Seize the Day with Digital Media

A few years ago, I attended the IPREX Global Leadership Conference in New York City. IPREX was founded in 1983 to enable independent communication agencies to collaborate with each other in pursuit of client objectives.

Digital media’s role in public relations served as the topic for that conference. The sessions were incredibly valuable and left me hungry for more insights. In the spirit of keeping it brief (but not Twitter brief), here are four key takeaways from the three-day event. The first two are focused on PR professionals while the last two are directed toward client education.

1. Fight for social media. It’s another channel for communication, not a completely new marketing discipline. PR professionals must take the attitude that social media is “the birthright of PR” and shape the communication that flows through the channel.
2. Be an early tester and a late adopter. As communication professionals, we should test every new technology and platform. It may seem counterintuitive but we should also be slow to adopt. Learn and understand a new platform before diving into it. That way you can feel completely comfortable and confident recommending it to others.
3. Focus on creating and distributing shareable content. Don’t just create content for content’s sake. Create something people will want to share with their friends. Make it insightful and valuable to people. Then think just as critically about how to distribute that content as you did about creating it.
4. Identify and tap into your social influencers. Identify and engage 30 of your most influential brand evangelists and empower them to speak favorably on your behalf. The positive impact they can provide will far outweigh any effort to reach every single one of your fans. The alternative is having a flashy audience of 30,000 unengaged people who drive little action.