Kate Ottavio, Account Coordinator, Co-Communications, Farmington | Best Media Relations Ideas

You recently took part in a New York City event called the Best Practices in Media Relations Summit. Your presentation at the summit was “30 Ideas in 30 Minutes.” There isn’t room here for 30 ideas. What were the top 3 ideas you gave at that presentation?

Be prompt about addressing any client/customer dissatisfaction in the social media space. You now have a minute, not a day, to address a crisis.

Companies will realize being a source and a resource is important, which will redefine their use of social media. Your community isn’t solely concerned with what you do, but also with what you can do for them.

People need to realize they can’t be robots. Auto direct messages (Twitter) and canned responses don’t build and engage the community. Be human. Show some personality in your social media interactions.

All of the original ideas were presented by the PR Breakfast Club and can be found at http://PRBreakfastClub.com.

What’s the strongest social media tool for business right now: Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? Why?

In my opinion, Facebook comes in a close second to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is universally recognized as a professional business tool and I have found its members outnumber those on Facebook when I survey my audience at business speaking engagements. But people more often identify LinkedIn as a personal online resume and don’t capitalize on the fact that you can create events, discussions and groups giving way to business promotion and development. Facebook, on the other hand, allows a ‘page’ to be created for an organization allowing a platform for businesses to feature their culture, explain new products, share news, interact with customers and prospects, and more.

How has public relations changed in the past five years because of social media? Obviously it’s more viral but have the metrics changed? How are you measuring success?

Public relations has changed in the past five years in an astronomical way. Five years ago many PR professionals were still faxing press releases. Now we are sharing client news in 140 characters via Twitter. With the changing media landscape (papers, magazines, etc. ceasing publication), we must find new and innovative ways to directly reach our clients’ audiences. This direct engagement is fantastic, but the loss of a third party endorsement from a news source also makes people cautious about an organization’s credibility.

To measure the impact of a social media campaign we compare pre- and post-campaign statistics (i.e. number of fans, followers, click-throughs etc.). However, having 500 fans on a Facebook page doesn’t necessarily translate to 500 potential customers or stakeholders. Co-Communications looks at qualitative data such as auditing follower and friend engagement on social mediums and other success metrics such as increased sales or donations.

What are some of the mistakes that businesses use when dipping their toes into social media? What do you advise clients not to do?

The greatest mistake a business can make is signing up and immediately diving into a sales pitch. Social media is all about relationships and engagement. People want to feel like a need is being met and often like direct contact with organizations on Twitter and Facebook. If all you do is talk, and not engage with customers and potential clients, you will be sorely regretful of the time you wasted with social media.

Another mistake is not deciding whether your business is represented by the brand or the brand ambassador. For example, are your tweets delivered by “Tim” at “XYZ Paper Company?” Or are your tweets delivered by a nameless representative whose goal is to strictly speak the “brand speak.”

What’s lurking in the wings to be the next big viral outlet in public relations? What’s looming on the horizon that people may want to learn about?

There are mixed opinions on geo-location, but I believe tools like Gowalla and FourSquare will make a huge wave in the PR industry. For instance, some Connecticut radio stations make approximately 10 visits to local businesses every week and live broadcast on-location. What better way to broadcast how listeners can find and meet local celebrity talent from these stations than to “check-in” on FourSquare? The added benefit here is the visited business also gets foot traffic. Retailers can also gain major foot traffic with these location tools by offering coupons to users who check-in at their location or ones close by, and having giveaways for loyal patrons.