Adults getting more social

By Len Gutman on January 16th, 2009 In Social Media

facebookfounderThese days I spend a lot of time trying to convince people (and clients) that they need to be involved in social media for business. There comes a time when even the naysayers need to admit that something is no longer just a fad, but a regular part of life (you’re not reading this on parchment after all).

The story from Adam Kress on the Business Journal’s site about the latest social networking statistics prove, at least to me, that social media has reached critical mass among adults and has no signs of slowing.

“Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults go online, and 35 percent of those use social networking sitessuch as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.”

 Social media has to be part of your public relations mix or you are not doing your job. Plain and simple.

Adults getting more social

Comments

Amanda Says:
January 16th, 2009 at 6:26 am

Talk in the twitterverse about the Biz J story is that we all find the stats to be surprising. Or, as @danwool put it

Only 35% use social media? That sounds low… http://is.gd/g25d

Len is 100% correct. Social media MUST play a component in your PR duties, because there’s hardly a business out there for which there’s a convincing reason not to be on SM platforms, and publicists should be stewards of that sentiment to their clients.

But to merely say, “twit away” would also be irresponsible as there is a vast liability with social media, as we’ve seen in the past few weeks (Motrin or Ketchum, anyone?). These are amazingly powerful tools, but if you are going to be the voice of your brand, you need to understand the environment of SM and help your clients understand it. Jump in and dabble as yourself before setting up accounts for the biz.

When you’re ready to act as the social arm of your business, remember to
give your business a personality and voice
be completely transparent
talk with people, not at them
don’t try to sell anyone
SM is like email, its a constant committment, not a once a day task

Jason Baer has a very worthwhile blog at http://www.convinceandconvert.com talking about these issues that most PR peeps would benefit from putting on their watchlist.

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