That’s the message from the PRSA Tech Conference just held in New York.
The event featured some of the foremost thought leaders on social media and related marketing.
They included Patrick Hanlon, founder and CEO of Thinktopia, Inc., and author of Primal Branding; Steve Rubel with Edelman’s me2revolution practice , Constantin Basturea with Converseon and many others.
Social media is no doubt huge and growing. Blogs and bloggers are everywhere. Viral video is on the upswing and so are virtual worlds such as Second Life.
Establishing relationships of one sort or another with bloggers and key online influencers will be crucial to the success of maintaining brand awareness, brand leadership, and gaining feedback on any product or service.
It needs to play some sort of role as public relations practitioners plan future strategies. It’s important today and will probably be even more so a few years down the road.
While I believe the traditional media isn’t going away soon (The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, local newspapers, TV etc. will still be around)you will continue to see much more online content in the months and years ahead. This will include more video and more in-depth analysis from both paid and outside sources. Extensive analysis and opinion will be available from a variety of resources, even on micro topics important to only a few.
We consumers want our news and information whenever we want it, wherever we want it. In a real world, and even a virtual world, it’s a habit that’s not going away anytime soon.