Social Media in 2009

As I was reading the PRSA Tactics the other day, I came across an article entitled "Social Media in 2009: A Tale Of Two Futures" by Jim Nail. It talked about the importance of PR company's using social media and how much use has increased over the past few years. The article said that there was a 33% increase in the number of online consumers using social media in 2008 than in 2007. Nail gives two predictions about how the use of social media will change in the coming year. The first he said was that the time that users spend in the many types of social media will certainly increase this year. I totally agree. I spend more time checking Facebook, Twitter, my e-mail, Blogs, and other websites that I frequent a lot more than I watch television or read newspapers. His second prediction was that conferences and webinars will continue to grow social media.

 He brings up two good directions that social medias can take PR. The first is using social media to build relationships with publics and use it to help consumer's voice their opinion. The second is going the route of overloading the publics with too much information and becoming like pop-up ads that no one pays attention to. 

I think that social media is a great way for PR professionals to really see what their clients want and ways they can improve products. They are fast and most are easy to use, giving the PR professional fast feedback.

One other point that the article made that I thought was interesting was the effect that consumers are having with social media. He references things like Facebook users revolting against the Beacon Ad program the company was trying to use and the uprising on Twitter with the Motrin Moms dislike of their ad campaign. In the Twitter example, it lead to the company removing the ad from the airwaves.

As we begin using many different types of social media in our Admin class, I am excited to see firsthand how this type of media continues to grow over the next few months.