR people will be asked why social media is important, how social media works, and which social media to use.
They need to be read with answers now, not next year. Anyone who looks at social media through the passenger side mirror needs to be cautioned: Social media may be closer than they appear.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on November 8, 2009 11:01 PM
Comments
Lee Odden November 9, 2009 12:00 AM
The Huffington Post has over 3,000 bloggers -- from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics. Among those who have blogged on the site are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Heather Robinson, Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Saskia Sassen, Sheryl Sandberg, John Cusack, Larry David, Nora Ephron, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Albert Brooks, Mia Farrow, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Gary Hart, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Donna Karan, Kenneth Cole, Donatella Versace, Bill Maher, Lutfullah Kamran, and Larry Gelbart. The Huffington Post also publishes columns by specialists in a wide range of fields such as Alice Waters on food, Suzie Heumann on sex, Diane Ravitch on education, Jacob M. Appel on ethics, and Jon LaPook on medicine.
Masonry Concrete November 9, 2009 4:02 AM
I've said before that blogs are the new trade press. In many industries, as trade publications have shuttered or shrunk, influential bloggers have stepped in to take their place.
Greg Jarboe November 9, 2009 10:44 AM
Love the passenger side mirror metaphor, Greg.
Thanks for contributing to our conversation, I'm glad you sat right up in front...I only wish we could have chatted offline!
Jessica Smith November 9, 2009 1:47 PM
Jessica, it was great to see you even if we didn't get a chance to talk. And it was great that the panel wasn't all guys.
Greg Jarboe November 9, 2009 8:04 PM
Social media optimization and social media marketing are dominating every single person’s life in the present internet era. Social utilities have become an integral part of the lives of internet users.
SEO Services Company November 10, 2009 5:40 AM
Social media optimization and social media marketing are dominating every single person’s life in the present internet era. Social utilities have become an integral part of the lives of internet users.
SEO Services Company November 10, 2009 5:41 AM
The present era belongs to the social media marketing, there are many SMM tools like facebook , orkut etc.. so one can connect to many people by using these tools...
SEO Services Company November 11, 2009 5:19 AM
It was excellent having a participatory member of the audience on hand like yourself to keep the moderator (somewhat) in line.
Love the comments about SEM people being interested in social for 5 years and PR just getting started - absolutely true.