Reaching the masses on social media seems like an easy thing to do. Facebook has more than 800 million active users, with more than 50 percent of them logging in every day, Twitter claims 300 million.

But, while these vast user populations may represent great opportunity for the consumer-facing side of the business world, their translation into the business-facing community remains a bit unclear.

In judging the value of participation in this forum, BtoB marketers and decision makers often see two sides to the debate:

1. A complete lack of presence could reflect poorly on a company – especially in a BtoB world where staying “ahead of the curve” is everything.

2. With indistinct analytics, lead-generation value and return on investment, how can a budding BtoB company justify the expenses and time commitments associated with maintaining a social presence?

Furthermore, those businesses that go with door #1, often quickly become frustrated with their results, and fall back into door #2, unable to justify the investment.

I personally believe that with social media, you get what you put in. So, I’ll bring this discussion back to the bare bones of PR. Our overarching professional theme – know your audience – doesn’t magically disappear when thrown into the realm of social media...

 

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I raise my proverbial hat to all PR rock stars that have the golden quill –that keen ability to whip up a perfectly clean press release with precise AP style, concise language and problem solving messaging. But, no matter how strong your inverted pyramid is, it’ll all fall down without a proper cornerstone – and I’m talking about a skillfully crafted quote.

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At the close of an infamous week marked by both an earthquake and a hurricane, I'm relieved to have missed the biggest disaster of all; the Twitter fail whale that arises from too many tweets and prevents users from viewing the site. Lately, every major event has further proven of the importance of Twitter as an instantaneous news source and an arena for completely unfiltered commentary and interaction. But as social media's role shifts to further evolve into a news platform and society's reliance on social media for disaster preparedness and awareness continues to grow, can popular platforms' systems keep up with the flow of information?

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I wasn't around when public relations relied on compiling and mailing press kits, faxing releases or banking on relationships with one or two local newsroom buddies, and I'm glad.  Why? Because there has never been a better time to be in PR than right now.

The game has changed.  PR pros are currently in a transformative stage, evolving, but not just to survive as the fittest among communication experts, but also to rule the tangled infrastructure of emerging media channels and technological trends.  We are evolving to take full advantage of the resources that have been put in front of us, and as a result of society's changing needs, PR skill sets are growing into something a lot bigger than any press release or fact-sheet could ever describe. Yet, we will always remain behind the scenes, speaking through the talking heads and illuminated screens that you rely on.

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