I’m just going to take a moment here to plug the power of social media. Those who know me probably find this a little amusing. Fact is, I didn’t get involved in LinkedIn, FaceBook, blogging, Twitter et al until very recently. A couple of esteemed colleagues convinced me that I needed to get involved, so I did so reluctantly. What an eye-opener!
You see, it’s been very popular in PR circles for a while now to advocate the blog. “You need to blog—everyone’s doing it!” I pushed back on this wave a bit. My retort would be that this argument is akin to advocating large, expensive blanket ad campaigns for small niche companies. Blogs, like anything, are part of the communications toolkit. If you’re not willing or able to be honest, genuine and, above all, interesting, you have no reason to blog. Not sure if mine are interesting, but at least they’re honest. And they seem to fit the bill for my purposes.
I’ve also become a huge disciple of LinkedIn for professional purposes. I’m big on networking and relationships, but it’s not always appropriate or even possible to consistently “network” with some of your more distant contacts. Yet, those distant contacts are often the key to new jobs, business or referrals. LinkedIn, I’m finding, is a nice way to stay in front of customers, future employers and even old friends. I’m also thinking that it’s a nice way to do selective marketing or messaging. I highly recommend that folks get involved—it seems like the rest of the industry’s doing so.
