Sometime last year, a friend introduced me to another young professional who owns a small (one man band) PR and marketing company. Our mutual friend asked the young woman to tell me more about her company, noting that we work in the same field. Her response, “You know, we do Facebook, MySpace and all that stuff!” I politely smiled, nodded my head and took her card, all the while thinking, “Is this chick serious?”
Here is the thing: Facebook was around during my last couple of college years. It was something my friends and I used to waste time and procrastinate from studying. MySpace surfaced a short time after and we were all eager to jump on that band wagon too. The new social networking sites were certainly exciting, especially when we were immediately reunited with Timmy from the first grade (who subsequently shed his cooties for rock hard abs and a baseball scholarship) and that group of hot guys we met in South Beach a spring break ago..
Why did it bother me so much that she listed these same sites as services offered by her PR and marketing company? Looking back, I can probably come up with several reasons I rather not admit. Least of which is my tendency to get defensive when someone names, as a PR service, a task that any one of my figuratively challenged, left-brained friends could perform.
It just doesn’t seem legitimate that people are paid for playing on Facebook all day and calling it PR!
Or does it?
I was wr…I was wro…I was wronnn…Well you get the picture.
It all came full circle for me after being tasked with creating Facebook fan pages for a couple of political campaigns. I explored lots of applications (I would ridicule any friend for adding to their profile) that really made sense for the campaigns. I found the Static FBML application, which literally opens page design to any cool HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) code my geeky heart desires. Okay, maybe not any code but it does allow more functionality for the task at hand. (Now, if only my hand could create HTML code that actually works the first try.) My point is, using social networking for something other than my own social connections opened a vast world of possibility that is effective.
David Meerman Scott, Marketing strategist, entrepreneur and author of the number-one best seller, The New Rules of Marketing and PR was a huge influence in my revelations. Web InK Now is his industry blog and a great resource to find relevant information about how social media has changed the entire PR and marketing industry. Read David’s Blog here.
In his free ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing, David gives real examples of how new media provides us with a unique opportunity to get our client names and messages to a larger audience, faster and cheaper. His ‘new rules’ include ways to capitalize on the vast network of people that is our web audience through “word-of-mouse.” David explains,
“For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online—content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues.”
David’s philosophy is that through “word-of-mouse,” we can reach larger amounts of people, faster by providing relevant content that consumers want to read/watch/follow and giving them linked access to that content. Certainly this applies to me. When I choose to visit a site or read an online article; it is because something in the content interests me. When this is the case, I am more likely to pass the link on through social networking sites, blogs and even email. It just makes sense. You can find The New Rules of Viral Marketing and a list of all David’s free ebooks here.
Why this is GREAT News for US!
Let’s revisit the first uses of Facebook by my friends and me. We all joined facebook for the purpose of reconnecting with friends and maintaining our connections in one place. At the time, our options were limited: invite friends, post to walls, add pictures, and create/join groups.
The first group I joined: “Students Against Jorts.” In other words, not very relevant to anything aside from my own personal amusement…I still get a kick out of that one.
Now, we can add status, post links, videos and articles, create fan pages, add unlimited applications and blast out messages to a targeted audience.
From the beginning we watched and played with every terrible application (honesty box) and learned to use all the great applications (bumper sticker), one at a time. We have the advantage. Unknowingly, we were building our understanding of social media as it developed.
Now, imagine all the industry professionals and leaders who are our parent’s age. They don’t have the luxury of building upon their understanding as these sites evolve. While the blackberry and iPhone are virtually an extension of our limbs and Facebook, Twitter and blogging joined our repertoire seamlessly, many of our parents are still grasping AIM and Outlook. Therefore, they need young professionals with a strong understanding of these emerging techniques.
Millennials For Hire!
We are in a recession people! And one of the biggest problems young professionals face today is finding an entry-level position. We know that (in many instances) more seasoned professionals are applying for job openings, traditionally filled by recent college grads. The already competitive entry level job market is flooded with an influx of more qualified and skilled competitors at bargain prices.
Yet the millennials have something they don’t! We have a valuable asset that combines advertising, marketing, PR and branding all into one skill that is more effective, faster and (depending on needs) can only cost the company the price of a yearly salary. Most important, in order to keep client names alive in what has become a colossal cache of sources and information, some companies can’t afford not to hire us. Communications companies without a social media savvy millennial on board do so at a risk of the greatest cost: that of their clients.