Social Media – The Semi-Controlled Media
It’s a lesson taught probably on the first day of PR 101:
Advertising is controlled and Public Relations is uncontrolled.
In advertising you can:
- Write your own copy
- Design it yourself
- Be as truthful or…ahem…”truthful” as you want
Whereas in Public Relations you’re trying to:
- Convince writers and reporters to talk about your story
- Give them as much information as possible (knowing some may hurt you)
- Pray that they get it right
Where does Social Media fit in, then?
An organization or agency can definitely design and provide content for their Twitter, blog or Facebook. But at the end of the day, the success of social media is on the social segment.
If people aren’t buying what you’re selling (in a metaphysical sense), they aren’t real like to buy what you sell ().
So if people aren’t discussing your product or event or brand, it doesn’t register in the social media world.
That means that social media, by definition, is somewhere in between PR and advertising.
As publicists, is it in our comfort zone to deal with the unknown, or is it frustrating that we don’t have full control of the one thing we kinda sorta can control that falls in our purview?
The floor is open…
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