on your own but not alone
TRANSCRIPT
On your own but not alone
Social media and the solo PR practitioner
Peter Faur, Owner
RightPoint Communications, Phoenix
March 25, 2010
What high school did I go to?
A lonely life?
Get used to it
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Source: Census Bureau, National Association for the Self-Employed
Ingredients for success
• A marathon, not a sprint
Based on “How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo,” WSJ, Feb. 8, 2010
Ingredients for success
• Join a network, create a network
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
Ingredients for success
• Have your own space
– Co-working• Gangplank
• A St. Louis version
– Have Boingo, will travel• Work from virtually any
coffee shop, McDonald’s, etc.
Ingredients for success
• Think like an entrepreneur– A business plan
– A mission statement
– Ask for, and get, what you’re worth
– Walk away sometimes
– Good practices• Good records
• Good accountant
• Good legal advice
Now for the social media part
How to choose what to use
The real question
• What are you trying to do?
What I’m trying to do
• First of all, learn how social media work
What I’m trying to do
• Have outlets to promote myself as a thoughtful professional
– Display my writing, thinking on the blog
– LinkedIn endorsements
– LinkedIn discussion groups
– Twitter postings to promote blog
– Facebook postings
– Always looking for the right audiences
What I’m trying to do
• Connect with thought leaders in social media– Chris Brogan – e-mail
– Gini Dietrich
– Charlotte Shaff’s story
– Because of what they do, these folks are approachable and responsive
– Don’t wear out your welcome
What I’m trying to do
• Learn how the media use social media– @12SPORTSARIZONA Need a
great pass rusher, more depth in secondary, and a fountain of youth for Kurt Warner 5:31 PM Jan 18th via TweetDeck in reply to 12SPORTSARIZONA
– Direct interaction with reporters, editors -@fayfredricks
– An insightful blog entry: Valley PR blog
What I’m trying to do
• Learn how my clients might use social media– One application to date: an internal blog
– Another application – social media section in a crisis communications plan for a university
– Monitor what’s being said about clients – Google alerts, collecta.com
– Side benefits from social media involvement• Learned about plug-ins
• Learned how to get the technology platform for free
• Learned enough to overcome IT anxieties
Using time wisely
• The Brogan formula
– ¼ time listening – “Grow Bigger Ears”
– ½ time commenting, communicating (Twitter, leaving comments on blogs of interest, etc.)
– ¼ time creating content
• It takes me an hour to write a blog, so that would be four hours a day
Using time wisely
• The Dietrich formula
– One hour a day
– Get an account at www.socialoomph.com
– 15 minutes finding, scheduling Tweets about interesting articles, news (alltop.com works)
– 10 minutes scheduling self-serving Tweets
– 10 minutes on Tweetdeckfinding items to retweet
– 5 minutes on ping.fmsetting up distribution of content to other social networks
– 10 minutes answering questions on LinkedIn
– 10 minutes responding on Facebook and Twitter
My formula
• Write three/four blogs a week – 1 hour each• Skim Alltop, RSS feeds each day (15 minutes)• Use Stumbleupon to schedule tweets to promote my
blog entries (< 5 minutes)• Visit Twitter via Tweetdeck two-three times a day –
spend 10 minutes reading, commenting, retweeting• Visit Facebook once a day – comment as needed in 10
minutes• Visit LinkedIn groups twice a week for 15 minutes –
comment as I can add value• About two hours a day in all
Benefits of social media for you
• Only you can decide
• Need to know what they can do, so you might as well use yourself to learn