You don”™t have to have more than a cursory knowledge of pop culture to realize that social media like Facebook and Twitter can help make a career (see the resurgent Betty White) or break it (and the descending Roger Clemens).
Whether you like them or not, social media are essential to public relations executives seeking maximum multilayered exposure for their clients.
“Most people today get their information from the Internet, whether it be reporters doing research or people reading the news,” said Carolyn Mandelker, president of Harrison Edwards PR & Marketing, a Bedford Hills-based firm whose clients range across the fields of medicine, retail, academia and the arts. “So yes, we”™ve embraced (social media) totally. They”™re hugely important tools.”
“It”™s an exciting time from a PR point of view,” said Liz Bracken-Thompson, a partner in Thompson & Bender, a Briarcliff Manor firm whose client list features hotels, corporations, restaurants and colleges.
Part of that excitement ”“ and the challenge ”“ is the array of digital choices available to publicists and their clients. There are social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace; professional ones like LinkedIn; video sites like YouTube ”“ the most popular search engine after Google; blogs (a combination of a log and a column, to which people respond); e-blasts (large electronic mailings with imbedded photos and hyperlinks to the clients); and vidcasts (online TV shows), to name a few.
Harrison Edwards is even developing smartphone apps for a couple of clients that will in turn enable their customers to keep in touch by pressing a button.
Tailored to clients”™ needs
Today”™s savvy publicist has to know how to exploit all of these tools while at the same time discerning that some may be more effective than others in filling a client”™s needs.
Banks, for example, have to be careful, Bracken-Thompson said. Certain banking regulations prohibit the use of more personal networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But Thompson & Bender client Provident Bank, based in Montebello, has done well on LinkedIn, she said: “It”™s like a virtual seminar. The bank can ”¦ educate potential customers on banking issues.”
Another Thompson & Bender client, White Plains Hospital Center, has a very active Facebook page.
“I like to compare it to a bulletin board,” Bracken-Thompson said. “The hospital can post emergency department information or workshops for new parents. And patients post comments.”
Meanwhile, Thompson & Bender tweets about The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester and its amenities. (The national Ritz-Carlton hotel chain also has its own Twitter feed.)
Thompson & Bender is big on tweeting. Its website (thompson-bender.com) includes an image of a chubby bluebird from whose beak emerge musical notes. Above it, the copy reads: “We can help you tweet! Ask us how.”
Publicity pitfalls
More elaborate than tweeting, blogging is another weapon in the multi-platform PR arsenal. Harrison Edwards”™ client RTK Environmental Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based company with offices also in New York and Massachusetts, has a blog called Inspector”™s Notebook (rtkenvironmental.blogspot.com), which addresses such issues as new EPA regulations on removing lead paint and flooding from Aug. 22”™s heavy rains.
“Blogs are important, particularly if you have fresh content,” said Mandelker, whose firm blogs about client news at prharrynewsfeed.blogspot.com. “The more fresh content, the more people will pick you up.”
RTK”™s blog, coupled with its videos on YouTube, has driven some 6,000 people to the company, she added, just as podcasts of the WOR radio program “Back Talk Live!” with White Plains neurosurgeon Ed Kornel (backtalkonair.com) have generated calls from Toledo to Toronto.
There are, however, publicity pitfalls to all this digital media.
“The downside of social media is that you can”™t control what people say about you,” Mandelker says. “What you can do is try to manage it. You have to be in the conversation.”
“You have to approach social media the way you approach all good PR and be proactive,” Bracken-Thompson adds. “You also have to be aware that what you”™re writing is going to last forever.”
