Is it critical?

Last week we started off by embracing the beautiful relationship between a publicist and social media. We established that the two can be defined as a "match made in heaven" and go very well hand in hand. We also discussed the importance and empowerment of social media that many organizations and companies fail to comprehend. Let us further our discussion by determining how to establish this concept of using social media to impact our company for great success.

As every industry, public relations also has core fundamentals that are used on a day to day basis in order to achieve successful results. Above all, the most important steps are critical thinking and how to grasp the public's attention are the basics tenets of PR. As publicists we tend to be very constricted, only relating to these steps in a certain manner and using it only for the typical press releases, advertisements media kits and pitches. But now with the new era of social media we are able to view and utilize these steps in a whole new manner. Let's make a few replacements shall we? Is critical thinking really necessary when instead we can incorporate new knowledge and skills in to our daily work? Instead of reflecting carefully, let's take the applied route by using what we already know and enhance it to a further level.

 For example, your client tells you that she is opening a new restaurant. Normally hearing this as a publicist, we would develop communication strategies which will allow us to determine the best way to reach the public. But it's time to kick that concept out the door, social media is the best possible way to reach our public! 1 in every 13 people in the world relies on social media and over 50% of world uses social media on a daily basis..yes these are the facts. So now that we know this, we can now determine that building a social media campaign based on new knowledge and skills. So let's replace that restaurant ad on the radio with a "pin it to win it" Or a "retweet to win" campaign using pinterest or twitter. These are some leading social media sites that are used by over 250 million people in the world. We all know once we hear a commercial on the radio we switch it to the next best thing anyways. Having social media campaigns will not only grasp the population attention, but will also take an applied route getting consumer's involved and interactive with the campaign making the experience memorable and unique from the gecko.

Whether it's your own company or your client's you must realize that as a publicist you can influence the impact that social media can make on your campaign. Embracing this digital era of modern thinking, applying necessary knowledge and lastly, re -establishing your direction of the campaign. Are all steps needed to make your social media campaign a valuable asset. Once you are comfortable gelling these factors together, you will start to realize the transition you have taken into a higher plateau, as you are now starting to accept the new modern digital era. It can be slightly nerve racking but with a little practice, you will find yourself in a new exciting world with new exciting changes.