"Public Relations and Social Media go together like a horse and carriage ....."

I doubt you would want to hear my singing on the subject, but the concept is accurate. Public Relations has always been an effective way to engage in brand building. With the maturing of Social Media, when you put these two together, you get a sum that is bigger than the parts.

To be truly effective combing these tactics requires a cyclical approach. Read the details of Public Relations and Social Media to learn more.

In today's world full of new media and digital communication technologies, companies of all sizes and industries have a huge opportunity to expand the reach of their messages using social media.

Social media has the potential to attract and hold the attention of a vast demographic of people, especially those who have grown numb to traditional media. Great marketers have always figured out how to stay "ahead of the curve" in their marketing efforts. Social Media is the new frontier of marketing.

Below are some other benefits your company will experience by utilizing social media:

• Affordable Marketing – There’s no need for a large budget to conduct social media marketing
• Viral Nature – Users can easily share your messages with their friends with a click of a button
• Enhances Brand – Through social media you can build and enhance your online reputation
• Builds Credibility – User generated endorsements are more credibility than traditional advertising
• Increases Traffic – A well-planned social media strategy will drive more traffic to your website
• Engages Customers – Connect with your customers and respond to their feedback in real-time

WSI has developed a comprehensive "Social Media Strategy Kit" that will smooth the way for launching a social media strategy for your company. Download the Cover Page and Table of Contents to gain a sense of how complete this document is.

Contact Michael Richards at 636-244-3684 to learn how you can acquire this 65 page social media strategy kit for your company.

Understanding the different message types for the four social media portals that we are reviewing will help you target the right demographic, as well as the most appropriate delivery of your message for each portal.

Here are some basic characteristics of Twitter, LinkenIn, Facebook and MySpace.

Twitter:

Twitter loves rumors and intriguing calls to action
Does not like pictures
Links in your posts will feed growth
Repeat postings are a must to be seen and heard

LinkedIn:

Loves factual content
Q&A section is a must
Used to like only I.T. people, but now enjoys variety
Likes on-to-one conversations more than broadcasting messages

Facebook:

Updates are a must
Pictures keep it happy
Video's keep it somewhat happy
Games, games, games
Does not like selling outside of it's own plugin

MySpace:

Music
The more friends you feed it the more it likes you
Loves self promotion
Flashy attracts it more than content

Of course these are generalizations, but you can begin to see where certain messages might be more applicable, and more effective as a result. Experiment a bit with your social media endeavors. Social Media marketing is new frontier in Internet marketing.

Social Media Portals have pretty well defined "personalities". What you might find appropriate for one could be received unfavorably by another, especially in a business environment.



Let's take a quick look at a description for four of the most popular portals.

Twitter:

• 140 spaces for your message
• Rapid fire postings. It's like being at a party where everyone talks, and few listen
• Loves talking about self

Linked In:

• All business
• Organized like a Rolodex
• Odd habit of playing keep-away with member to member connecting

 
Facebook:

• Friendly
• Loves to connect to past friends
• Loves games

 
MySpace:

• Selfish
• Lacks moral continuity
• Loves music and videos

The median age of the users are 31 for Twitter, 40 for LinkedIn, 26 for Facebook, and 27 for MySpace.

Next time we will take a look at the message types that each portal specializes in.

I think we should now begin to adjust the above question to the following statement, "Why social media really is worth your time."

Courtney Rubin writes, "Forget the endless speculation about whether and how and how much money social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn can make. The key question is: Can they show you the money?"

I think you will enjoy reading her thoughts based upon a new report that answers that question.

Even though the use of Social Media channels is increasing in the business world, it is not impacting the use of email as some analysts predicted. In fact there seems to be an increasing synergy between these two marketing tools.

“The two channels can help each other, offering the opportunity for marketers to create deeper connections.”

Combine the Strengths of Social Media and Email. (PDF) I hope you find the article enlightening, and that it helps you achieve greater results

Mention Social Media to many business owners, and their eyes start to glaze over very quickly since it a relatively new marketing approach for their products and services. Let's take a look at a couple of awesome tools within the Social Media category.

The first tool is a blog, which is a great tool to publish content on your website that will be quickly found by the search engines. Blogs give readers an opportunity to comment on your blog post, thus you have the type of interactivity that characterizes social media. Of course you can moderate these comments before they are published.

There are several great blogging tools available to you. Wordpress is one of, if not the best tool to use, and we often use the blogging tool that is integrated with our online business system called eFusion. I would suggest that every company can use blogging effectively, especially to describe products and services.

The second tool is twitter. You can use twitter to notify your followers, and your followers followers that you have posted new material on your blog. In fact, there is a feature in Wordpress that allows you to post a tweet to twitter automatically as you are posting your blog post. Quite cool!

Maybe it is time for you to have your company do some testing with Social Media to see how it impacts the ROI of the company.

Businesses are learning how to leverage Facebook! Being the fastest growing Social Site, Facebook has attracted the attention of business marketers for quite some time. You can monetize on Facebook!

You may have wondered if there is potential for your business to be promoted through Facebook strategies, or asked the question of, "Why?" I know that you will find the "Facebook Strategies for Businesses" a valuable read. 

Let me know if you are intrigued, and if you might need some implementation assistance. 

"The number one reason as to why businesses do not adopt a social media strategy is because of lack of knowledge, according to a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa to small and medium sized businesses in 2009. This is why when it come to sites like Facebook most businesses do now know where to begin."

Obtaining leads for our businesses while spending less to acquire them is the thing that we dream of as business owners. Instant increase in business profitability. Sign me up!

Google is getting serious about becoming more social... The internet giant has just purchased a search engine called "Aardvark" that gets "friends" on social media sites to ask and answer each other's questions... click here to learn more about this $50 million purchase...