1. Why Some PR People are Scared of Social Media

    One of my first jobs in PR was reading through endless magazines and articles with mentions. Cut, paste (on paper), look up publishing numbers, enter in Excel, etc. Pretty cool job, but just a tad time consuming, don’t you think?

    I also remember another instance at that old job. The Director of Marketing was asking everyone’s opinions about a particular print ad. I remember speaking up (in my little worker ant voice) saying that if I were in that position, I would pull all print ads and put everything into Web Marketing. The entire room laughed at me and thought I was c-r-a-z-y! Was I really crazy or was I just thinking progressively?

    Many people who work with traditional media are scared of the unknown. Those are the people that will have a hard time accepting Social Media and all it has to offer. I’m not saying Twitter will be around forever, but it sure is popular right now. PR is about relating to the masses - what does the public want? How can you relate to them?

    Social Media just a new updated version to the old way of doing PR and Marketing, with a fancy name. Just the communication tool as we know it has changed. It’s fast and personal, and best of all - measurable. If all this is true, then why are people so scared of it?

    1. They don’t know what they’re doing.

    Social Media isn’t something you should do professionally without having some sort of strategy. Take the time to research your audience and listen to them. The old way of blurting out your news just doesn’t work (maybe it never really did work). Believe it or not, your audience isn’t as dumb as you think!

    2. They think it’s a new fad.

    No, it’s not, really. But compared to the Wall Street Journal, it’s new.  Certain websites might be fads, but the idea of Social Media is not a fad.

    3. There’s a misconception that Social Media is only for the youth market and it’s a small market.

    The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is age 35+. Ages 35 - 49 make up 41.7% of Twitter’s users. According to Nielson Online; Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time.  

    4. Some people think it’s overwhelming.

    Sure, Social Media is time consuming if you’re doing it right.  But there are tools out there that help you manage your posts, like TweetDeck.  Now THERE is a market that will grow in the upcoming years! 

    5. They think their old/new/whatever way is better.

    I usually find that people with this view haven’t even tried Social Media.  And if they have without results, they probably probably need to refer back to #1!