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29-03-2010
Social media; useful tool or useless distraction?
Recent months have seen coverage of prisoners taunting
victims from inside jail through social media sites such as FaceBook,
footballers banned from using Twitter and, most recently, a 16 year-old girl
dismissed from her cafe job through a poorly spelt message on FaceBook. We recently overheard the comment: “I’m over
the Internet; been there, done that.”
So, is social media a useful tool or a useless distraction?
Digi-whizz, Simon Partington, was recently privileged to be invited to sit on a panel of ‘experts’ at a Birmingham City University (UBC) social media workshop. None of those on the panel would actually profess to be experts and we would argue that it is perhaps too soon for anyone to be expert in social media anyway.
Nevertheless, the workshop at BCU explored a number of themes, including:·
After many years of working with clients to secure the most relevant coverage in the most effective media, the first theme is certainly true. Many agencies still use the outdated Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) as a measure of PR results. But, this is like comparing apples with pears.
Likewise, the quantity of ‘hits’ or circulation figure of the media title is irrelevant unless the media outlet is targeting the right audience. A feature which goes straight to 4,000 of your key market is often more effective than one which hits 20,000 people – most of whom are not relevant.
By the same token, it’s important to remember that just because social media has the capacity to reach everyone, it doesn’t mean that it will - the key is to be interesting and relevant. In the same way that a pharmacist is unlikely to read an engineering magazine, not everyone will read your postings online. Show interest in what others are doing, creating or producing and people will notice and be drawn to your enthusiasm. In short, the trick is to be interested and become interesting.
Finally, we would certainly endorse the final theme – the channels may well be changing but your message should be consistent throughout. It doesn’t matter whether you are communicating internally or externally, verbally or through written means, traditional media or social media or by shouting from the rooftops, your message will always be much stronger if the essence stays the same.
So, what are your thoughts – we’d love to know – is social media a useful tool or useless distraction? Email us at Kinetic PR or send us a Tweet to @KineticPR.
So, is social media a useful tool or a useless distraction?
Digi-whizz, Simon Partington, was recently privileged to be invited to sit on a panel of ‘experts’ at a Birmingham City University (UBC) social media workshop. None of those on the panel would actually profess to be experts and we would argue that it is perhaps too soon for anyone to be expert in social media anyway.
Nevertheless, the workshop at BCU explored a number of themes, including:·
- quantity vs quality of following;
- the science of being interesting;
- channels are changing but the message stays the same.
After many years of working with clients to secure the most relevant coverage in the most effective media, the first theme is certainly true. Many agencies still use the outdated Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) as a measure of PR results. But, this is like comparing apples with pears.
Likewise, the quantity of ‘hits’ or circulation figure of the media title is irrelevant unless the media outlet is targeting the right audience. A feature which goes straight to 4,000 of your key market is often more effective than one which hits 20,000 people – most of whom are not relevant.
By the same token, it’s important to remember that just because social media has the capacity to reach everyone, it doesn’t mean that it will - the key is to be interesting and relevant. In the same way that a pharmacist is unlikely to read an engineering magazine, not everyone will read your postings online. Show interest in what others are doing, creating or producing and people will notice and be drawn to your enthusiasm. In short, the trick is to be interested and become interesting.
Finally, we would certainly endorse the final theme – the channels may well be changing but your message should be consistent throughout. It doesn’t matter whether you are communicating internally or externally, verbally or through written means, traditional media or social media or by shouting from the rooftops, your message will always be much stronger if the essence stays the same.
So, what are your thoughts – we’d love to know – is social media a useful tool or useless distraction? Email us at Kinetic PR or send us a Tweet to @KineticPR.
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