Educational psychologists talk about six levels of thought that are known collectively as Bloom’s Taxonomy: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. For public relations professionals, utilizing social media requires all of those skills. Monitoring blogs and social networks for mentions of our brands, and responding when appropriate, is a new challenge for the public relations community. It requires new tools and an attention to the unique cultures of social destinations online. But all of that falls in the categories of Knowledge, Comprehension, Application and Analysis that have always been integral to public relations.
What many people find most intimidating about using social media for professional communications is the idea of creating content: blog posts, videos, podcasts, widgets, microsites and more. That’s Synthesis, and while it may seem scary, it presents enormous opportunities for us to bring our messages directly to clients and consumers.
At the upcoming PRSA Digital Impact Conference, I’ll be discussing content creation and the Power of Pull with Steve Rubel, senior vice president and director of Insights for Edelman Digital and author of the blog Micropersuasion. Of course, as public relations pros we have always “created content” in the form of press releases and other communications. But the Power of Pull is about embedding your presence in the digital landscape such that influence is no longer a question of how many people you can reach, but how many people can reach you. This isn’t just about search engine optimization, though that’s an important piece. If you put in the effort to create content online, people will find it not just through search engines, but through links from blogs; citations on social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious; and mentions on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In a tough economic climate, coming up with strategies to create this content with limited resources is key, and we’ll address that. But pulling people in with compelling content on the social Web, rather than pushing it at them through direct communications, has become a great opportunity.
Jay Krall, manager of Internet media research, Cision, is responsible for the development and maintenance of the online media segment of Cision’s media database and writes for the CisionBlog. He coordinated the creation of a new Internet media research team for Cision, and has been instrumental in the organization’s social media efforts. Jay previously worked in the financial services industry and was a newspaper reporter. Connect with Jay on LinkedIn and Twitter @jaykrall.
Join Jay along with Heidi Sullivan for their FREE webinar, “Finding the Perfect Social Media and Communication Blend: How to Break Down Walls and Strike a Balance Between All of Your Online Lives” on Tuesday, January 19!
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