Marketing & PR Should Work Together on Social Media

by lisa ~ July 6, 2009

 July 6, 2009 - A study by consumer research company Knowledge Networks says that, while 47% of Americans use social media on a weekly basis, they do so to connect with others rather than to research purchase decisions.

Specifically, it found that 83% of the Internet population (people 13-54) participates in social media, but less than 5% of social media users seek guidance on products or services. The products/services that were most often researched were travel and financial services, with 4% of people regularly using social media to research each category.

The top four social media tools used by marketers are, in order, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Blogs, however, were viewed as the most influential social media outlet.

This list is slightly amusing when you consider that just 1% of the total online population uses Twitter once a week, according to Knowledge Networks. Yet it explains why so many of the people cluttering up Twitter seem to be trying to sell something to everybody else on Twitter.

But the most noteworthy thing about this list is the inclusion of blogs as the second most popular social media outlet used by marketers. Tweeting about the benefits of your service and writing about your company’s unique culture on your customized LinkedIn profile and snazzy Facebook page may be activities that are “owned” by the marketing department. But blogs are very different from the other types of social media included in the study.

Even Direct Marketing News notes that “blogs are more akin to public relations than traditional paid marketing channels in terms of getting a product or service in front of a targeted audience…That doesn’t mean marketers shouldn’t send products to influential bloggers for review. Smart marketers that get their products in the hands of bloggers need to have faith their product will withstand scrutiny.”

Ideally, you’ll loop influential bloggers in during the beta testing phase so they don’t torpedo your product/service when it’s finally released. And you’ll work with your PR department to identify those bloggers who are friendliest to your company. Doing anything else would certainly be counter to your company’s best interests.

To read the Direct Marketing News article “Blogs among most effective social media for marketing purposes,” click here:  http://www.dmnews.com/Inside-blog-marketing-Blogs-among-most-effective-social-media-for-marketing-purposes/article/139314/

Lisa Tibbitts is a corporate communications professional with an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

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