Check this out!
"Some small-business owners, overwhelmed by the time commitment required of marketing their products and services via social media, are hiring consultants to lend a hand," explains Sarah Needleman in a Wall Street Journal article, "Firms Get a Hand with Twitter, Facebook."
"'It's just better having someone dedicated to thinking of stuff to put up,'" said one business owner quoted in the article.
The recent development of firms dedicated solely to maintaining companies' social media marketing, as well as the trend among small businesses to hire PR people to keep after their Facebook and Twitter profiles, is all the more reason why those of us aspiring PR professionals must stay abreast of social media outlets.
This article fits in perfectly with some of the advice offered by Vault Communication's Meg Kane, who spoke at our PRSSA meeting this week. "Be on Facebook and Twitter as if it were your job," she said, "because one day it very well could be."
That is not to say that some businesspeople do not prefer to maintain their own image on social networking sites. "'The idea with Twitter is that you get close to an immediate response,'" one business owner said as for why he wouldn't pay someone else to update his profiles. Doing it himself, he adds, means that "'there's no middle man that has to go check with the company [before posting or responding to someone else's post].'"
Nevertheless, we cannot overstate the importance of being active participants in - and students of - social media marketing. Now more than ever.
