Marketers nowadays seem to focus on utilizing social media as their main marketing strategy. While press releases and other public relation tools take a back seat or aren’t leveraged at all. It sometimes looks like social media is becoming synonymous with PR. Which is not the case. There is a line between social media and PR, which some marketers and advertisers neglect.
Here is a simple comparison of social media and PR from Chris Brown in his “Social Media is not the Same as PR” :
Social Media:
- For a good social media campaign, there has to be discussion and conversation.
- The best social media programs use the format (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Digg etc) that most of the customers like to use.
Public Relations:
- You can control the content of a press release, but you can’t control what social media comments or even the news stories that are developed as a result of your release.
- Press releases can help tell the full story, something that is difficult to do in 140 characters.
- I see using social media as a distribution channel for press releases (as well as PR photos and promoting events as well)
Making social media a part of your advertising campaign can be a big boost for your brand and promotion. But relying on social media alone will not do the magic for you.
Robin, good post. Your right on mark. The explosive growth of social media has the spotlight of attention, but the two are very synergistic.