From a public relations perspective, social media is a logical component of a comprehensive communications plan designed to support specific business objectives. We work with our clients to leverage new media channels to share their organization’s story with a rapidly growing audience. The beauty of new media is, well, it’s still very new, and many fields are playing a part in shaping the user-experience of these new communications channels. At Media Leaders Raleigh I met with fellow public relations colleagues as well as people from local advertising, marketing, graphic design, production and IT organizations. I really think we took down Foursquare for a short time with the amount of people checking in at Busy Bee Cafe that night. You can see the wide industry representation yourself by browsing the RSVP list for the Raleigh Media Leaders event.

If I received a dollar for the number of times I heard (or said), “I recognize you from Twitter!” I’d have left the Media Leaders event with heavy pockets. This event, among many other localized social media gatherings like Tweetup and Social Media Breakfast meetings, proves that social media will never take away from the value of in-person interactions and networking.  If anything, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare increase the value of these types of gatherings.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the Media Leaders event, add yourself to the mailing list and catch the next event. You can also view the @phonebooth photos taken during the Raleigh event (keep an eye out for the Wolfpack white board photo). You’ll quickly learn why Raleigh won the “Award for Best Social Media Community”. You can find me @khubbard on Twitter – I hope to say “I recognize you from Twitter!” during the next in-person event.