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Twit-book

For many of my friends, Facebook and Twitter are simply a part of the daily routine. Check your friends latest pictures on Facebook, receive news about Marc Jacobs Spring, 2010 line via Twitter, all before breakfast. The two sites offer similar alerts and services for the busy, young, thing on the go, and its rare for anyone under 30 not to have an account at one or both of these sites.


This huge audience of receptive and easily accessible young people is a tempting demographic for the PR professional. The challenge that PR professinals face is that they don't want to be sold anything. The users of Facebook in particular are much more likely to use the site for entertainment and recreational purposes. Unless you're offering them something, they would rather not listen.


Twitter is a slightly more receptive audience, with a format that is better suited for promotions and reaching a specific target audience. Twitter users readily sign themselves up to receive a streaming feed of profile updates, news and semi-disguised advertisements from the people they follow. 

Facebook is most useful to PR professionals for its fan pages and events. Many companies and organizations now have Facebook profiles with a huge audience of 'friends' from all around the world. Facebook offers a slightly more personal and friendly promotional approach to PR that while tricky to navigate can lead to impressive results.

New media has given us a unique opportunity to forge relationships and dialogue directly with our customers. By creating strategies that take advantage of both Twitter and Facebook, PR professionals have the chance to reach a young, ready to listen audience and get great results for their clients.