Social Media & PR – Changing the Game Session
Next month I’ll have the opportunity to speak about social media at the 12th Annual Entrepreneur’s Growth Conference held at Duquesne University here in Pittsburgh. The problem? I only have 20 minutes to talk about social media!!
I will be doing a session with Paul Furiga of WordWrite Communications on “Why PR is More Important—and More Affordable Than Ever: How Social Media & Online Networks Are Changing The Game”. It’s a very broad topic and every entrepreneur is curious about social media, whether or not they’re already dabbling in it and no matter what their skill-level is. So the challenge is, what information should I put out there with only a 20 minute time-slot?
I am planning to demonstrate how social media (Tweets, Videos, Status Updates, Blogging, and Social Bookmarking) can be integrated into an overall business strategy, as well as discuss the applications and tools that can make social media easier to use. I also want to talk about the tangible items (clients, customers, sales, publicity) that businesses can work towards obtaining through the use of social media. AND, I want to cover how important social media is becoming in searches, and therefore, search engine optimization. Oh, and then there’s the PR aspect. 20 minutes. That’s it.
If you were an entrepreneur attending a conference, what information would you like to hear regarding social media? What questions would you like to have answered? Which of the above ideas would be most pertinent to YOU?
May 11th, 2010 at 8:07 am
I know most people just like to hear the “cool” things about social media – like the tools, tips and tricks. But for my money, I would want to hear about how to determine goals, how to build a strategy to support those goals, and how to measure my progress toward those goals.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:33 am
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May 11th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Congrats on the speaking gig! I spoke there about 2 years ago on link building and my biggest takeaway was that I didn’t make the information high level enough. Try and choose one general topic and really avoid using our Internet marketing geek speak. The cool thing about this conference is they provide feedback for the speakers and that was basically what each of mine said.
So, in my opinion I would just give them a social media overview and give them an idea as to what the time commitment is and how to prove the ROI of it.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:16 am
The biggest issue I’ve run into with social media is proving its worth to decision makers. Is it worth it for every business? Why? Entrepreneurs are likely the decision makers in their situations, but they still may have to justify every marketing effort, if only to themselves. If they’re familiar with traditional PR practices and measurement, it may be beneficial to relate social media’s potential in that area.
Of course, views on SM measurement and value placement vary widely, but I’ve found success relating SM and it’s potential to traditional PR, particularly in monitoring and tracking. If you place value on tracking or controlling your company’s image in print, then social media is the digital counterpart one should be also monitoring. Obviously, this then leads to controlling your reputation online and such efforts as SEO.
Good luck with the presentation, Jami.