November 5, 2007

What PR people should know about Social Media

Great catchy title isn't it: "What PR people should know about social media"? The question is, DO PR people here even know anything about social media?

I'm sure some people in the corporate world know about blogs - well they've heard about them, not quite sure how they work -and many have banned the use of Facebook from their workplaces. But that's about it! As for the PR world, we'll I don't know.

I think one of the basic issues in South Africa is that people still regard doing anything with a computer besides office work as a waste of time. After all you could go play some sport or go for a walk or go to a movie or spend time with friends, but hang out online...that just seems too unhealthy for a South African.

Well, billions of healthy and unhealthy people across the world hang out online and South Africans are actually really beginning to get into it .

Today, the Facebook South Africa network has over 419,000 members up from 35 000 in May!

So maybe South African PR people should pay a little closer attention to social media and how they can use it.

I found this great article by Brian Oberkirch titled: What PR people should know about social media.

He says: "Tired of watching PR people fuck up when it comes to social media? Me, too. Let’s help them out. Here are a few things you should consider if you’re trying to fold social media into your corporate marketing work" Read more.

1 comment:

Vineet Rajan said...

what u say is very true! social media is a very powerful medium. the smart PR managers are using very effectively in viral marketing campaigns. A good example would be those by perfetti or even BLog action day!

vinni
http://blog.vinni.co.in