Six Tips for Staying Productive During the Lazy Days of Summer

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Beach ParadiseHere in New England, we’ve enjoyed an amazing stretch of summer weather and all the fun that comes with it. With summertime distractions beckoning, I’ll be the first to admit it’s sometimes a challenge to stay focused on my work. Fortunately, working in a virtual environment, the folks at PerkettPR pretty much have productivity down to a science. In fact, our team has been sharing their tips over on our Facebook page, and below we’ve compiled some tried and true suggestions to help you maintain focus, improve your productivity and find time to enjoy the dog days of summer.

  1. Manage your inbox – In the modern workplace, email has taken over as the primary mode of communication. Information is shared, requests are made, assignments are given, status is provided, notes are taken, and countless other workplace activities are all captured and managed via email.  Sure, there are numerous ways to search and filter email content to find what you need, but highly productive – and effective – people almost always practice the inbox-zero method.

    Here are five simple tips to reign in your inbox:

    • Group emails by discussion to organize and reduce the appearance of all those separate emails in your box.
    • Read email from the bottom up (older emails first) – and if you’ve grouped emails by discussion, you only need to read (and save) the most recent email, which includes the entire thread.
    • Take action on every email immediately upon reading it: file it, respond to it, flag it for future action, or delete it.
    • Create a filing system and use it. You can file by account, project or people. For me, it’s one for each account then subfolders for each program delivered for that account.
    • Aim for zero-inbox, but if you can’t get there, treat your inbox like an action list – only keep those items you are currently working on. Once they are completed – file or delete them.

    2. “Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.“ – Benjamin Franklin
  2. Get up earlier – I am NOT a morning person. But, I have to say, when I do get up early, I almost always have a more productive day. Try setting the alarm 15 minutes earlier. If you can add 15 extra minutes to your mornings, I’m willing to bet money you’ll feel more energized, less stressed, and more productive.

  3. Take breaks – No matter how busy you are or how lengthy your to-do list, it’s important to give yourself a break. Your mind just doesn’t function effectively or efficiently when you’re tired. Take at least three short breaks a day.  We highly recommend taking every opportunity to get outside as well. Go for a short walk, eat lunch al fresco, make a coffee run, anything that gets you some fresh air and vitamin D will help break up the day and invigorate your body and mind.

  4. Limit distractions – We’re constantly juggling distractions at work: from people stopping by your desk to phone calls to incoming emails, IMs, Facebook notifications and more. Luckily, last month we featured a Q&A with Robert Strohmeyer author of PCWorld‘s Simply Business, a popular business productivity blog. In his role, Robert routinely researches and writes about productivity tools and techniques and tests them out himself. Robert shared his top productivity tips with us.
    “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer

    He notes that his biggest productivity killer is distractions. To combat this, he relies on the Pomodoro Technique, which requires the removal of all distractions (turn off IM & email, mute your phone, close the door) and total focus on one task or assignment for 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break. He then repeats this cycle throughout the day. I’d never heard of this technique before, but I’m intrigued. In fact, to develop this post, I’ve instituted the Pomodoro Technique and so far it’s working! 😉

  5. Organize your tasks – One of my favorite tips comes from our own Jennifer Hellickson, a veritable productivity guru at PerkettPR. She suggests, “Chunk out like-minded tasks together. Set aside time to make calls, and do them all at once. Schedule times during the day to check your e-mail, update social media accounts and do other things like writing or research to avoid splintering your attention too much.” Simple and brilliant.

  6. Organize your day – I, and several of my colleagues, are Franklin Covey devotees, but even if you use a plain old notebook or generic planner to write down and prioritize your tasks, it’ll make a word of difference.  Especially in the agency world where reactionary activity is often the norm, you need a way to record and monitor your priorities to help you stay on track with your deliverables. Plus, once you write it down, you can achieve the simple, but uplifting sense of accomplishment every time you cross something off your list.

Regardless of seasonal distractions, maintaining a high degree of productivity is always a challenge. Try some of the tips above and let us know how they work out for you. Or, if you have a favorite tip we missed, please share it in the comments. I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get – there’s a hammock with my name on it out there!

Persuasive Picks for the week of 07/27/11

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Steering WheelInfluencers
Chris Brogan dives into the true definition of an Influencer – and no, it has nothing to do with your Klout score or the price of your Empire Avenue stock. Be sure to read through the comments for even more points of view.

8 Ways to Maximize Your YouTube Marketing Results
Rick Brooks from Flyte New Media shares 8 great tips for getting the most out of your video production and distribution efforts when posting to Youtube. Each tip is packed full of great information that even seasoned YouTuber’s can benefit from.

Could Social Media Flub Cost You $4.3 Million?
David F. Carr highlights some jaw-dropping dollar figures from a recent Applied Research survey (sponsored by Symantec) that revealed potentially negative and more costly consequences of bringing your brand to the social space.

Number of Corporate Social Media Accounts On Rise: Risk of “Social Media Help Desk”
Altimeter‘s Jeremiah Owyang shares some interesting stats on the number of social media accounts that larger brands are maintaining, along with some helpful advice for Social Media Strategists to help prevent their roles from turning into “the ever reactive sanitation role of social media helpdesk.”

15 Google+ Sites & Services for Power Users
As companies sit and patiently wait for the launch of Google+ features for brands, active users of the service with their personal accounts might like Amy-May Elliot‘s list of Google+-related websites and services compiled in this post on Mashable.

When Is Your Product Ready to Launch?

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Space Shuttle LaunchMany of our clients are passionate entrepreneurs and CEOs with brilliant ideas and products. Our role (or process for?) in bringing products to market begins as soon as we engage with a prospect. Below are five of the typical questions we ask each of our clients before we set a launch date and begin planning. If you are thinking of launching in the near term, ask yourself these questions to ensure you are fully prepared, before you make the investment in a launch and open the flood gates on PR activities:

  1. What is the value you offer to customers/users that no one else can provide?
    When launching any product the media and influencers covering the market will want to know what makes you unique. Be sure to do your market research and have at least 2-3 differentiators you can point to that set you apart from the competition.
  2. Who are your competitors? (Note: everyone has them)
    Competition comes in many forms. Direct competitors like Microsoft and Apple are to each other for example, and indirect competitors that are in a position to capture your market. These may be smaller players entering the space, with similar products, or larger players like Google that have a potential to erode your market share with a future offering currently in development. Reporters will ask and if you don’t have competitors in mind, they will find them for you. Be sure to know your position in the market and defend it with your differentiators.
  3. Have you beta tested? What references/user benefits/highlights can you talk about?
    Reporters and influencers will be interested in hearing about your product from your company spokesperson, but they will want proof that your product serves a real customer need. Hearing actual use cases from your customers adds needed credibility and increases your chances for positive coverage. Be sure to build positive relationships with your customers and have 2-3 in your back pocket that you can offer to the media as needed.
  4. Do you have an articulate spokesperson?
    Media training is an essential component to ensuring your launch messages are heard and understood. Be sure your company executives are well trained and prepared for media interviews and can convincingly articulate key messages concisely, enthusiastically and consistently. If not, consider holding a messaging session to refine messages, followed by media training for your key spokesperson. This should take place well in advance of the launch date.
  5. Can you confidently demo the product to media?No matter how articulate your spokesperson is, if the product has bugs in it and isn’t ready for primetime, your media coverage will certainly suffer as a result. Be sure to build a solid demo, highlighting the strongest features of your product, well in advance of launching. If your product is difficult to demo in a short time frame, consider building a product video demo/or screencast that can be sent to media to insert into their posts or articles.

Were these tips helpful? Are there any other questions you would add to the list? We look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below.

Image Credit: cosmobc

Persuasive Picks for the week of 07/18/11

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EngagementsWhat is Engagement in Social Media?
Angela Hausman explores the definition of “engagement” via this post on SocialMediaToday. Be sure to read through the comment thread for additional definitions and view points from the SMT community.

What does Google+ mean for your social media policy?
Technologist David Reinhardt expands on the potential impact Google+ will have on the way we maintain personal and work relationships and the added complexity this new social platform could add to your organization’s social media policy.

How to Turn Customers Into Loyal, Raving Fans
Mike Michalowicz, author of “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” expands on the value and importance of under promising and over delivering when it comes to building the ultimate customer base, via this post on WSJ.com.

Is Social Media Experiencing the Search Engine Consolidation?
Fast Company expert blogger, JD Rucker, explores the idea of a future where social platforms begin to consolidate and morph into new sources of online search.

Email Metrics: Open, Click Rates Highest in the Morning
Gain some insight into becoming a better email marketer in this MarketingProfs post that shares key findings and great statistics from a recent MailerMailer report.

Brand Loyalty, Apologies, Best Buy and More

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I like positive customer experiences, but who doesn’t? It’s nice when a brand or company understands you and your needs. It’s refreshing when that same brand or company takes it a step further and reaches out to you—engages you. Simply put—it makes you feel valuable. And with the advent of social media, it’s a no-brainer for brands and companies alike to use powerful social networking sites (ie: Facebook, Twitter, etc) to help build brand loyalty, create conversations, or increase transparency and authenticity. There are numerous other important reasons why the integration of social media is beneficial, but as Christine Perkett, CEO and Founder of PerkettPR, wrote back in 2009 (yes—2009, that’s just how on the forefront PerkettPR is and continues to be), it’s Beating a Dead Social Media Horse.

ZapposWhile some brands are smarter and more savvy than others (@Zappos and @VirginAmerica I’m talking to you), there are still some brands that don’t get it. Brands need to go beyond simply having a Facebook and Twitter account. This is obvious. In fact, brands need to go beyond the infamous social media catchphrase “engagement.” Talk with me, not at me. Engagement is crucial but once achieved, what’s next? Well, social networking has redefined the consumer—and has clearlycreated a new breed of brand advocates. Studies show that at least 40% of a brand’s consumers are advocates and Virgin America90% of consumers trust recommendations from advocates (Zuberance, 2011). Brands need to start turning their social consumers into their loyal brand advocates. It’s one of the most powerful ways a brand can stand out.

This now brings me to my recent consumer experience with Best Buy. Before this experience, I have to admit, my interactions with the retail giant were pleasant. Sure, no brand-consumer relationship can be entirely perfect, but it was nonetheless positive. In fact I considered myself as someone who usually liked and was loyal to shopping at Best Buy (I’ve bought a washer, dryer, and two televisions there). And after much research, thought, and consideration, my husband and I purchased a wall mount for our television from Best Buy.

Without being too long-winded, a quick recap of the events that followed

  • We bought the mount, brought it home, and then a couple of days later Geek Squad came to install it.
  • Upon installation, we were told we had purchased the wrong wall mount (the wall mount we were instructed to buy). We’d have to buy another, more expensive one. Lucky for us, Geek Squad has one on their truck.
  • During installation we were told we would need an electrician to put the electrical cord through the wall, which was the first we had heard of this throughout the process. Didn’t someone at the store tell you, you would need one? Nope.

Even at this point, I felt okay. Things happen. People get confused. It’s fine. We’d figure it out.

It wasn’t until I lugged the old wall mount back to the store to return it that I ran into some issues. There were some financing and coupon issues that made the return tricky. The customer service associate who was very nice made photo copies of my receipts, credit card, and took down my number saying his manager would call me back once it was all straightened out.

Great. Sounded good to me.

Best BuyI waited all day. No call. I followed up that night at 8:00 pm. I waited on hold for 15 minutes before I got a “live person” at the store. She transferred me to customer service where the phone rang, and then I was transferred back to the same person. She transferred me again. And then I was on hold. Again. At some point I hung up and called back. Got the same “live person.” She transferred me. Again. On hold. This cycle lasted for nearly two hours. I finally hung up and tried calling back. The store was closed.

Now I was frustrated. Not only did I waste cell phone minutes, but I wasted my night trying to follow up to see if the billing situation was taken care of. I wondered when it became okay to ignore customers? I tweeted my frustrations to @BestBuy and got a response from @Coral_BestBuy saying she hoped the store picked up and answered my questions. And then the following day, I got a tweet from the actual store @BestBuyDanvers blaming their phone systems, which I didn’t fully believe. Upon receiving this tweet, I called the store and spoke to the person who had tweeted to me from the store. I then had to re-explain the entire situation. He apologized. Said the “live person” I spoke to was new. And that they were understaffed. He said he would call me back in a half an hour with some answers.

In less than half an hour he called me back, said sorry, and put me on the phone with another customer service agent who then sorted out the situation. Issue resolved.

The whole experience left me feeling used and annoyed. A “sorry” just didn’t feel good enough. And when I finally did speak to that person from the store the next day, re-explaining the situation, I pointed out to the associate that up until the night before, I appreciated how nice everyone at Best Buy was to me.

Even when I had to return the wrong mount. Even when no one told me about needing to hire an electrician. Even when the sales associate couldn’t fully process my return. Even when no one called me back. Even when I waited on hold for almost two hours. Even after all the missing information and empty promises, I did appreciate the kindness of the gentleman who sold me the mount, the Geek Squad technicians, and the customer service associate who tried to do my return.

But to my surprise, the associate told me it didn’t matter how nice people were, because these events during this transaction should not have happened.

He was right—they should not have happened. Although I did appreciate Best Buy’s quick response to me on Twitter and “engaging” with me, I did tweet back saying I’d have to rethink other retail options for future purchases, to which I got a reply:

@BestBuyDanvers

It was yet another “sorry” which, I didn’t respond to because I was ready to move on.

But a couple hours later @Coral_BestBuy tweeted me—she wasn’t about to give up on me as quickly:

@Coral_BestBuy

I sent her my email. And we’ll just see what happens next.

I understand companies, large and small, are going to disappoint their consumers at times, but it’s how the company reacts to those failures which ultimately determines which consumers will stay loyal and which consumers will go.

So my fellow social consumers— I want to know about your negative retail experience and how a company successfully handled it?  How did they win you back? What did they do right? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

UPDATE:

@Coral_BestBuy called to follow up with me. She appreciated my tweets and blog post about my shopping experience. Coral asked me if she could use them to share and educate the Best Buy corporate team about how to handle future transactions and issues that may arise. I, of course, agreed because after all—the purpose of this outreach was to help Best Buy while alerting my fellow social consumers.

She then offered me a $75 Best Buy gift card which is a nice sentiment, considering it will force me to have to enter Best Buy again and make another purchase. Or maybe, just maybe– I will save myself the frustration and gift it to someone else.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 07/11/11

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circle_c.jpgThe 5 Es of Content Marketing
ConversationAgent‘s Valeria Maltoni shares five inspirational tips to help writers take advantage of the “lazy days” of summer by pushing forward and gaining traction with their content creation and marketing efforts.

4 [Social Media] Failures and a Success
Sometimes the best way to learn is through your mistakes. This time around, IT blogger Peter Thomas share four of his own failures and the lessons he learned along the way. He caps off his SocialMediaToday.com post by sharing one of his personal successes as well.

How the U.S. Army is Using Social Media
ReadWriteWeb‘s Founder & Editor-in-Chief  shares this very interesting look into how the U.S. Army uses the web and various social platforms to share stories, interact with its online community and enhance recruiting efforts.

5 Reasons Google+ Is Not A Facebook Killer
Google+ has certainly been the focus this past week as millions of users rush through the flood gates to kick the tires on the new shiny social platform. However, not everyone is convinced that Google has come up with something that can be in it for the long haul. Dave Davies provides five reasons why in this post on SearchEngineWatch.com.

The Four Fundamentals of Social Media
Digital Media Consultant Dan Taylor shares a ton of great information and advice to businesses that might be trying to do everything all at once when it comes to their social media presence.

Image Credit: Leo Reynolds

Talking Productivity with Robert Strohmeyer

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Robert StrohmeyerIn our fast-paced, often furious, line of work, we communicate with dozens upon dozens of people every week. Few stand out. Accomplished editor, reporter and blogger Robert Strohmeyer is one of the few. I decided to pick his brain on a topic that is a personal and professional challenge for me and many others – productivity. Read on for some wise insights and simply tremendous tips.

Q: Robert, as the author of PCWorld‘s Simply Business, a popular business productivity blog, you must have some keen insights on top productivity killers. Give us your take.

A: My biggest productivity killer is interruption. Moving my attention away from a task to deal with an interruption — whether it’s an incoming call, an IM, or an email — makes it difficult to pick up where I left off once I return to the task. I often find myself spending ten minutes or more just reviewing my train of thought before I can get back into a state of flow with the task. So for me, the central focus of my productivity system is the elimination of distractions. One of my favorite tools for this is the Pomodoro Technique, in which I turn off all possible distractions (close my inbox, turn off IM, ignore the phone) and set a timer for 25 minutes. I work single-mindedly on one thing for a solid 25 minutes, then give myself a 5 minute break to get coffee, check email, etc., before diving back in for another Pomodoro session.

My second biggest productivity killer is a failure to capture commitments. In general, if I capture a commitment in one of my inboxes the moment it arises, I can be sure that I’ll deal with it appropriately. But if I don’t capture it the moment it arises, there’s a good chance I’ll never deal with it at all. It might as well never have come up in the first place.

Q: What’s a day in the life like for you? On average how many emails do you get a day?

A: A little over a hundred emails a day make it past my spam filter. Of these, about 70% are press releases and general information. Of the remaining 30 or so, about half actually require some overt action or attention from me, while the rest are mostly threads on which others have included me for CYA purposes.

My work day is split between my primary responsibilities for researching and creating and/or editing content and skimming through various information sources (including the press releases and FYI emails that comprise 70% of my inbox) to spot possible new stories.

Q: What tools do you use to manage your inbox?

A: I’ve played with a lot of tools to manage my inbox, but in practice I rely on methodology rather than technology. My inbox is a Google Premier account, so I use some Gmail Labs add-ons (mostly super stars) to tag messages. The rest of my methodology is a combination of labeling and zero-inbox. Apart from these, I do like to use Nudgemail for messages that require my attention at a later time, so as to keep my inbox empty while not losing sight of pending tasks indefinitely. The problem with Nudgemail, I find, is that it acts like any other snooze button, and it’s all too easy to hit ‘snooze’ a few dozen times too many.

Q: What social networks do you utilize? Do you find story ideas this way?

A: I use Facebook and Twitter, and lately, Google+. I’ve discovered some interesting stories via Twitter, and I like it as a low-friction source of PR pitches and tips. In many ways, I prefer Twitter to e-mail, because it forces brevity where e-mail permits rambling. Most PR pitches are, in my opinion, way too long to be interesting, and I can recall a few instances where a given pitch failed to catch my eye via e-mail but managed to draw my interest in a <140-character tweet.

Facebook is good for polling peers and audiences, but I’ve never “discovered” a story there. It’s too chatty for that sort of thing.

Google+ looks like another Facebook, so far.

In general, social networks have limited value for me in story generation, because they promote a herding effect. If a story is trending on Twitter, chances are it’s also trending on news aggregators and in my e-mail inbox. So I still rely on old-fashioned brainstorming when I want to discover a story topic beyond what’s dominating the tech news world this week.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about how social media is impacting tech news and business? Your least favorite?

A: I think the best contribution social media has made to tech news and business is that it’s allowed (“forced,” some might say) what was once a fairly static, monolithic information culture to embrace pluralism by giving consumers and audiences a voice. This has arguably contributed to a more responsive media culture and a more responsive business culture. At the same time, the social media feedback loop between audiences/consumers and media/business can lead to another kind of information monoculture in which media and businesses strive to give consumers and audiences more of what they seem to want, which amplifies popular themes in a sort of fun-house mirror distortion of what people want. Eli Pariser talks about this at length in “The Filter Bubble,” and I think could prove to be one of the most pressing social problems of the information age.

Q: Do you ever black list PR people? What would push you to do that?

A: I’ve “blacklisted” two PR people in the last 15 years. Both cases involved daily (in one case, multiple times daily) emails and/or phone calls about topics that had nothing to do with my areas of interest. One of them was a guy who auto-sent me daily reminders, for weeks on end, to update my profile in his company’s database. No working member of the press has time for that kind of stuff. The other was a person who sent me multiple off-topic pitches daily, complete with lengthy voice messages–literally about miraculous skin creams and diet products. Just nonsense with no regard for who she was calling.

Q: What tips would you give to PR people that would make working with them easier?

A: Phones are dead. I almost never use them for business communication anymore. One email per week, per subject, per contact. If a reporter hasn’t responded to your first follow-up email, they’re not interested. Sending third email on the same subject is more likely to undermine the reporter’s perception of your next pitch than to generate interest in the current one. Whatever it says about the myth of unbiased journalism, all journalists are more responsive to pitches from PR people they like and respect than pitches from PR people they find annoying. I wouldn’t have taken the time to do this interview for a PR person I didn’t like.

Q: What is your take on managing “digital distractions”? As a professional? As a parent?

A: I think the best definition of “distractions” is a lot like my favorite definition of “weeds.” Weeds are just plants out of place. Likewise, distractions are just calls for attention at inopportune times. My preferred way to guard against distractions also bears some resemblance to my preferred way to guard against weeds: have a full, healthy garden. By proactively determining how I focus my attention throughout the day, I give myself permission to ignore inputs and calls for attention that are extraneous to a present task. I also allot time for seeking or accepting “random” inputs, as well as time for just plain screwing around.

Q: If you weren’t a journalist, what would you be doing now?

A: If I weren’t a journalist, I’d probably be a either a winemaker or an academic. I’m drawn to intricate processes that intersect the practical and the aesthetic. In college I was split between my first love of writing and a fascination with anthropology. I chose writing, and ended up drawn to tech, which is nothing if not an intricate intersection of the practical and the aesthetic.

Q: What is your #1 tip for busy people to achieve personal and professional productivity?

A: Know your purpose. That is, decide what you really want to accomplish, in ultimate terms, in whatever aspect of life you’re engaging, and determine subordinate goals and actions accordingly. I think it’s folly to pretend that “reducing human suffering” is a less worthy professional goal than “increasing shareholder value” or “maximizing revenue.” If you haven’t considered your ultimate purpose and settled on at least one grand mission that satisfies your greater self, you’ll never be able to confidently invest your full attention in any given task, no matter how small.

 

Embrace Your Geekness Day

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Yeah, ok, so I’m not sure who came up with this, but as a tech PR firm, we’re all geeks (are we bragging, according to this description? Sure, maybe!). And we’re proud of it. We’re celebrating on our Facebook page by showcasing our favorite geeks. Come on over, “like” us and check out the geeks who’ve stolen our hearts. If you’re inspired, post your own! Because after all, we all know by now that Revenge of the Nerds was just a glimpse of the future!

http://www.facebook.com/perkettpr

Persuasive Picks for the week of 06/27/11

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Google+Google Launches Google+ To Battle Facebook
Google’s announcement of their new Google+ service has been getting mixed reviews around the blogosphere from those who have been able to get an invite thus far. Get caught up with what the service entails, with this overview from Mashable‘s Ben Parr.

Does Social Media Have a Return on Investment?
This Fox Business post on Fast Company takes a look at the topic of ROI from several different perspectives, including Audi’s social success in garnering consumer engagement (but not sales), Joe Fernadez‘s Klout, WildfireApp CEO, Victoria Ransom and online customer social support platform, Lithium.

B2B social media: Treat it as you would any relationship
Sure, B2C brands tend to steal the spotlight when it comes to showing success with social media-based campaigns, but B2B companies can be just as successful if they use the right approach. This interesting post on MediaUpdate draws a parallel between engaging in the social space and the many phases of human relationships – from flirting all the way through marriage.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Hit New Audience Highs
Get a quick overview of the latest comScore Media Metrix stats around the growth explosion being experienced by the big 3 social platforms we all know and love (well, uh… “like”), via this post on MarketingProfs.

The Secret to Making Social Media Work: Get It on a Calendar
Help get your extra busy schedule in check with keeping tabs on all your social monitoring and updating duties with these three practical steps found on Business Insider.

5 ways social media has changed PR

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social-media-poststamps In celebration of Social Media Day today, we decided to take a retrospective look at some of the ways social media has had an impact on the public relations industry. Not only has it changed the way we communicate with each other, but as it gains acceptance and usage among executives, it will play an increasingly-important role in our scope of work on a daily basis as PR professionals.

According to a report from eMarketer, a whopping 63.7 percent of internet users in the U.S. will use social networks in 2011, creating quite the desirable pool of prospective customers (and advocates, ideally). The firm also reported estimates that four in five U.S. businesses (with at least 100 employees) will take part in some sort of social media marketing this year, up from just 42 percent as recently as 2008. This number is expected to continue to rise, especially in light of related surveys that have revealed that as much as 63 percent of small businesses feel as though social networking makes a “significant” impact on their sales and revenue.

So what does this mean for us? Well, not only has social media infiltrated nearly every industry, but PR pros will be expected to ramp up their strategies in order to best engage audiences using the social web. And as much as the occasional rogue Facebook post or off-color Twitter rant from the public can keep us up at night, we’ll be seeking to embrace this form of communication more and more as a mechanism for not only sharing information with key audiences, but also listening to and connecting with them like never before.

Read on for our take on how social has already made its mark on PR:

  1. It’s a two-way street – Not that jumping on your soapbox and simply blasting a message via megaphone was ever effective, but now more so than ever, PR practitioners are connecting with audiences on a human level and inviting conversation. Receiving this invaluable feedback allows for real-time refinement of strategies and tactics, making brand connections with consumers and constituents that much deeper.
  2. 24/7 Engagement – Gone is the traditional 9-to-5 schedule because social media conversations never stop. Now that consumers can connect directly with a brand at any time, it’s up to us as PR pros to play host or hostess at the party, keeping the conversation going, encouraging a good back-and-forth and making new introductions to facilitate constant – and consistent – engagement.
  3. Increased demand for digital Pros – Forget about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’…if you’re in PR, you’re more concerned about keeping up with the latest Facebook feature or location-based app. The advent of social media has shown us that the most successful (and in-demand) PR people aren’t afraid to explore and embrace new technologies, continually adding all sorts of new technologies to their repertoire.
  4. Navigating the new landscape – As this article in Mashable points out, social media has blurred the line between paid, earned and owned media – not only altering their definitions, but also posing the PR challenge about how to integrate all three forms for the greatest success. By focusing on a balanced mix, PR professionals can help spread customer touch points across all functions within a company, and it’s this new approach that will have the greatest lasting impact.
  5. Evolving definition of success – Yes, some of us may have entered PR thinking it was the furthest field from anything math-related, but the fact remains that metrics have been – and continue to be – a PR pro’s best friend. And thanks to social media, we’re continually redefining the measure of success: Whether it’s friends on Facebook or daily of Tweets, we know that quality reigns over quantity, and that a long-term approach garners the most powerful return on investment when it comes to making connections.

What else would you add about how social media has changed the PR industry, and how do you expect it will further change our industry in the future?

The staff here at PerkettPR is also having some fun on Social Media Day by creating a series of videos explaining how Social Media has changed each of our lives and/or what our favorite social media tools are. We will be posting them to the PerkettPR Facebook page throughout the day, so be sure to check them out and leave us a comment!