Tag Archives: SocialPR

5 Instagram Tips for PR Pros

Posted on September 14, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Be interesting, be useful …. or be ignored. Image via our own Victoria Harres.

Each week, Dear Gracie answers questions from ProfNet Connect readers with advice from our network of nearly 50,000 ProfNet experts. Has there been a question burning in your mind lately, something you’ve been wondering that none of your colleagues can answer? Please send it to grace.lavigne@prnewswire.com

Dear Gracie,

Instagram has been around for a couple of years, but seems to have exploded in popularity recently. How can PR pros use Instagram to increase publicity for clients?

Improving Images

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Dear Improving Images:

Four ProfNet experts provide a snapshot:

Instagram is a social network where users can share photos and comment or like their friends’ photos, explains Jeff Peters, social media specialist at The Halo Group.

It offers users a simple, easy way to take and edit photographs, and then post them across all major social media portals, says Seth Grugle, digital and social media specialist for Much and House Public Relations. It borrows the #hashtag concept from Twitter and aggregates friends like Facebook.

An artsy shot that benefited from tinkering with Instagram filters, by PR Newswire’s Sarah Skerik

“One of the most interesting aspects of Instagram is that it’s not really a ‘site,’ but lives almost purely on mobile,” notes Peters.

“While it’s possible for just about any brand to use Instagram, the platform itself is most appealing to brands and industries that are more visually oriented,” Peters explains. “Instagram helps create a visual connection between a brand and a consumer or potential customer.”

For example, a fashion line could post photos of inspirational clothing patterns, a car manufacturer could post photos of challenging roadways, or a celebrity could post behind-the-scene shots that grant followers access to sights and scenes they’d never get to see otherwise, says Grugle.

PR professionals should seriously consider using the social network to complement client announcements and press releases, just as they do with Twitter and Facebook, says Jennifer DeAngelis, a PR account executive with InkHouse.

“If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then the visual imagery projected through Instagram translates well beyond a 140-character maximum,” says Grugle.

Tips and Suggestions for PR Pros Using Instagram:

1. Check Out Instagram’s Business Page, suggests Peters. Instagram for Businesses provides information on how to get started, examples of successful approaches, advertising and marketing opportunities, and more.

2. Consider Your Audience. “Are your brand’s fans using Instagram?” asks Kevin Dugan, veteran marketer with The Empower Group. “If your audience isn’t on Instagram, do you need to be?”

“Don’t just use Instagram to use it or because it’s positioned as ‘hot,’” agrees Peters. “Make sure that you’re giving your audience content that they want to see and interact with.”

3. Post Appropriate Content. “Understand why you want to use Instagram, how you’re going to use it, what you want to get out of it and how your audience uses it,” says Peters.

“Don’t forget that, while pictures are great, substance is critical,” stresses Dugan. “What are you trying to convey?”

4. Don’t Just Post — Interact, says Peters. Some of the most popular brands on Instagram use behind-the-scene photos, photo hunts or contests. For example, fashion retailer Free People integrates Instagram directly into their product pages.

5. Get Creative, says Dugan. “Optimize the content for the format and break out of traditional molds.” Here are a few examples of unique approaches:

Instagram is also often mistakenly overlooked for various types of announcements that a company might make, such as a new product, a new hire, an upcoming event or a recent award, says DeAngelis in her post How We Can Use Instagram in Public Relations.

Gracie

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. Dear Gracie is published weekly on ProfNet Connect, a free social networking site for communicators. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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How Social Media Is Changing PR

Posted on August 2, 2012 by | 8 Comments

On the last Tuesday of each month, ProfNet hosts ConnectChat, a monthly series of Twitter chats exploring key communications and media topics. During a recent ConnectChat, Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications, discussed the changing role of PR in the digital era and how we can adjust our mind and skill sets accordingly.

Breakenridge says that with the rise of social media PR professionals need to:

  • Master information technologies as a “technology tester,” including video, SEO, website analytics, monitoring applications, CMS and more.
  • Start dialogue and build relationships through new channels.
  • Strategize to connect directly with stakeholders, especially customers.

Breakenridge notes that being a technology tester is the most challenging new skill for PR pros to master because it requires constantly paying attention to new apps, resources and platforms. “It’s so important to understand use technology the way stakeholders,” she says.

To excel in these new practices, people in the PR industry need to become hybrid professionals, says Breakenridge. This process includes:

  • Moving the best of traditional practices forward and integrating them with digital and social communications.
  • Working cross-functionally with marketing and moving outside of the PR “silo,” which includes learning and applying marketing tactics.
  • Collaborating with other departments too, like Web/IT, sales, customer service, HR, etc.
  • Being flexible and adaptable in a global communications environment.

Breakenridge provides some new roles popping up in the PR industry:

  • Internal Collaboration Generator: knows good communication starts on the inside with technology sharing
  • Pre-Crisis Doctor: plans for crises through new approaches, processes and recovery steps
  • Relationship Analyzer: takes relationships to deeper levels through technology and visualization
  • Master of the Metrics: understands metrics tracked over time and can track them back to executive goals

To successfully use metrics, PR pros must have objectives and know what they are trying to achieve, adds Breakenridge. “It’s important to know what you’re measuring: leads, sales, registration, awareness (buzz), community growth, etc.”

Listen to conversations and identify influencers to drive discussion and systematically map out audience connections, explains Breakenridge. “Understand the culture, critical issues and passion in the community to make better connections. Use crowdsourcing, contests, and promotions for deeper engagement.” She notes that you can use @mentionmapp and @TouchGraph to visualize connections.

Social media provides incredible intelligence, and, when filtered, can help PR pros plan more strategically, says Breakenridge. For example, social media can help companies react quicker to negative situations and crises. “You can strategically engage for more valuable outcomes: leads, sales, registration, better CS, more productivity.”

Social media should move across an organization, says Breakenridge. PR should work with other departments (marketing, advertising, branding, etc.); it should cover everything from social governance and planning to content curation and the monitoring of programs. PR should spearhead social media, but not own it. “Working with other groups doesn’t mean we lose our core purpose; we have just expanded our opportunity!” she says.

Where is PR headed? Breakenridge says PR will:

  • Continue to integrate with other areas and strategize cross functionally.
  • Start incorporating interactive living rooms, touch experience, augmented reality, etc.
  • Gain influence by telling more meaningful stories through technology and educating others on best practices.

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet. Check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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Dear Gracie: The Social Media ROI Debate

Posted on April 13, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Each week, Dear Gracie answers questions from ProfNet Connect readers with advice from our network of nearly 50,000 ProfNet experts. Has there been a question burning in your mind lately, something you’ve been wondering that none of your colleagues can answer? Please send it to grace.lavigne@prnewswire.com

Dear Gracie,

I’m curious to hear social media experts take on this ROI issue. How can we prove the value of social media without quantifiable proof? What can I say to clients who want to see evidence of their influence on social media?

Socially Stunted

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Dear Socially Stunted,

Four ProfNet experts weigh in on this much debated topic:

Why Social Media ROI Cannot Be Clearly Defined

Traditionally, return on investment (ROI) is the ratio of money gained or lost, whether that’s in terms of profit, interest or something else.

“Normally, ROI is a simple numbers game,” says Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Networks. If the investment has negative ROI, or if there are other opportunities to producer higher ROI, then the business stops investing. If the investment has positive ROI, then the business continues investing.

“So why doesn’t social media ROI follow that same formula?” ponders Zoldan.

“The reason is that social media ROI cannot be determined by a simple equation, because it is not measured in monetary profit, but rather in enhanced or broadened relationships with consumers.” And those types of “returns” can take months, or even years, to build and sustain, says Zoldan.

Furthermore, there is no clear endpoint in social media ROI, Zoldan continues. For example, if you own a company and are deciding whether or not to undertake an advertising campaign, you invest a certain amount, and once the money is used up, you decide whether or not the ROI makes the investment worth continuing. This strategy simply does not apply to social media ROI, because it’s not about creating profit in a literal sense, he says.

On the other hand, creating compelling social media content is similar in some ways to creating a billboard or having a placement in The Wall Street Journal, says Gina Bericchia, public affairs and media relations coordinator at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “It’s hard to draw the exact relationship between placing an ad and an increase of interactions with consumers, but we make the leap that one thing caused the other.”

Social media ROI is confusing because each type of professional is trying to apply it to a metric that they understand, explains Alex Nicholson, director of new media at Cone Communications, a PR and marketing agency in Boston. For example, for a PR person, ROI is based on engagement, but for an advertiser, ROI is based on clicks; and for a brand manager, ROI is based on sales. In other words, the “returns” are conflicting, says Nicholson.

The cherry on top of the social media ROI conundrum is that each social media platform offers different data on users, continues Nicholson. “Engagement and clicks look totally different from one platform to another.” For example, a tweet does not equal a ‘like.’

But there should be some way to measure whether or not a company is meeting its business goals, says Berrichia. “Brands that devote time to providing good customer service and using social media to meet their business goals will be the companies who are successful using these tools and successful in ROI,” she says. “In other words, you can’t just create a Facebook page because everyone else is doing it. You have to have a clear objective.”

Nicholson concurs that it’s essential to understand what success and failure looks ahead of time, even before determining the social media strategy. Establish what you need from the beginning, even if its just media coverage, and make sure the vehicles to track those goals are in place.

How to Measure the Impact of Social Media

“The ‘profit’ in social media ROI is enhanced relationships with users and consumers, and succeeding in branding yourself, your product or your company in an attractive way that will inspire users to figuratively — and hopefully literally at some point — ‘invest’ themselves in your site, wares, etc.” explains Zoldan.

Social media ROI is not a one-step, limited-time-only operation; it requires a great amount of effort and energy to get consumers to like — and “like” — you, says Zoldan. “There may be eventual, indirect profit down the road.”

To gauge success, consider how many followers you have acquired and how invested those followers are in your company’s online space, says Zoldan. Think about quality vs. quantity: having five followers who comment on every piece that’s posted is as equally bad as having 5,000 followers who only check in once every three months for five minutes. “The goal is to gain a large but also consistent following,” he says.

“Both numbers and anecdotal evidence are valid ways to establish a case for social business,” says Bericchia. If your client asks for hard-and-fast ROI numbers, talk about recent increases in engagement. Even if there hasn’t been a huge boost in number of followers, consider how many followers are talking about the brand.

Goals can be set in terms of audience growth, engagement levels, shares, clicks, Web traffic, coupon redemption, sales and more, suggests Nicholson. But ultimately, goals and measurement will be dictated by the nature of the business.

On Facebook specifically, “virality” helps measure the people who have created a story from your page’s post based on the number of people who have viewed it, adds Bericchia.

“Sentiment is important,” she continues. Monitor profiles to see if people are responding to their experience with the brand in a positive or negative way.

“Companies who experience the most success with social media will approach the market from a unique perspective,” says Zoldan. That is, they will “flavor” their brand in a way that is different from everything else in the virtual world.

There is no single “right way” to measure social media success, says Bericchia. Whether you’re measuring engagement or the number or products sold, it’s important to think about what the brand does well and use social media to maximize that.

For example, Bericchia continues, when someone says Zappos has a great social media presence, it’s really because they have exceptional customer service. “They maximize their opportunities by using social media to achieve their goal of providing outstanding customer service using innovative tools,” she explains.

“Companies that ‘get’ social media are doing it seamlessly as part of their marketing mix,” says Nicholson. “They know their consumer and they are activating in ways that feel natural and authentic to the brand across digital and traditional channels.”

Alternative POV: Why the Social Media ROI Conversation Is Pointless

Rob Frankel — branding expert, author and speaker, and founder of i-legions and PeerMailing.com — says in his blog post “The Business of Social Media” that social networks should be used for “socially oriented issues,” but not “business purposes.”

“Have we drifted so far from the purpose of business — making money — that entire campaigns can revolve around efforts which have no direct relationship to revenue generation?” he muses.

“For my money, social media is nice, but no big thing, really,” Frankel explains. “It’s just doing what people have always done, except now they can do it faster because of technology.” That is, before social media, people still found out about news and gossip.

“If raising awareness for your cause is your thing, social media might be the right tool for you,” says Frankel. Yes, social media links connects people, “but it’s a major mistake to assume linkage of people translates into actions of people,” he continues.

Spending a lot of time and resources on social media just to get a million “likes” on your brand’s Facebook page doesn’t add anything to the bottom line, and can therefore be a huge waste of money and effort, he says.

“It’s flattering to get 15 million views on YouTube, but until and unless you can convert those hits to sales, what’s the point?” he wonders. Concentrate on socially oriented issues on social media — not business issues.

What’s your take?

Gracie

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. Dear Gracie is published weekly on ProfNet Connect, a free social networking site for communicators. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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Unlocking Social Media for Public Relations

Posted on September 14, 2011 by | 1 Comment

We’ve noticed that many folks are still struggling when it comes to incorporating social media into their public relations strategies. How to do you get started?  How do you determine whether or not a network is a good fit for your brand?  Should you pitch reporters via social networks?

We tackle these questions and more in this beefy ebook, which spans almost 60 pages, and offers advice on getting started, and specific tips on using a variety of networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, YouTube and a host of others – to reach new audiences and augment your PR efforts.

Download Unlocking Social Media for PR (it’s free!)

We recognize the social media landscape is continually shifting.    You can always find new information on our blog, and if you want to ask questions or chat about the challenges social media can pose for a PR pro, visit the ProfNet Connect forum we’ve set up for these discussions.

Social Media/PR Discussion Group

 

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Public Relations & Professional Networking: Using LinkedIn for PR

Posted on May 26, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Telecommunications Today - a news page featureing content widely shared by LinkedIn users.

Second in a series: Integrating Social Media and Public Relations

Twitter and Facebook undeniably garner the most attention in discussions about social media and marketing communications.  As a result, many communicators overlook the utility of sites like LinkedIn, ProfNet Connect and Quora.  Today, I’m going to focus on LinkedIn, and in a future post will discuss the other sites.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is particularly interesting and unique, combining breaking news and interaction with professional networking.  A good LinkedIn profile is a living resume that can be seen by the networks’ active community.   What makes the site work so well, in my mind, is how well organized it is – users can tag their profiles to indicate industry and professional expertise, participate in industry and subject-specific groups, and follow news and information related to their areas of interest.  If you’ve not checked out what LinkedIn is doing lately, doing so should be high on your list to of things to do.

LinkedIn News & Sharing
I spoke to some of the development team at LinkedIn a few weeks ago, and while a lot is still in flux, one thing was clear – LinkedIn is really focused on acquiring content for their site, and the action of sharing content via the LinkedIn Share button is something they’re stressing.

Content that is widely shared among the people following an industry is featured in the LinkedIn News, a sleek new feature pictured at the top of this page that does a nice job of surfacing the content that on the minds of the people within a specific niche.

Because of the emphasis LinkedIn is placing on the use of their sharing button, having that functionality embedded on your site’s content pages is important.  As soon as I got off the phone with the LinkedIn team, I dashed off a note to our web gurus, asking that we add the button to this blog, and a few other content areas. If your organization has a robust news section on its web site or creates other content or hosts a blog and doesn’t have those buttons embedded, you should take the same course of action I did.  (Note: PR Newswire encourages sharing press releases in social media by embedding LinkedIn share button prominently on all press release pages, along with buttons for Facebook and Twitter. Other sharing and interaction options, such as a variety of blogging tools, are available in the Share It! Section on the right of each page.)

Tactical PR and LinkedIn:

Public relations pros can use LinkedIn a few different ways for tactical PR, including:

  • Researching and networking with journalists and bloggers.  Most people keep their profiles up to date, and provide links to their blogs, Twitter accounts and web sites.   Once you’ve researched someone, you can invite them to connect on the site, which is a nice way to get to know someone, and adds them to the virtual Rolodex that is your group of LinkedIn contacts.
  • Listening to your own audiences.   LinkedIn has scads and scads of professional and special interest groups, as well as active Q&A discussions in the Answers section.  Keeping an eye on the conversations there is a great way to learn what’s on your audience’s mind – useful information for planning your own communications, especially blog posts and other content creation activities. You’ll start to see the same questions popping up over and over again, which means (at least in my opinion) that the market has done a poor job filling the need for that kind of information – which spells opportunity for you.
  • Identifying influentials.  As you become more familiar with the people who participate in the different discussion groups and Q&A forums, you’ll start to spot real influencers among the crowd – folks who are well-connected in your industry, and who have voices that rise above the din.   Often, you’ll find that these people have many “best answers” in the Answers section.   Cultivate them. Build relationships with them.  They can end up being powerful advocates for your brand.
  • Building your own credibility.  I just mentioned the “best answers” feature in the Answers section. LinkedIn allows the person posting a question to select a “best answer” from those received.  Collecting “best answers” builds your expertise and visibility within an industry segment.   More people will want to connect with you, and this is a great way of establishing your bonafides.
  • Honing your social skills.  As with any network, it’s important to listen and observe the group dynamics before you interact.  Notice what kind of questions generate responses in group discussions, and which responses garner ‘best answer’ accolades in the Answers section.  Certain types of messages are almost certain duds – if you pay attention, you can determine what sort of content the audience does and doesn’t like, and plan accordingly.  In addition to making your interactions on LinkedIn more effective, paying attention to what sort of content generates interest and interaction can also inform your future content strategy.

Company pages

In addition to providing powerful personal networking tools, LinkedIn also offers companies the ability to establish company pages.   These pages are an important touch point within LinkedIn for your brand.  You can plug your company’s Twitter feed into your company page, along with an RSS feed from your blog.  Other tabs allow you to highlight key products, and support the addition of video and images related to the products.   Page admins can access analytics, enabling them to see activity on the pages.   All in all, the company pages are a nice tool, and they’re free and easy to set up.

I’m sure the more time you spend with LinkedIn, the more opportunities you’ll find for using this important network in your public relations workflow.  If I’ve overlooked your favorite tips for using LinkedIn in your daily PR practice, let me know in the comments!

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice-president of social media.  You can connect with her on LinkedIn here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahskerik

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Social Media: A Simple Guide to “Getting It”

Posted on May 25, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Unsure about taking the plunge? A more gradual approach is fine.

Social networks have upended many aspects of our lives – from how we stay in touch with friends and family, to how we consume information, stay on top of the news and purchase things.  Social media has also changed how companies sell, how they serve their customers, and how they communicate with their publics.   However, many public relations pros are still struggling when it comes to integrating social media into the daily practice of PR.   I’m going to devote a few blog posts to the integration of social media into the practice of public relations, and today, we’re going to talk about getting started.

If you’re one of those folks who set up a Twitter account, tweeted a couple things, followed a couple people and then abandoned the account after two weeks, these posts are for you. (Disclosure: I was there too!)

First and foremost, I think it’s important to note that I don’t consider social media a practice unto itself.  I believe the social layer will soon become as intrinsic to our every day lives and workflows as email, the telephone and search engines are today, and will soon be seen simply as another mechanism for communications, and finding things.

So, on to getting started.  Most social media guides will emphasize the importance of listening first, and I offer the same advice. Before you do a swan dive into the deep end of the social media pool, wade around in the shallow end first.   But before you even start monitoring social media for your brand, I think it’s important that you make the foray onto social networks yourself, and, once there, listen to and observe those around you.

Facebook: 

Become a fan of businesses and big brands you like on Facebook.  Observe how they interact with their audiences.  Notice which posts generate interaction (e.g. likes and comments) among the fans.  Notice which are largely ignored. If you need some suggestions, here are some good Facebook company pages to go observe:

  • Intel – with more than a million fans, the team at Intel have done a great job on their Facebook page. They’ve done some cool Facebook customization but I really want you to watch their Wall.  They are good at loading interesting content that drives fantastic interaction, and starting conversations.
  • Adobe Photoshop: Like Intel, Adobe has some nice customization.  Again, however, the real interaction is happening on their Wall.  This is another great example of a brand interacting with their audience (which is more than 2 million strong.)
  • Saddlers Row: At the opposite end of the business spectrum is Saddler’s Row, tack shop near my home. This is a small, local business that doesn’t have a huge marketing budget or social media experts on staff.  However, they are creative and human and their use of Facebook is inventive – they post about area events, poll their fans, and have sparked great interaction with a series of “field testers” – calling for people to test products and give feedback.  This is the “if they can do it so can you” example.

Important:  It is worth the time to customize your privacy settings, especially until you get the hang of Facebook.  Here’s a good Facebook settings privacy guide from the good folks at Mashable.

Blogs & Discussion Forums:

Pursue personal interests online.  I think this is a great way to observe social discussion and brand interactions from an objective perspective.  Find blogs and discussion forums relating to a hobby and tune in.   See how people act, and interact.  Watch how the community handles trolls. Notice whether or not any brands interact with the group, and whether or not the communications are well received. You’ll learn a lot about interactions in the social layer (and probably about your hobby, too!)

Case in point.  One of my own hobbies is finding new homes for race horses that are no longer competitive racers. Transitioning these animals from the race track to life as a riding horse is a process that involves training, changing their diets, and addressing minor problems common to horses coming off the track. I belong to several internet forums devoted to this pursuit.  Different feeds, drugs and therapies are often discussed.  One day someone started a discussion about a feed supplement from a popular supplier.  The supplier’s packaging had changed, and the daily dose packages were a real hassle to open.  A few others chimed in saying they had noticed the same thing.   General unhappiness with the supplier was percolating.  Within a few hours, a service rep from the supplier weighed in, noting that they had switched to compostable packaging, which was flimsier, and the glue used to seal the packing was too strong and hard to open.  They were in the process of switching to a new adhesive, and said that within month or so the problem should be remedied.  The discussion quickly changed tone – everyone liked the fact that the packaging could be composted and that the problem was being fixed.  And they loved the fact that the brand was listening and responded directly.

Believe me, there is something for everyone.  Just Google your interest and the word “forum” and you’ll find a group talking about your interests, whether that’s gluten free baking, wild mushroom hunting, any manner of crafts, motorcycle-rebuilding or model train choo-chooing.

Twitter: 

Sign up for Twitter, and have someone help you find interesting people who are talking about your industry or hobby to follow.  Or, if you’re afraid to ask, here’s a great beginner’s guide to using Twitter, again from Mashable.

Case in point:  My own husband was a vitriolic anti-Twitterer, until he got an iPad shortly before the NFL draft.  When he wasn’t looking, I set up a Twitter account for him, and found a bunch of NFL scouts, bloggers and draft prognosticators for him to follow.  I then loaded Flipboard, which turns a Twitter stream into a sleek interactive newsmagazine.  I handed him his iPad with his customized, up-to-minute NFL draft digest and blew his little mind.  Needless to say, he doesn’t fully get Twitter, but he’s now a fan.

Another case in point:  For someone whose title has “social media” in it, I was fairly late to Twitter.  I followed “best practices,” which include a lot of listening, replying and retweeting.  I also avidly read a variety of industry blogs, and would tweet interesting things I saw, which the authors appreciated.  It took a good six months, I’d say, but Twitter went from being something I was doing because frankly I had to do it to a totally indispensable network and resource.

Blog:

Create a free blog on WordPress (my favorite) or Tumblr (the current darling du jour) and start writing about something that interests you, preferably a topic you’re also following on Twitter.   Blogging regularly will deliver a couple benefits:

  • You will be amazed at how your writing improves.  You will be faster, more nimble and more creative if you are also blogging frequently on the side.  (I have two personal blogs and contribute frequently to this one.  I spend a lot of my free time writing, and my output is all the more readable for it.)
  • Tweet your posts, and share them on your Facebook page.  You’ll start to learn specifically how to tweet messages in a way that encourages people to read and interact with the information you’re putting forth in social networks – an important skill for any communicator these days.

So, if you haven’t taken the plunge into social media, now would be a good time to test the waters.  If you don’t learn to navigate this environment, chances are good that you’ll be swimming upstream professionally from this point forward.  Follow these steps, and learning about the social layer will be fun, intuitive and personally rewarding.  Let me know how you fare!

Need a pal?

If you need a friend as you start your journey or want to see how I spend my time in social networks, come find me – I’ve staked out space in most social networks, including:

Networks:

Twitter: @sarahskerik – I tweet about digital PR, social media and search.

Facebook: I use FB to keep up with friends and family. I don’t talk much shop here.

LinkedIn: Back to shop talk.  I use LinkedIn for professional networking.

Blogs:

Tumblr:  This may wind up being a photo blog, or I might abandon it. I don’t know yet.  I’m still thinking about it.  I’m much more active on the next two blogs (below), in addition to right here on Beyond PR, obviously:

CollectingTBs – my adventures with the aforementioned ex-racehorses

The FUNgrrl – I’m into foraging for wild mushrooms, and document my frequent failures and occasional finds here.

Next:  A simple guide to using professional networking sites like LinkedIn and Quora.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

Image courtesy of Flickr user familymwr

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