More Than Poking Media Relations

MORE THAN POKING …

How Facebook and other social media are impacting media relations

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

WHO USES IT?

Facebook 200 Million active users Fastest growing demographic:

(age)______________ Twitter

Grew 1328% from February 2008-2009 Most users are: (gender)_________________

YouTube 100 Million UNIQUE viewers in the US Average viewer watches (number)_____ videos

FACEBOOK

Personal Pages: Not for business applications Time to clean up: before interviews Can help prospective employers get a sense of

who you are Live stream news feed takes a page from Twitter

to provide constant information about your contacts

Vanity URLs coming this weekend (June 13th)

FACEBOOK

Group pages Business

applications Short term Causes/Events “Friendable” Discussions

FACEBOOK Fan Pages

Indexable: SEO Can’t “friend” like a

group page, but easier to find fans now

Changes to Facebook make Fan pages act much more like personal pages, which can help businesses

Public Profiles Guide:http://

www.facebook.com/FacebookPages

FACEBOOK ADAPTS

Facebook Connect Potential to change

the way people interact with social media

More opportunities to make one profile and that serve as your personal brand across all channels

TWITTER

Microblogging: 140 Characters at a time

Ashton Kutcher: Race to 1 million

Oprah effect Retention rate could

be an issue.

TWITTER

How to find what you’re looking for: @ replies # hashtag Twitter communites

like Twittermoms Twello Search.twitter.com Wefollow.com Twittercounter

TWITTER

How to harness it: Drive traffic to a

Web site or blog Raise awareness Offer giveaways Respond to

consumer complaints

Fast breaking news Fundraising

PITCHING VIA TWITTER

Some journalists welcome the brevity of a 140 character pitch, but not all.

Use link shorteners like tinyurl or bit.ly to direct media contact to more info.

Offer more than just spammy pitches – engage contact in conversation, build your relationship

Rule of thumb: 3 to 1

MEDIA ON TWITTER

www.mediaontwitter.com

Eleven countries Rick Sanchez Cision offers Twitter

handles

SOCIAL MEDIA: CONNECTS

LinkedIn Create a business

profile for yourself Join groups of target

media (writers/editors)

LinkedIn expert answers

Follow your media contacts from pub to pub via LinkedIn

SOCIAL MEDIA: BLOGS Many journalists have web

duties, in addition to fewer staff members to enterprise stories

Connect with reporters, columnists via their blogs: use comments to engage them, position yourself as source

Use links to your site in comments to promote your organization (sparingly)

MEDIA RELATIONS: MORE THAN PITCHING

Use social media to give your organization or cause depth, show engagement

Create groundswell, grassroots numbers via social media to put your story on media’s radar

FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.twitter.com/stephskordas

www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieskordas

sskordas@gmail.com