Why Social Media Has to be a Big Part of Your P.R. Strategy
Posted January 6, 2008 by Margie Zable FisherA great blog post from Emergence Marketing details a new survey from the Arketi Group showing that the role of social media in influencing traditional media continues to grow. Some interesting findings from the survey:
* 84% of journalists say they would or already have used blogs as primary or secondary sources
* 54% of journalists get their story ideas from blogs, 51% from RSS feeds
* 60% of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours on the Internet
So…it sounds like if your company does not make a conscientious effort in trying to engage with social media channels today, you will likely find yourself the winner of an award in stealth marketing in a few years time - an award given to companies that manage to make their companies totally invisible in the marketplace.
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Thanks Margie for passing along this important message. Many marketing, public relations, and advertising specialists are just now realizing this major turn in their field. Others are so new they do not understand it, others may not care to digest it to capitalize on the opportunities, and others simply may not know how to implement social media into their plans.
The other problem is that graduate schools still teach the traditional model, but some are altering, like Northwestern University, according to Don E. Schultz, Northwestern University Professor Emeritus of Integrated Marketing Communications.
In fact, Schultz recently spoke at the Public Relations Society of America - Suburban Chicagoland Chapter on the new fundamentals about how emerging information technology will influence customer purchase behaviors and change traditional marketing models forever.
Professionals must develop digital media strategies into holistic models. The reason being people are multi-tasking. They are listening to the television while on the internet and talking on the phone at the same time. As technology grows we must challenge ourselves to expand our knowledge base. Use the resources and offerings of organizations and universities to learn. If need be, obtain an intern or hire someone to implement digital media into your programs. I believe social media and digital media is as important as your media contact list. In the future I foresee corporations creating digital media departments which team with the sales force and the integrated marketing communications department, comprised of advertising, marketing, and public relations professionals, to create campaigns together. Now that is progress.