Social Media & PR: Beyond the No. 2 Pencil

In my previous post, I broke down the voluminous (at least by today’s ADD standards-people don’t read anymore right?)  article from Mashable on the future of the press release and today we’ll focus on what their pros consider the current limitations of social media in the PR context.

Question: If the version of social media currently used is the No.2 pencil, with all its charms and restrictions (some might say), what are the forms it might take in the future?

The 5 current social media limitations PR faces, with an eye to the future:

1) Broadcasting vs. Listening: Our experts pointed out that a vast majority of the PR people out there are using social media as a broadcasting tool for sending out press releases and recent client news. The next gen PR pros will use social media as a listening and communicating tool.

2) Finding the Right Audience: While the mass social platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, are useful, the niche, industry-specific communities provide just as much, and sometimes more, value for clients. The current issue, though, is that finding these communities is quite tough. In the future, directories with the ability to search for target demographics across a broad range of social networks would make the process of finding the best platforms with the right audiences much easier.

3) Imperfect Data: With measurement becoming one of the most important features of social networks for marketers and PR pros, data is the key to enlightenment. “Social media provides a lot of information, but it’s also imperfect data, so the trick is knowing what to accept and what to dismiss.” For now at least, social measurement data should be taken with a grain of salt.

4) Social Stream Aggregation: Right now, we’re forced to pay attention to a whole host of different networks. I think we’ll continue to see more aggregation … People will continue to develop programs that save us time.” Tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, CoTweet, Postling, Vitrue, SocialTALK and more, aim to make it easier for businesses posting and monitoring across platforms.

5) Client Buy-In: Lastly, PR pros are still finding it difficult to obtain client buy-in for investment in social media. Currently, a large part of a PR pro’s job involving social media is educating clients of its use and benefits. The solution here is data. As success measurements continue to improve, the case for social media will become much clearer.

Image from Nathan W Pyle