It has been months since we have put a post on our blog. Not because we didn’t have anything to SHARE or celebrate as there is plenty of that, but rather because the demands of prioritizing as we continue to grow as a company – became our main focus.

As mentioned over the last year, I joined the millions of adults who faced the “unplanned” reality of a parent facing significant illness and the change to their lives and mine was monumental.

I think we all believe we can do it all and when reality hits you – sometimes we need to rethink “what doing it all means“. For me it has meant being the best daughter I could be first. Second it meant helping our clients understand, create and implement social/digital strategy and tactics to meet their business objectives and establish meaningful relationships with their customers.

Some may perceive this absence – to be a lack of savvy or klout for us as a business or a company. Others may have thought we dropped out of the game. Neither could be further from the truth! Marketing guru Scott Stratten often tweets on Twitter as @unmarketing -  the idea that one is better to post nothing on a blog, then to post something that is not of value.

What is amazing about substance – is that we began this blog in November 2008. That was almost 4 years ago and right out of the gate I began writing about social media and digital strategy. At that time, all the clients I visited were curious to listen to what I had to say – but none of them were ready to take the chance and test it out. The information over that span of time shared on our blog and website is now relevant and used by many companies and businesses to meet their objectives and establish honest and true relationships with their customers. Funny, that it is now a mandate for all businesses to be engaging social media as a marketing strategy – for success!

From that perspective, the content, opinions, ideas and many examples from the many posts over an almost four year period are well worth the read! We encourage you to look back and see what we had to say then and see how that information matches up to your goals and needs now.

As the summer comes to a close – we look forward to once again becoming engaged and active by continuing to lead the way with ideas, opinions and new styles of engaging and encouraging you – to leverage social media and digital channels to meet your business objectives.

Thanks always for all your support!

Best Nicole

This legitimizes the power and success of social media and re-enforces for all businesses – it is time to get into the game. It also points to many other big companies, Canada’s major retailer The Bay is rumored to be looking at an IPO for the fall. But how are these retailers leveraging the power of social media – as they step into the future in their marketing and continue to engage  their customers?

Everywhere you turn, analysts, media guru’s and business consultants are coming out to talk about social media. The retail industry is just beginning to jump into the foray. I think what is lost on so many businesses – but vital for these retailers is the understanding and skill of linking total communications – to their digital strategy using social media. They all began and continue offline to market to their customers with flyers, magazine inserts, pop -(point of sale) signage in-store, radio and television commercials. Those retailers who have a long history – take with them their brand identity and recognition via these marketing vehicles. As more retailers look to transfer that online traffic to their stores – they need to clearly understand how their customer  wants to communicate in the digital space. Then link their traditional marketing efforts to that digital strategy – seamlessly.

Social media is about engagement. These companies began their engagement with customers offline. Where the message for execution is being lost for many businesses is – that social media communities are extensions of what has and does happen in the real world.  Social media is a way to personally engage and build a one one on one relationship with your customer. The real success and skill comes from mirroring that traditional relationship with your company and brand and moving it online. What were the positive results and transactions you had with your customers offline?

Finding influencers in your target market and creating discussions, sharing ideas, expertise and taking their ideas and expertise to be shared with others in your community is where the success is going to be greatest. Remembering where you started and having a seamless pathway for your customers to travel – using the tools that are familiar and easily available to them, is taking that total communications purpose and making sure that you are making the transition with ease and comfort.

So where to start? Almost everyone has a Facebook page and coming behind Facebook many have a Twitter account. Almost all businesses have a website and from there they can use a multitude of ways to guide their customers in the way they want to communicate. Understanding the total communications pathway and leveraging that path to engage via social media will ensure nobody gets left behind!

Best Nicole

Google Canada continued to tweet that, cost, simplicity and time were stopping small businesses and big business to I might add from leveraging online initiatives. They answered with “Canada Get Your Business Online” initiative. With this initiative Google will hand out websites and domain names to at least 100,000 small and medium sized Canadian businesses, with the bill being footed by Google.” Great way to get businesses started in the online space.

I believe though – that although many of these business owners and marketing managers are familiar with the internet and use it in their everyday life,  many have Facebook pages, smart phones and use those too daily. There is still a lack of understanding and evidence as to the link for these online tools and the success of their business. For most – success means seeing data, and monetary growth in their particular business that – is derived specifically via online channels.  To make an online investment it may mean – taking away current successful dollars from the offline marketing campaigns to invest in that “unknown, unproven space“. At the end of the day – any investment and cost that involves marketing – needs a big return on the investment made – to make sense and be of value no matter the size or success of the business.

In Canada alone -it is ironic that “Canada may be known as the most plugged-in population in the world (spending 43.5 hours per month online, nearly double the global average)” yet there are 1 million companies that do not have  presence online, let alone an e-commerce component. The power of total communications means, a business can leverage their current success offline to build quick success online. That dollar can be shared and used to benefit both aspects of your marketing to enhance your customer reach, broaden opportunity for brand exposure and sales. You also ensure that you reach each and every customer where they are most comfortable.

This new world is about  relationships. Understanding who they are, getting to know where  they are, how they want and like to communicate and the respectful act of slowly developing a meaningful relationship – that benefits both of the parties objectives, values and goals . As an example; creating a campaign on Facebook for a business that has  a retail location, will most certainly be more powerful – if you promote and share your online campaign in your in-store signage, your print materials, receipts that you provide at cash registers and other offline modes of communication that you currently use. What about the sales people in your store – that get to talk about the partnership that has been created with your online business. They want customers to continue to visit their stores. Some of those visitors can be the ones that find you online and have yet to come to your bricks and mortar locations. Others that have not visited you online may be unfamiliar with the idea that they could research certain products or services at home, before visiting your bricks and mortar locations. Now all parts of your business team are working together for mutual success rather than as separate entities. This gives your business more ways to make money and it makes it more meaningful- for your team members to be included in the various ways your business can grow.

It is that total communications mentality that can help grow your business and add to the current success you have had online or offline. You do not have to sacrifice one to benefit the other. There are so many ways to bridge that gap online – in ways that are far more cost effective than many of the offline marketing tools. With a clear understanding, effective and simple measurement and tracking tools – you can effectively find success that far exceeds your current planning and previous monetary success. Being digitally ahead, leveraging your total communications marketing tools = more customer reach, establishing meaningful customer relationships and more opportunity to meet your business objectives.

Time to get online and SHARE your offline communications dollars and success for a digitally ahead, total communications campaign!

Best Nicole

Normally I post a link to articles that touch me or incite something that I wanted to talk about and share with our readers. For today I am going to post an article that I though was important as more businesses focus on how to market to women. Most of us are familiar with TED Talks. I have posted many of them on this blog over the last few yrs.  Engage Boomers: Media Posts rss feed from today – had a beautiful article written by Stephen Riley who attended the most recent TED Talks. What got me was the line “What Boomer Women Look Like” and the subsequent overview of some of the world’s most powerful women and how they reflect accomplishment – not reflected as a targeted age group – but rather as women making a grand difference around the globe – and as Riley writes “creating goals with a purpose.”

As more businesses strategically plan and leverage social media tools, as a way to market their products and services – women play a huge role - not only as decision makers and consumers, but also in helping you create and SHARE your goals and purpose. This new dynamic is about finding ways to create an experience – that incites the recipient of that experience – to take the action you intended them to make.

Best Nicole

What TED Can Teach Us About Marketing To Women

I recently attended the annual TED Conference, which gathers attendees each year to hear cutting-edge scientists, inspiring artists, and global reformers give their own versions of the famous 18-minute “TED Talks.” You have probably seen (or been sent) some TED Talks yourself; all the talks I saw will soon be available to see and share.

As I made my way home after four days of these mind-blowing presentations, I started focusing on some underlying themes. One of those themes was the portrait TED painted (through its speakers) of Baby Boomer women and the true meaning of “aspiration.”

I also found myself wondering how these themes will be discussed at this year’s M2W Conference on April 13-14 in Chicago. M2W may not have as many inventors at TED, but it features a lot of speakers and attendees who think about marketing to women of all ages.

What Great Boomer Women Look Like

Most of the women speakers at TED were themselves Baby Boomers, and they reflected a wide array of female accomplishment:

• Indra Nooyi, the 55-year old chairman and CEO of Pepsico, explained Pepsi’s new mission statement: “Performance with Purpose.” On the “purpose” side of that equation, she told the story of the “Pepsi Refresh Project,”, where millions of citizens have nominated and voted for non-profit groups to receive grants from funds that Pepsi would have otherwise spent on commercials.

• Edith Widder, 60, a biologist, conservationist, and deep-sea explorer, told us about her decades-long fascination with bio-illuminescence, the property that lets an infinite variety of deep-sea creatures produce light. Widder’s lifelong passion has changed the way we see and protect 99% of living space on earth that takes place below the ocean’s surface.

• Julie Taymor, 58 and the creator of “The Lion King,” identified her own creative impulse with an experience at the edge of an active New Zealand volcano, then compared that experience to the inferno she finds herself in now as the producer of Broadway’s disaster-prone “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

• Amina Az-Zubair, a Nigerian reformer, told her own story growing up in a more prosperous Nigeria and now delivering meaningful results as she oversees a $1 billion investment in education to improve the lives of 70 million Nigerians who live in poverty.

As these speakers rolled across my memory, I thought of the portrait they painted of what it means to be a Boomer woman in the U.S. and the world. I saw passions and qualities that we hear about from women but rarely see reflected in any advertisement. Those qualities include:

• An entrepreneurial spirit that is about doing well by doing good

• A reforming instinct

• A creative passion that never gives up

• Knowledge and wisdom that come from years of careful observation

Marketers always talk about what it presenting “aspirational” models for consumers. In the case of Boomer women, that usually means presenting them models who have no wrinkles or grey hair. Yet, the TED Talks I heard reminded me that aspiration can take many forms, and marketers who want to reach women over 50 should also recognize and celebrate the values these remarkable women exhibited: accomplishment borne from a lifelong passion, the wisdom gained from experience and a desire to make the world a better place.

If you remind Boomer women that you recognize these (among other) aspirations in them, you will make it a lot easier for them to help you achieve Pepsi’s goal of performance with purpose.

Best Nicole and the BCAD Group Team

Search in the world of technology is the main driver and source of revenue for all of us looking to build our visibility online. “As a marketing strategy, SEO is used to increase a site’s relevance. The SEO recognizes how search organics work and what people are searching for. It also initiates efforts to include unique content to a site to ensure that its content is easily indexed by search engine robots, making it more appealing to users.”

As this year winds down it is important to reflect and see what the past year’s successes, failures, tragedy’s and challenges were- in order to help plan and build enthusiasm, goals and growth for the year ahead. I came across this video via Google Zeitgeist 2010 that provides you with a great overview of the top searches in 2010 around the globe. Great way to get the juices flowing as we all plan to search on in 2011.

2010 in Review

Re-live top events and moments from 2010 from around the globe through search, images, and video.

Enjoy!

Best Nicole

As I drove back to my office after the conference I realized – even with all the information available on this most important marketing shift and the SHARING we have done – there are many large and small companies – that are just getting started and are still unsure of how to ensure success.  I thought I would offer some ideas – that can be applied to any  social media marketing efforts to help garner immediate results as quickly as possible.

1. Most brands have established who they are product and service wise – but many have not allowed themselves to reveal their personality. By this I mean – you must be assessable and approachable. Encourage your visitors to share their ideas, opinions and provide feedback. You want to retract the traditional methods of talking at people or pushing information and facilitate a two way conversation that welcomes your participants, encourages them to talk with you and makes them feel so good they want to come back and share with others. Don’t forget your employees. They are your first and best brand ambassadors. Create rules and guidelines that fit your companies policies – but encourage them to talk about your business and galvanize your customers to join in with them.

2. Create information and content that can be shared! Make it fun and interesting. Ask questions and listen to the feedback and the content that gets passed along – as guidelines of what your audience enjoys and connects with. Be sure to be consistent and respond to any requests, questions and opinions so that your audience knows that you are listening as well as providing information. This will help add value to the online conversation for your entire community.

3. Acknowledge your brand ambassadors and community participants. Let them know how happy you are to have them supporting you. Be sure to respond to every comment, email, blog comment, Tweet or Facebook post. It is no different than how you would treat a friend. You don’t want them to think that you are ignoring them – all good relationships are built on taking time to nurture each person individually.

4. Continuity of marketing channels is key.  Integrating all of your marketing tools from your website, to your blog, email campaigns, in-store and offline campaigns and your online communities which might be microsites, Facebook and Twitter pages. All must be unified – sharing the same message but communicated in different ways. Like all of us we have different ways of communicating and taking the time to understand the way your target market likes to communicate- gives you have a much better chance of engaging them. Leverage your various sites to promote one another. So on your home page – you might include find us on Facebook and Twitter. Do the same on your Twitter and Facebook pages and provide links where they can easily access the way they would like to connect with you and share you with their communities.

5. Don’t look sideways. So many companies hear or read about businesses that have a gazillion fans on Twitter and decide that they should dive into Twitter hoping for the same results. It could be that your target market doesn’t use Twitter. You want to strategize and understand who and where YOUR customers are and meet them there. It is always great to know what your competition is doing and how they are communicating with their customers but remember – no two people or business are the same. Be true to who YOU are!

Best Nicole

The idea behind using social sharing in email campaigns is to encourage and let members of your database do the sharing of the emails they are receiving. In addition to an extended brand awareness this is a superb way to augment email lists – which appears to be the mandate of many marketers these days – in particular retailers who are looking to drive customers to both their e-commerce sites and bricks and mortar locations. While the email campaigns are being socialized – it makes pretty good sense that you stand to enhance SEO results (search engine marketing) without spending alot of additional effort.

For those that are just starting out to build an email campaign – social media is a great way to begin building a relationship and build the list. “A homebuilder in Indianapolis ran a “12 Days” promotion during the holidays on Facebook, with prizes including free furniture for an entire home.  Twitter also was used to create interest in the promotion.  As news of the promotion spread and people signed up for the contest, the company was gathering names and email addresses for a future email list.  While marketers are used to driving prospects to their Web site and building campaign lists this way, social media is unique because it disarms prospects by building a connection with them in advance.” (example quoted from Media post)

Posting questions and or polls can help with research that can be leveraged on social media sites such as Linkedin and then linked back to your website or syndicated to your Facebook and Twitter pages. Asking people to share their ideas and give their opinions is a good way to start to engage your customers and let them know that you are interested in what they think. This can prove as invaluable research, while helping a retailer decide on the right frequency and timing of emails as well as information on how their target market best wants to connect.

With the addition of mobile and text messaging being the largest and most frequently used feature on a variety of mobile devices in North America- combining all of these tools together with creative campaigns that include offline, in-store and online initiatives – will provide the continuity – to tap into the social computing behaviors of many rather than just some.

How are you building your email lists while engaging your customers and keeping that relationship ongoing?

Best Nicole

Wikipedia defines the QR code history as - “Common in Japan, where it was created by ToyotaDenso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR is the initialism of Quick Response, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed”

Why is this technology significant? The idea of linking spaces to information combine simple creation with easy As a result, QR codes might kick-innovation around information connected in museums, for example, QR codes beside art displays, directing patrons artwork and the artist. QR codes posted visitors the history of the building itself stands, and they might give the architect’s events happening in the city when botanical gardens, codes could direct medicinal uses or food value of botanical or offer data about the climate or soil certain plants to thrive. Because QR they might even be printed as stickers campus signs for a class activity.

What are the downsides? Not everyone is aware of QR codes . As a result, not everyone who sees one will know how to pull out a cell phone and and take a picture of the matrix. Furthermore not everyone owns a camera phone, and because many cell phones do not include a QR reader, the software must be downloaded and tested. Moreover, a QR code might direct users to a website that does not display properly on a cell phone.

Mashable.com posted an article over a year ago by Dana Oshiro that provides some unique ways to use QR codes for your business. One year later there is another article posted today by Zachary Sniderman on how to create and deploy QR codes.

Definitely something to take into consideration as mobile continues to become a viable and needed tool in the marcomm tool chest.

Best Nicole

Anyone with a smartphone can scan and read QR codes with the click of a camera, and anyone with access to a computer can generate QR codes themselves. BayBrain’s Snappr.net offers a QR bar code generator and links to a comprehensive list of software for code reading. By scanning the codes, you can access images, websites and text. By creating the codes, you can produce your own messages.

Usually synonymous with mass production, the quick response (QR) bar code was originally created by Japanese company Denso-Wave to keep inventory. However, because QR codes allow for more data than the standard 10-digit bar code, and because scanning requires less effort than typing a URL, the QR has taken a turn for the personal. The genius behind QR codes is that even a hairless chimp can play with them. Below are five of my favorite uses:

Got any cool uses for QR codes? Share in the comments below.

1. SWAG and Self Branding

I’d avoid any permanent tattoos, but these temporary ones could be cool promo pieces.

2. Geo-Based Reviews and Tours

In a year, despite the fact that the same codes will remain posted on the same landmarks and restaurants, tours may evolve into something drastically different. If a QR code is linked to a public review site, a wiki, or a forum, anyone can lend a hand in chronicling a site’s history. Obviously this has its pros and cons.

3. Green Ticketing

4. Geek Chiq Fashion

Lendorff.Kaywa produced only 500 high-end limited edition Space Invaders QR code scarves . Meanwhile, QRCode Commando Nerd p8tch offers a slightly more affordable “p8tch” to sew to bags and clothing. The patches are less likely to be used for branding than the Snappr merch as they link to a URL on the Swiss domain p8t.ch and users must then redirect. That being said, you’ve always got the opportunity to elegantly Rickroll your unsuspecting public.

5. Secrets & Acts of Defiance

Environmentalists can sticker products and link to corporate crimes, artists can satirize the man by postering government buildings, and Kevin Bacon can finally organize a footloose dance-off free of oppressive townies. The potential for activism and buffoonery is limitless. You are the master of your QR Code Destiny!

Now the internet has changed the face of PR and how these professionals are operating. Twitter can disperse news in real -time and the companies who used PR to promote positive relationships or  images for a brand – now have the opportunity to engage directly with their customer and can create relationships that allow those customers to promote those relationships with their friends and family with the speed, breadth and transparency that traditional PR methods just cannot reach.

Interestingly I have had some great meetings with some very skilled PR people in the last few weeks as we here at SHARE – look at our various projects – and the mix of offline and online marcomm tools needed to make a marketing campaign powerful and profitable. There are still many viable uses for PR as well as the integration of social media as a PR tool. Mashable.com has posted an article today by Erica Swallow – who in this post spoke to several PR professionals who provided their take – on the future of long standing PR tools, such as the press release, the evolution of social platforms, building relationships and current limitations with solutions for the challenges that arise leveraging social media.

With the advent of Twitter and sites like HARO  for which I subscribe – where you can help a reporter out by answering to a post, as a source for an article of interest. “Rather than having PR reps make the first moves all the time, now members of the media can put out requests for pitches from particular types of experts.” For me the most powerful statement to that – is that the author Erica Swallow used HARO to write this article and received 200 quality responses. I personally get several HARO feeds daily and am always looking for someone who might be interested in my expertise as part of an article they may be writing.

At the end of the day PR and social media is about the human factor of building and engaging in relationships. Social media has changed that relationship – as it is no longer a one way dialog – but rather one that can be shared “a bonus for both the company and the customer”. Melding the two together can be a powerful duo!

Best Nicole

Public relations specialists were some of the first people to embrace the power of social media, and as a result they are often the ones leading the way in the social space, whether they are consulting with clients from an agency point of view or strategizing on an in-house PR team.

In the past decade, the Internet has had a huge impact on how PR professionals function. As of late, social media is changing the face of PR, as well. We interviewed 14 PR pros on the future of public relations and how they see social media changing the industry. We collected their thoughts on how social media will affect the future of the press release, the evolution of social platforms, current limitations and solutions for those impediments, connecting with other PR pros, cost savings, and building relationships.

The Future of the Press Release

During the past few years, we’ve witnessed a shift towards what some are calling the “social media release.” Services like PitchEngine, PressLift, PRX Builder, and MindTouch are bringing the press release into the new millennium with embedded multimedia and easy distribution through various channels, including social media and e-mail. We asked our PR experts about the future of the traditional long form press release, and we received quite a bit of feedback that showed that while it is here to stay, it will continue to be influenced by the brevity and accessibility of social media.

Amanda Miller Littlejohn, founder of Mopwater Social Public Relations, commented on the importance of the social media release and how it enables readers to share and interact with it:

“While I don’t believe the press release is dead, it has been transformed, to become this living, breathing thing. If a release doesn’t have a social element — that is, a way for viewers to comment or share to their social networks — it doesn’t have legs.”

The format of the press release isn’t the only factor in its evolution. In an e-mail interview, Vice President of BLASTmedia, Lindsay Groepper, discussed how distribution of the press release will continue to be key to its future:

“When I first began my career in PR more than decade ago, we would e-mail or fax (gasp!) the full press release text to the press. What we see now is new methods of distributing the info, driven by social media. Rather than e-mailing a press release, PR people are sending journalists to custom landing pages created just for that specific announcement, contacting them via Twitter with a BUDurl link to the release, or even directing them to a YouTube video with a message from the CEO making the announcement.”

PR professionals are now experimenting with these new distribution channels. Likewise, many are finding that the form of the press release isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every channel. Vistaprint’s Public Relations Manager Jeff Esposito believes that the press release will continue to evolve into multiple iterations for various audiences, channels, and situations:

“Over the next five years, I think we’ll see three types of press releases that will assist different audiences. The first is in a video format where there will be a short description followed by a link to a video giving information on the news from a company source, hitting on the five W’s and also offering sound-bites that can be used for stories or added to a news story. The second iteration will be a further evolution of the social press release that is being used today, except more brief and more focused. The final is similar to what we see now with company boiler plates, stock quotes and additional information.”

In the end, the press release’s future may simply depend on media consumption trends, according to David McCulloch, director of public relations at Cisco Systems:

“In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a marked shift in [the press release's] format to reflect the accelerating societal shift from mass consumption of media (“push” media) to personalized consumption or “pull” media. That’s a shift that has led Cisco to spend less time telling reporters and bloggers what it is we expect them to write, and more time helping them understand how what Cisco is doing might fit with their interests.

“…[I]t’s pretty clear where the press release will go next: It’s going to get shorter; link to more sources; be focused on simplification and explanation; and it’ll come in many more flavors. Practically speaking (assuming the SEC keeps pace with media evolutions), that means the press release of the future will deliver its content in text, video, SMS, microblog and podcast form, to any choice of device, whenever the reader decides, and preferably it will be pre-corroborated and openly rated by multiple trusted sources.”

Kelly McAlearney, an account supervisor at Edelman Digital, agrees that based on natural progression, the press release will continue to get shorter, for concision’s sake:

“Engagement with journalists and consumers has evolved considerably over the past five years, to shorter formats. Often, we find that our most effective pitches are our most succinct. And interactions have naturally become more concise as many brands are in constant, direct contact with consumer audiences and media via online channels.”

Lou Hoffman, CEO of The Hoffman Agency, brought an interesting perspective to this conversation. He said that the backlinks generated by press releases are reason enough to continue syndicating them, even if the contained information is of little use to the audience. He speculates that if search engines were able to point out and devalue republished news releases and their included backlinks, companies would find better ways of dispersing news:

“I don’t think the news release will die in the foreseeable future, say the next five years. Even if the syndication of this content has little impact on the target stakeholders, they’ll still be generating backlinks, which by themselves deliver a decent ROI.

“Looking beyond five years, I could see the algorithms of search engines becoming smart enough to discern whether a backlink comes from syndicated content, which in turn causes it to greatly reduce the value of the backlink. In other words, even if a news release is syndicated on the Wall Street Journal, with all the “authority” that comes with the site, the search engine figures out that it’s nothing more than a republished news release, so scores the backlink super low. If this happened, we would see the volume of news releases significantly decline.”

The Evolution of Social Platforms

The social media platforms with the most value must be used by a client’s target audience and be a meaningful place for brands to connect with consumers and journalists. Our PR experts said that mass social platforms, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, will continue to be important on some level, but niche, industry-specific networks will be of greater value in the future.

“The most important platforms for PR pros in the future will be the ones most targeted for their clients,” said Cara Stewart, founder and principal at Remarx Media. “Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are ‘fun;’ getting nitty-gritty into community sites that are industry-specific is less ‘fun,’ because PR pros have to really understand clients’ technologies, business models, services and more. Really, it’s more about PR pros becoming better PR pros and understanding their clients’ businesses, as well as what their clients do … Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution.”

Social media platforms will continue to evolve, but “A PR person’s job remains the same,” said Heather Whaling, founder and president of Geben Communication. “It’s critical that we’re innovative and staying on top of the latest and greatest; however, we also need to avoid ’shiny object syndrome’ and instead make recommendations based on the client’s business needs.”

Once the industry settles in to a standard for finding the right platforms for each of its clients, the next step is measuring success. Miller Littlejohn pointed out that the PR industry is moving from placing importance on broadcasting to highly valuing monitoring and measurement:

“Right now, the most important tools are the broadcasting tools … But in five years, the most important tools will be the monitoring and measurement tools — the tools that can tell you what happened to your message once it got out there. [T]he tools that can demonstrate (and quickly demonstrate) return on engagement will be winners.

“Free measurement dashboards will also be winners. Right now, there are a few ways to measure mentions of your brands for free, but they are extremely limited in how much and what you can measure at one time. You can pay thousands of dollars per month for a nice platform to measure your brand on the social web, but most smaller brands and small businesses can’t afford that. I think if someone develops a more sophisticated social media and PR measurement and monitoring dashboard and offers it for free, that will be a rock star tool.”

There is also a growing demand for social platforms that make it easier for journalists and PR reps to contact one another. Help a Reporter Out (HARO), PRNewswire’s ProfNet, NewsBasis, and Media Kitty are all enabling the communication lines to run in both directions. Rather than having PR reps make the first moves all the time, now members of the media can put out requests for pitches from particular types of experts. In fact, I used HARO to write this article and received nearly 200 quality responses.

Current Limitations & Solutions

While PR pros are experiencing lots of successes with social media as is it today, our experts pointed out quite a few limitations with the current offering of social platforms that will need to be worked out for continued adoption, understanding and success across the industry.

• Broadcasting vs. Listening: Our experts pointed out that a vast majority of the PR people out there are using social media as a broadcasting tool for sending out press releases and recent client news. The next gen PR pros will use social media as a listening and communicating tool. Scott Bauman, vice president of Greenough Communications, elaborates:
  

  “In the future, I think we’ll see more … real-time interaction that demonstrates the brand is actually listening. This begins to build trust, which is highly valuable and highly perishable. This means continued growth in listening platforms (such as Radian6), but less for reporting (just showing share of voice, for example) … In the end, the real change is a more fluid, immediate, and nimble PR/communications practitioner, instead of one who simply follows a PR plan and rigidly adheres to it.”

• Finding the Right Audience: Many of our experts agreed that while the mass social platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, are useful, the niche, industry-specific communities provide just as much, and sometimes more, value for clients. The current issue, though, is that finding these communities is quite tough and involves a lot of scattered research across the web. In the future, directories with the ability to search for target demographics across a broad range of social networks would make the process of finding the best platforms with the right audiences much easier.
• Imperfect Data: With measurement becoming one of the most important features of social networks for marketers and PR pros, data is the key to enlightenment. “Social media provides a lot of information, but it’s also imperfect data,” said Chuck Tanowitz, founder and principal at PR and social media firm Fresh Ground. “So the trick is knowing what to accept and what to dismiss.”Tanowitz gave the example of the mayor of his home city of Newton, Massachusetts. Mayor Setti Warren has just over 700 followers on Twitter, which wouldn’t put him into the “influencer” category on most social measurement tools. However, in real life, he’s quite influential. Tanowitz notes, “It doesn’t tell you much. Yet, when he got elected [as mayor], he received a call from President Obama, so he obviously has the ear of some influential people. You can’t learn that from Twitter.” For now at least, social measurement data should be taken with a grain of salt.
• Social Stream Aggregation: Nicole VanScoten, a public relations specialist at Pyxl, believes that the future of PR is all about a one-stop social dashboard for easy social media management. She says, “Right now, we’re forced to pay attention to a whole host of different networks. I think we’ll continue to see more aggregation here … People will continue to develop programs that save us time.”Tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, CoTweet, Postling, Vitrue, SocialTALK and more, aim to make it easier for businesses posting and monitoring across platforms. While there isn’t one perfect management tool quite yet, over the next five years, it’s probable that one or two clear leaders will emerge.
• Client Buy-In: Lastly, PR pros are still finding it difficult to obtain client buy-in for investment in social media. Currently, a large part of a PR pro’s job involving social media is educating clients of its use and benefits. The solution here is data. As success measurements continue to improve, the case for social media will become much clearer.
  

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  Connecting with Other PR Pros

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  As more and more independent PR professionals launch their own consultancies, the independent PR community at large is becoming an important place for individuals to get advice. Social media is driving those relationships.

  LuAnn Glowacz, an independent PR strategist and founder of PR firm WordCove PR notes, “My most valuable business connections are other independent PR and related professionals in Austin, who I connect with daily on Twitter and Facebook. We refer each other, give advice to each other, co-work and socialize together. It’s like having co-workers and employees while keeping the paycheck all to myself.”

  Glowacs also connects with other PR pros every Wednesday at the #SoloPR Twitter chat, moderated by her colleague and PR/social media consultant, Kellye Crane. Crane also runs a blog and LinkedIn group for Solo PR. Glowacs commented on Solo PR: “In my opinion, it’s the top social media resource for indie PR pros. [It consists of] very high-caliber PR pros from around the country helping and learning from each other.”

  Twitter chats seem to be popular among contemporary PR pros. Stewart and her team at Remarx attend the #B2Bchat on Twitter every Thursday to keep up with social media trends and share their own knowledge of the space. And Whaling co-moderates the popular #pr20chat, a weekly exploration of social media’s influence on public relations.

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  Saving Money and Putting It to Good Use

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  Social media has the ability to save companies lots of money through enhancing traditional and online campaigns. INgage Networks‘ Corporate Communications Manager Kathy Saenz explained how her company saved $270K in expenses via social media. They had previously paid $250K annually for an external PR agency, and $20K in events budgeting for venue, traveling and promotions expenses. They saved all of that money by bringing their PR in-house and focusing on social media. Instead of running large events at expensive venues, they now run webinars. Of their latest webinar, Saenz said, “It was a targeted B2B audience we wanted to reach; [we] broke record attendance numbers. We didn’t have to pay for anything as a result. Great exposure and big money saved.”

  For PR professionals, social media also saves time and money by yielding higher response rates to pitches. VanScoten explained:

  “It’s amazing to me that I get a MUCH higher response rate when pitching reporters via Twitter than e-mail. I would actually go as far as to say that every time I’ve pitched a reporter via Twitter, I have gotten some sort of response (often resulting in a story for my client). Via e-mail, I have maybe a 50% response rate. The phone call response rate would be my lowest.”

  As these success stories become more publicized and the PR industry begins to see the cost savings behind social media, it’s inevitable that the stragglers will jump on the bandwagon.

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  The Human Factor

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  No matter which tools PR pros use to connect with media members, the most important factor is the human factor. Public relations and social media are both about creating and fostering relationships. Our PR experts agreed and emphasized the fact that personal relationships will continue to propel the bond between social media and PR.

  Dave Delaney, social media coordinator at Griffin Technology explained, “Today, not only can we send a press release to a valuable group of media contacts, but we can now take that message wider using social media. Whether our communication is a press release, blog post, or a tweet, the important thing is remaining relevant and engaging our friends, fans and followers.”

  Emphasizing relationships, Hoffman also discussed his agency’s use of social media:

  “We’re definitely using social media to connect with journalists and customers, but this outreach involves a news release maybe 20% of the time tops. The other 80% of the time we’re talking with journalists, bloggers and other influencers about issues and macro topics. In short, we devote most of our outreach to helping our clients serve as industry and business sources, as opposed to promoting their products.”

  McAlearney reiterated the importance of building relationships with influencers. “Regardless of how an announcement is shared -– via wire, blog post, tweet, or otherwise –- the critical step has historically been, and will remain, the human element. By directly reaching out to key media and influencers with whom we maintain relationships, we’re able to ensure their timely awareness of the news.”

  Groepper backed up that point in saying that “Despite the changing landscape of press release distribution, the most effective communication for a PR person still remains unchanged: Building relationships with the most influential press in your space. Having key relationships is what helps drive the type of media the client is seeking, and no press release can accomplish that in its place.”

  “In truth we’re talking about the same positive PR practices that good PR people have been doing for decades,” Tanowitz concluded, “They read and understand their target audience, then help craft stories that speak to and with that audience.”