If you just build it doesn’t mean they’ll come

Posted Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 8:27pm in PR General  | 

Using social networks for PR purposes is the big thing these days. Statistics show that people are using traditional media less so than ever before because of new technology choices. I won’t go into the whole spiel as it’s been said countless times already but I think it hit me yesterday as I was listening to a podcast and changing my Facebook profile status on my phone while my flatmate played PS3 with some dude based in Canada. It then occurred to me how little TV I actually watch, if any at all. Anyway…


Is it any wonder PR is trying to adapt - with social networking sites heavily on its agenda for some time now. However, what some people are forgetting is that just because they understand the culture of social networks and, in fact, they may be frequent users of a particular social networking site, doesn’t mean they can just waltz in there and get their message (or their client’s message rather) out.

What I’m trying to say is that you hear all this advice by experts people who know a bit saying you’ve got “embrace”, “engage”, “give something of value to” the community but the point they miss is the big inherent idea that will embrace, engage and give value but also create talkability around the brand. What is the…

BIG IDEA?

Now this is the hard part. Coming up with a creative idea to hit your market online and then transcend to offline. Anyone can say: “Yeah we’ll create a profile on MySpace or we’ll form a group on Facebook or we’ll upload a video to YouTube”. So what! Will anyone actually care? It’s all about the creative ideas… And these, my friends, are harder to produce than throw away comments.

Bonus link: While we’re on the subject of social networks, NMA reports Facebook was the fastest growing website in the UK in April. A report by Comscore said the site’s unique user numbers rose by 38% to 3.7m during the month. Yep, I was one of those uniques.

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Fear is the enemy of Business…. Creativity is our Future. at Imagination+Innovation

Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 2:19am

[...] Stephen Davies at PRBlogger.com has a great piece about using social media to achieve your end goal. Creativity and having that great big idea is important. Guy kawasaki has a great ditty about DIY PR. The two articles reflect the future of our always-on and connected cultural. I’ve been meaning to write a piece about twitter all week.. but I think I need more time with it. The potential is huge, but can I tap into it? [...]

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