Why Everybody — Even with Older Clients — Should Care About Social Media

No matter what the age is of your audience, social media is critical as the number of traditional media operations declines.

I heard this point emphasized by Oliver Theil, director of public relations, San Francisco Symphony, at a recent meeting of the Public Relations Round Table of San Francisco, and I couldn’t agree more. They apply to almost every business or organization.

Among the relevant points that Theil made are these:
• The number of traditional media outlets is diminishing.
• Those that exist all have suffered from staff cutbacks in recent years, diminishing the opportunity for coverage.
• Because of this, it is important for the symphony to engage its community of 104 musicians, 1,500 volunteers, subscribers and other friends to tell its story. “We need to give them the content to help us.” Another quote from Oliver: “It is critical to deal with our patrons directly.”
• Word-of-mouth recommendations in social media from symphony supporters are more persuasive than recommendations from the media.
• The community of friends, i.e., social media subscribers, is not primarily interested in factual information such as upcoming programs. Instead they want tidbits giving them a personal connection with performers, such as an interview with a violin player or a YouTube interview with a visiting artist as he arrives to rehearse. These are the things that people share with their friends.

It’s good advice for everyone.

Disclosure note: I’m proud to say that I’m a former board member of the Round Table, founded in 1939 for senior-level public relations practitioners.

How do you see Twitter fitting into a firm’s PR plans?

Twitter is the best thing for public relations since sliced bread. What a minute – did I use such a trite expression? I suppose I should come up with something more elegant, but then again…. “best thing since sliced bread” was my immediate reaction. Usually, the immediate reaction is the best.

Why is Twitter so great? In the old (pre-Internet days), we had to rely on mass media to get our stories to clients and prospective clients. If an editor didn’t like a your story, there wasn’t much you could do. Thanks to Twitter, you can spread the word yourself. It’s even legitimate to tweet the same thing, preferably stressing slightly different aspects of the topic, multiple times over several days.

You can post a press release on your Web sites, and then go to Twitter and “tweet” about it as much as you like. I like to think of Twitter as the new-fashioned town crier, walking up and down the street shouting out the latest news. You won’t hear every word he says, but the news will get to you sooner or later.

I’ll admit I was one of the initial skeptics. I thought Twitter was for teen-agers telling each other what they had for lunch. If it ever was that, it isn’t any more. Twitter users are primarily working adults, not teens or college students. Nielsen earlier this year found that 62 percent of Twitter users access the site only from work. (See a newsletter article I researched and wrote for a client, now posted on my Web site at http://www.jomurray.com/newsletter.html.)

The American Contract Bridge League, where 98 percent of the membership is over 40 years old and 78 percent over 60 years old, added a Twitter account this month, @ACBL bridge. I set up a Twitter account recently for the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley. (@WRAnimalShelter) By the end of the first day, two people –neither of whom I know -- had retweeted the message. Astonishing!

Twitter is the new viral marketing. If you don’t tweet your press releases, you’re stuck in the 20th century. If what you have to say is of interest to anyone, someone will see your tweet and “retweet” it. I could go on, but I think that’s enough for now.

If you have more questions, send me a tweet @JoMurrayPR. If you aren’t up to Twitter, I even answer old-fashioned e-mail (jo@jomurray.com).

Thanks to Dave Chase of Sun Valley Online for this question.