Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Anyone currently studying the art of public relations has inevitably had the increasing importance of social media drilled into their heads.  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, LinkedIn and countless other sites are becoming more and more crucial to the corportate world. If you are not on-board, you are already behind.

What has not been quite as evident is how to harness the power these sites exude for good. One may ask, is all social media created equal?

And the answer would be a loud, resounding NO.

So how do you decipher between the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Lleyl Black’s article Five Killer Social Media Tips, available on Mashable.com, is a great way to start.

1. Anticipate and join Twitter conversations. 
   No one expects you to be a mind reader, but knowledge of current events can really help your online presence. If a big event such as the Super Bowl or an election is coming up, make your tweets relevant to those topics. By implementing popular hashtags, you just might find some new followers. Also, respond to other popular user’s tweets! Do not be shy, get in on the conversation.
2. Write tweetable press release headlines.
   This speaks for itself. If you can drum up audience interest in 140 characters or less, your writing may penetrate a whole new target audience.
3. Turn your blog into a social news wire.
   Not everything your client/organization does requires a press release, but that does not warrant it as irrelevant! Keep your followers informed.
4. Develop social news backgrounders.
   New backgrounder sites allow PR professionals to supply reporters with more information than ever. While you can only say so much during a pitch call, new websites such as Delicious allow you to compile links and articles relating to the story you want covered. Help make busy reporter’s lives a little easier.
5. Use new aggregation services.
   Finally, as you are inevitably swamped with accounts and pages to keep up with, social media has even made managing social media more convenient! Site such asNetvibes allow you to compile all your sites into a single dashboard.

Following these steps will help increase your client/organization’s social media presence. For more information, read the original article on Mashable.com.

More Ways to Save, More Ways to Spend

As an avid Groupon and Facebook user, it is no surprise to me that internet users will soon be able to use both services at once.

Companies throughout the nation provide special deals for the Groupon site. For example, a particular restaurant may offer a $20 gift card for only $10. Because this group buying phenomenon continues to grow, Facebook has decided to capitalize on the deal with its own large market.

The new program will be tested in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and Atlanta. Similar to Facebook’s ability to target ads to its users, businesses working with the site will be able to offer “Deals” to users, specific to there interests. The program is not just for corporations, but for small, local businesses to implement as well. By 2015, the new feature is predicted to make $3.93 billion.

But this is not the site’s only upcoming feature. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerburg is also working on a new “Rental” page, which allows users to watch studio films on demand for $3 each. A margin of the profit will go to the website. Facebook is also talking with the creators of Skype about developing a video chatting feature for the site.

Facebook is clearly looking for new and exciting ways to implement technology in order to profit from its huge user base. Up until recent years, the site continued to gain popularity, but did not have a way to make money off their audience. With the help of other popular online sites and ideas, Facebook will continue to grow and evolve, and make more money in the process.

To read more about the upcoming Facebook changes, read the article here.