Advantages of Social Media: Continuous News Cycle

Social media platforms offer many advantages that public relations professionals not only should take advantage, but also must take advantage of in order to stay with the innovation curve of the trade. These range from changes in the new cycle, reaching out to and making new connections with the media and to producing instant statements to the world.

The Continuous News Cycle

One aspect or feature of using any social media platform that stands out among others is the quickness of being able to share and spread information. The information being shared could be personal, opinion based or most importantly for this topic, news worthy.

Here's one take: Any type of service that allows a reporter to deliver breaking news to thousands/millions of people in literally two seconds is going to stick around. Social media platforms such as Twitter - or Facebook with its status updates - has the ability to deliver information to an unlimited amount of people simultaneously.

What makes this different from television or a news website is that social media platforms aggregate information from different sources into one place, meaning, a user on Twitter can be following numerous news reporters and Twitter’s website or a Twitter application or program will continuously compile the Tweets of everyone who they are following and deliver the information in one place. Facebook’s interface or feed is very similar. Instead of watching multiple news channels on television or constantly refreshing or visiting multiple websites, a social media user can view information from several sources at the same time and in one place.

Why is this an advantage to public relations professionals? It is an advantage because social media platforms allow for quick, easy and mass dissemination of news and/or press releases to an audience either through news reporters, fellow followers (through forwarding, ReTweeting) or the company itself. Just as the Internet threw out the traditional 24-hour news cycle, social media is retransforming the Internet news cycle which is no longer limited to the time of how often a website is revisited, but how often any news organization updates one of its social media feeds.

Some Effects of Social Media on PR

The responsibilities for implementing, overseeing and running a companies or organizations social media strategy or set-up are usually assigned to the public relations or marketing departments. One recent study estimated that public relations or marketing departments control about 90 percent of corporate social media platforms with the other ten percent consisting of a department specifically created for social media. Whenever a company or organization makes an official statement of any sort, the public relations staff is usually involved and that’s a big aspect of the overall plan of action. Even in instances where a marketing or new media department generally oversees social media platforms, the public relations staff is involved in some way, shape or form. After all, any message sent across a social medium platform can be interpreted as an official statement.

It wasn’t imperative for public relations professionals to know much about social media ten or even five years ago, let alone be involved in the planning or dissemination of a social media platform initiative. Only recently have public relations professionals been forced to monitor social media platforms for mentions or hits just as they would if their company was mentioned in the New York Times, Time Magazine or on CNN. As similarly to as when e-mailing a press release became an accepted and commonplace practice, a paradigm shift has occurred for public relations professionals with social media. But unlike the shift to e-mailing press releases, the social media phenomenon that has come about in the last few years is multifaceted to the “nth” degree.

In addition to monitoring the various social media platforms for company or organizational mentions and hits, it is just as imperative for a company or organization to be involved in the social media universe. Being directly involved with a Facebook page or a Twitter account presents the ability for a company or organization to have control of all of the benefits that are available in the social media universe. Even in instances where a marketing or new media department oversees or controls the social media platforms, public relations professionals can still use social media to their benefit and growth of the product they are promoting.

While there are many benefits in the social media universe, there are always disadvantages or consequences that public relations professionals must be aware of. These are just the general effects of social media on the public relations industry. The rest of this exploration on the effects that social media has on public relations will investigate the advantages and drawbacks that public relations professionals face everyday in the social media universe. Understanding the general effects of social media is not enough for public relations professionals because a proverbial star-chart of the advantages and drawbacks of the social media universe is needed to stay on course for today’s public relations expedition.

Identifying Social Media

The first step for public relations professionals in understanding how to use social media to their benefit is identifying what exactly can be used as a social media platform.

There are dozens among hundreds of websites and programs on the Internet that can be classified as social media platforms, but not everything communication-related can be classified as social media. Social media heavyweights consists of, but not limited to, websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. The middleweight social media platforms range from, but not limited to, websites such as LinkedIn to del.icio.us to Classmates.com. These are examples of social media platforms being a commonplace for anyone on the Internet to visit, develop their own identity, share it openly with others and connect and network with others.

A Facebook page can connect hundreds of people by common education networks or similar interest groups. A YouTube channel can connect people across the world with common interests. A Twitter account can disseminate news or updates to millions of “followers” in less then two seconds because connections were made based on like interests.

However, not everything on the Internet where communication takes places can be considered social media. For example, instant messaging (using programs such as AOL/AIM, Yahoo! Messenger or iChat) or e-mail group lists (where users sign-up for e-mail updates on a regular basis) are not examples of social media because even though the number of individual communications can increase, those platforms cannot grow beyond its means.

Social media can be found anyplace on the Internet where one platform is used to make connections or networks with others that has the potential for exponential growth. Once identified, public relations professionals can use social media platforms as a device to communicate not only with their intended or targeted audience (including consumers), but with journalists and maybe more importantly with a non-targeted audience that has been introduced by accidentally networking.

An Introduction to Social Media

Not since the first pitch letter was e-mailed or the first press release posted on the Internet has the public relations industry encountered as big of a paradigm shift as it is currently seeing with social media. A web search on the Internet for the definition of the term social media will populate hundreds or thousands of answers varying in terminology, length and detail making it difficult to narrow down a singular meaning or concept into one or two sentences. The experts of social media will each have their own definition and that will be different then the Average Joe’s who is using one social media platform to discuss the topic on another social media application.

Since there is no one particular, widely accepted definition, I will define social media for the purpose of my exploration into the topic as a person or entity using a Internet platform, application or website to communicate, connect, discuss or network with an audience ranging from a single person or group of people which may or may not be an intended or have a specified target. Or more simply, social media is a vehicle in which people communicate with each other publicly over the Internet.

An important aspect of understanding social media is that it does not consist of any one specific medium to communicate over the Internet. At the same time, social media does not include every medium or method of communicating over the Internet. A social media medium is using a platform over the Internet to communicate with a group of people that can continuously grow and evolve along with the platform itself and has public characteristics.

As the Internet continues to evolve, methods of communication through that medium expand anywhere from simple to more complex and many of these methods fall under the social media category. Furthermore, anywhere that communication exists is an opportunity for information to be exchanged, and as such, public relations professionals must not only be aware of what social media is, but how it effects their profession, how to utilize it to their advantage to get their message across and be aware of its benefits and drawbacks.

Reminder: Bring Your Camera

Whenever a PR or Social Media professional is out in the field on an assignment, there are many things one has to make sure they pack: media kits, extra press releases/advisories, business cards, etc... But don't forget your digital camera because you never know when you want to/need to snap a few photographs.

Digital photos are great for websites, Twitter, Facebook pages, to send to a news desk or to keep for the archives. And truth be told, most of our knowledge of taking a good quality photo ends with shoot-and-point (at least for the majority of us). So stopping short of taking a digital photography class, here's a link that gives a few tips on taking photos.

Tips: 5 Digital Camera Mistakes to Avoid

Top 100 PR Pros on Twitter

Liliana Dumitru-Steffens of the blog Everything PR put a list together of the top 100 professionals on Twitter. I'm currently only following a handful of these accounts, but it's a very good list of who's who. If you're not already following PR pros take a look at a few and start following. Sharing ideas is a great (and easy) way to stay on top of trends in the industry.

Twitter: Following @FakeAPStylebook

It's followed by over 150,000 people and listed well over 10,000 times on Twitter. It's funny, but even more so if you've studied the Associated Press' Stylebook. Meet @FakeAPStylebook.

As advertised in its name, @FakeAPStylebook is not a real account from the Associated Press. But the comedy is real and if you've ever been stuck flipping through the pages of the real AP Stylebook, you'll find the humor in these Tweets.

Some examples:

I'll put this disclaimer in... as with a lot of humor, @FakeAPStylebook can be vulgar, so beware if you decide to take a look. Enjoy.

LINK: Social Media - Hot New Career

While this Yahoo! article has elements that scream it's as much an advertisement as it is an actually article, it does profile six "breakout" careers. No. 1 on their list is "Social Media Strategist".

I do tend to agree that this field is becoming more popular, the author's description is pretty bad:

" Do you love Twitter? Why not get paid to tweet? Seriously! Social media strategists figure out optimal ways to get messages out to the masses using the latest community tools online. This involves blogging, tweeting, and using sites like Foursquare and Facebook to find and communicate with customers. "

What is the description missing? Just the small fact that "loving" Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare is simply not enough to qualify someone for this type of job. Being passionate about a career is very important, but experience is key. Whether it be in Public Relations or Marketing, the social media industry is becoming too complex to jump into without out experience in reaching out to customers/consumers/the public in more traditional terms.

If you want a career in social media, it's best to start from the bottom and work your way up. As in any career field, experience is often the best education. Without the knowledge and experience that education brings, jumping into a more advanced career is exceedingly difficult.

LINK: New Site Aims to Connect Reporters and Publicists

In an article published by the New York Times, journalist profiles a new social networking website called NewsBasis. The website aims to pair public relations professionals and journalists based on what is being pitched on the PR side and/or what resources journalists need for their stories.

As the article points out, there are some similarities to other websites/products that are already on the market, but there are some areas where NewsBasis stands out.

This is definitely something that can change the PR industry.

Link: Selling Social Media to the Boss

If you're like me and have immersed yourself in the social media revolution, you might not realize that some people are not buying into it. If you're in the public relations/marketing industry, that might be a problem if you believe social media can become a big advantage for your product.

SocialMediaExaminer.com takes a look at this potential problem and offers eight suggestions for overcoming this hurdle.

Aside from the suggestions, the biggest takeaway from this blog article is that it's easy to forget that not everyone has bought into social media and the positive effects it can have. It's OK for people not to necessarily jump into the social media universe, but as PR or marketing professionals who are, it's our responsibility to convince them.