By Christa S.
Every month, it seems, PRSSA Tactics includes a new article about the usefulness of social media and how to most effectively utilize them. There is no doubt…there are countless ways that social media forms are effective in reaching new, underserved and youthful target publics in exceptionally innovative and creative ways. Social media outlets have infiltrated society as a primary means of staying connected and informed. The benefits of using social media include rapidity, the ability to hit a large audience with 140 characters and the dialogue that ensues as a result of wall posts, blog comments, tweets, text messages, e-mail responses and other forms of consumer insight. However, while, as public relations professionals, learning and growing with the times and technologies is requisite, we should also keep in mind the key to our profession—building mutually-advantageous relationships based on personal, one-to-one communication with our publics. We must make sure that our publics feel valued and this value comes from using various media forms and communication outlets to bring our messages to the people.
We must ensure that the personal touch of our profession is never lost.
In fact, utilizing a variety of communication tools will further enhance the messages we send to our publics.
Additionally, it is also easy to become sloppy when typing a quick tweet on our iPhone or Blackberry. Yet, we must always remember that everything we send out into cyberspace can be accessed by anyone*. Thus, while we understand that we should always have other eyes view and edit our news releases or brochure text, we must pay as much (if not more attention) to the messages we communicate through social media.
As we enter the new age of public relations where social media is sometimes considered our responsibility, we must also remember that this is a people business. Let’s keep it about the people!
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