prandsocial. Katie Moffat - PR & Online Communications

Interesting blog post on E-Consultancy about which digital agencies are using Twitter and perhaps more importantly which ones aren't and why.  As Chris Lake says, "I was perplexed to discover that many agencies haven’t yet bothered, and I’m not sure what message that sends out to the client-side."
His research showed that very few of the top 50 UK agencies were regularly twittering as an agency. 
The article has prompted a huge number of comments, mostly from agencies defending their position plus lots of people making the point that the reason agencies don't have a specific account is because Twitter is about people not companies. 

My take – yes of course, Twitter is about people, as I've said before that's exactly why it's so popular.  But it's not as simple as saying there's no place on Twitter for brands or companies, otherwise why do accounts like @overheardatmoo work so well? Because there is still a person behind the brand.  And that's the key.  I really do believe that as long as your tweets have personality there's no reason why you shouldn't tweet as a company or brand but you have to have something to say.  And you have to want to do it.  I wonder if some of the reason digital agencies aren't tweeting much is because the individuals who feel comfortable with Twitter already have their own accounts and they don't have the extra time, or inclination to try and run another one.

I went to the CIPR northern conference last week. I never expect these events to knock me for six but as PR conferences go, it was pretty good.  Highlights included the talk by Katie Perrior from inHouse PR  about the campaign they ran to get Boris elected for mayor.  A fascinating talk which demonstrated the power of PR to change opinion and influence.
Another popular one was Neville Hobson's talk – titled Futurology, he gave an overview of the need for PRs to understand the online arena – particularly liked hist comment that PR should stand for 'Personal Relationships'.  However during questions, a rather bewildered looking press officer said, "I don't understand any of this techy stuff so how do I start?"  I think this is a really common feeling so, for what it's worth, here's my take on how to get 'started' in understanding social media.

1.  Set up google alerts for terms of interest – even generic ones like 'online PR' or 'social media' can bring you back some interesting results.

2.  Get FeedDemon or similar RSS feed and start subscribing to blogs.  If you're not sure which blogs to read or how to find them, your google alerts will give you a starting point and once you've found a blog that interests you, have a look at their blog roll and before long you'll be subscribing to a long list. 

3.  Join Twitter.  Honestly you have to.  The common sequence of events with a new Twitter user is a) they join b) they announce that they just don't "get it" c) never use it again. The best way to get started with Twitter is to follow some of the bloggers that you read, look at who they're following and off you go.  Like any social networking tool, the more you use it, the more you get out of it.

4. Start a blog – it gives you an idea of how blogs work, etiquette etc which is vital if you're a PR person hoping to target influential bloggers.

That's it.  No mystery, no smoke and mirrors. You just have to dive in.