The Use of Social Networking Sites for PR
April 3, 2008 by Tiffany Derville
This afternoon, my class attended the local PRSA meeting. We had an excellent speaker, Niel Laudati, who spoke about his experience with launching a MySpace page for the City of Springfield. It has added a cool factor to Mayor Sidney Leiken for people, from children to seniors. Now the mayor gets high fives when he visits the coffee shop. The MySpace page also allows the city to cultivate relationships with its community members. We know from PR research that cultivating relationships improves an organization’s reputation.
During Neil’s presentation, I was impressed when one of my students referred to Tom Foremski’s discussion of pitching press releases through Facebook. Tom has tried both Facebook and e-mail as a place for pitches. For now, he prefers e-mail. See here for his latest on this topic.
Speaking of social networking, you should join PR Open Mic, a network for PR students, faculty, and practitioners.
When you graduate and land a job, do you think you’ll recommend that your organization set up a social networking site, such as MySpace or Facebook? Why or why not? (I also welcome comments from non-student readers!)
Also, any thoughts about pitching press releases through Facebook or MySpace?
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