Date post: | 13-Jul-2015 |
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On your own but not alone
Social media and the solo PR practitioner
Peter Faur, Owner
RightPoint Communications, Phoenix
March 25, 2010
What high school did I go to?
A lonely life?
Get used to it
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Source: Census Bureau, National Association for the Self-Employed
Ingredients for success
• A marathon, not a sprint
Based on “How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo,” WSJ, Feb. 8, 2010
Ingredients for success
• Join a network, create a network
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
– Co-working• Gangplank
• A St. Louis version
– Have Boingo, will travel• Work from virtually any
coffee shop, McDonald’s, etc.
Ingredients for success
• Think like an entrepreneur– A business plan
– A mission statement
– Ask for, and get, what you’re worth
– Walk away sometimes
– Good practices• Good records
• Good accountant
• Good legal advice
Now for the social media part
How to choose what to use
The real question
• What are you trying to do?
What I’m trying to do
• First of all, learn how social media work
What I’m trying to do
• Have outlets to promote myself as a thoughtful professional
– Display my writing, thinking on the blog
– LinkedIn endorsements
– LinkedIn discussion groups
– Twitter postings to promote blog
– Facebook postings
– Always looking for the right audiences
What I’m trying to do
• Connect with thought leaders in social media– Chris Brogan – e-mail
– Gini Dietrich
– Charlotte Shaff’s story
– Because of what they do, these folks are approachable and responsive
– Don’t wear out your welcome
What I’m trying to do
• Learn how the media use social media– @12SPORTSARIZONA Need a
great pass rusher, more depth in secondary, and a fountain of youth for Kurt Warner 5:31 PM Jan 18th via TweetDeck in reply to 12SPORTSARIZONA
– Direct interaction with reporters, editors -@fayfredricks
– An insightful blog entry: Valley PR blog
What I’m trying to do
• Learn how my clients might use social media– One application to date: an internal blog
– Another application – social media section in a crisis communications plan for a university
– Monitor what’s being said about clients – Google alerts, collecta.com
– Side benefits from social media involvement• Learned about plug-ins
• Learned how to get the technology platform for free
• Learned enough to overcome IT anxieties
Using time wisely
• The Brogan formula
– ¼ time listening – “Grow Bigger Ears”
– ½ time commenting, communicating (Twitter, leaving comments on blogs of interest, etc.)
– ¼ time creating content
• It takes me an hour to write a blog, so that would be four hours a day
Using time wisely
• The Dietrich formula
– One hour a day
– Get an account at www.socialoomph.com
– 15 minutes finding, scheduling Tweets about interesting articles, news (alltop.com works)
– 10 minutes scheduling self-serving Tweets
– 10 minutes on Tweetdeckfinding items to retweet
– 5 minutes on ping.fmsetting up distribution of content to other social networks
– 10 minutes answering questions on LinkedIn
– 10 minutes responding on Facebook and Twitter
My formula
• Write three/four blogs a week – 1 hour each• Skim Alltop, RSS feeds each day (15 minutes)• Use Stumbleupon to schedule tweets to promote my
blog entries (< 5 minutes)• Visit Twitter via Tweetdeck two-three times a day –
spend 10 minutes reading, commenting, retweeting• Visit Facebook once a day – comment as needed in 10
minutes• Visit LinkedIn groups twice a week for 15 minutes –
comment as I can add value• About two hours a day in all
Benefits of social media for you
• Only you can decide
• Need to know what they can do, so you might as well use yourself to learn