Public Relations Plans with Passion

When we put together a public relations plan or an interactive strategy or a marketing presentation, and we are in the midst of our research, there is this one axiom that always turns up: "No one knows their business better than the client." It just stands to reason. Sure, we can learn everything needed to get the client's product in front of all the right eyeballs, but the client will always have the upper hand in that. Their business is and their product is what is important to them, not marketing or public relations - that's why they hired us in the first place! Now, if someone wanted to get into social media for the sake of propping up their own public relations plan, they would need more than knowledge. To be effective they would need passion. Even if an advertising agency was hired to do all of that networking and posting, (which, frankly, not a bad idea, considering the daunting number of places you might need to be visible on,) the client's own interest in what they do and the people they sell to is what will make or break that campaign. It is, in fact, the whole reason social media can be so successful: It enables you to reach out to your customers and not blast them with messaging, but actually talk to them. To get social media to work, then, you need a passion for your customer as well I think. Jason Baer posted what I think is an interesting list on his Convince and Convert blog, "The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media." They are definitely things you'd want to avoid if you started Twittering or blogging. While leaving a comment, though, I realized there was something more philosophical behind them. Being inflexible with your message or stingy with return mentions doesn't happen if you are actually interested in the person on the other side of that computer screen as a person, and not as just another data point from your public relations plan research. If instead you come to social thinking, "today I'm going to make a new connection," I would say you are cut out for this. If you go into it thinking, "it's a game, and if I friend the right people and post the right kind of stuff I can build up followers and ultimately get a lot of exposure," well... it might work, but the former example's the one that has legs. They're not likely to start "gaming" these people they're hoping to get as customers, simply because that would be rude. Whether you hire someone to do the legwork with social or you do it yourself, just remember Otter said to Boon in Animal House: "Don't think of it as work! The whole point is just to enjoy yourself." I know he was kidding, but it's funny how successful you can be at things when you go in thinking that. :)

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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