The PR social media crystal ball

First off, thanks again to the PRSA for asking me to present to their Thursday breakfast meeting.  It was a great group of familiar and new faces and hopefully what I talked about was helpful.

For those who couldn’t attend, I thought I’d recap here.  I will also share my presentation though Slideshare, just click here and you can view and download although you may need to become a Slidshare member to do it.

For the presentation I was asked to share my thoughts on “what’s next” for social media.  Anyone who truly knows the answer that question is much smarter than me and likely lying but I took a shot and here’s what I came up with.

1. Conversing and not broadcasting:  Now that you have gathered friends and followers (and want to increase those numbers) you need to truly engage them, not just throw things at them — in short you need to provide value.  Share good information, teach them.  On Facebook use custom landing pages–here’s the one THP and Compleo did for National Harbor (now that Facebook will once again let you do that), offer games and contests with cool prizes (here’s our current contest for SnagAJob.com), do ticket giveaways on your wall.  Have fun.  But most importantly…START A BLOG.  The blog is the best way to engage, share your                       expertise and opinion and begin a conversation.
2. Geolocation: Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, if you are not familiar with them you should be.  On those platforms, people tell other people where they are and what they are doing.  And in some weird social media peer pressure twist of fate through check-in, badges and reviews people are driven to the places and businesses frequented by their friends.  Retailers and businesses are offering real world rewards to encourage more traffic and check-ins as a way to drive more traffic and PRESTO, a new social phenomenon is born.
3. Privacy: What the head of Facebook publicly states he doesn’t believe in privacy, we’re all in trouble.  For companies and organizations the blur between personal and professional on social media means new rules for them and their employees.  In the social media world we are all ambassadors of all organizations we represent, we don’t have the luxuries that we used to have to say the things online that we’d like to.
4. Online vs. Mobile: In this day of limited marketing budgets and an increasing number of online devices, where should companies spend their money?  The answer is where their customers or member are the most.  In the new world that may not be on the computer but on their tablet or on their phone.  This may force companies and organizations to make choices between their websites and their mobile APPs.  If you could only afford one, which one would you choose?  And oh, don’t forget about QR codes.
5. Measurement: Apologies to my friends at social media measurement companies but I still think you have a way to go.  There is no simple solution in this space.  There is no industry standard.  We still have to rely on the old standards of “what is my goal?” and “how can I use social media to reach that goal?”  You also must create your own cadre of online tools to review and manage your organization’s reputation.  The companies are making strides here, but are not there quite yet.
6. Live “U”casting: We have live blogged, live tweeted, and podcasted but have we really taken advantage of services like Ustream or Justin.tv.  What I can broadcast live video directly from my Droid online for all the world to see as I can now, the PR implications are frightening.
7. It’s not social media, it’s just marketing: Just like direct and online before it, social media is not an add-on anymore, it is official a key part of the marketing mix, the sooner we treat it that way, the better for all of us and our clients.

Okay, so that’s my best shot.  If you disagree please comment, if you think I’m missing something I’d love to hear it.

The only certainty is the second we feel comfortable Facebook or someone else will pull the rug out from us so be flexible and be ready for the next big thing.  It is likely right around the corner.