Back in 2005 it really hit me that public relations was impacted by social media. Between a client (Technomic Asia) getting called directly from a National Public Radio reporter after the reporter listened to his podcast, and another client’s feature piece on the front page of the Wall Street Journal getting but an ounce of subsequent attention, I realized the world of communications was changing.

So I did a little keyword number crunching and dug up this chart from Google Insights for Search. The Red trend line for good ol’ PR is not exactly stellar performance. If the PR trend line were a company’s stock performance heads would roll. Now I completely understand that these search terms are relative and in some cases public relations has more absolute searches, relative to social media, however public relations keyword searches were on a long slide to parity if not lower than the term social media.

I suspect social media consultants and PR firm executives will battle royal over which is which, and who was a leader and who was a follower. The inconvenient truth for corporate communicators, marketers, and public relations professionals is the two must coexist. In my digital dog walk audio piece for Tuesday, August 4 I reminisce about the public relations & social media tipping point, and reflect that it is not an us vs them world.
Here’s what i have found to be helpful for client PR as these two functions have converged:

Four Ways to Capture Reporter’s Attention

1. Identify key people inside a company that can relate to a social audience
2. Find ways for the client to tap the social web either by their own actions or mentions by others on the social web
3. Tell the client’s story on social channels
4. Create a multimedia newsroom
5. Reference articles and blog posts in your client’s digital footprint

Share on StumbleUpon