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Guest post by: Anthony Mora Become an Author

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Facebook hit the 500 million mark in July. If Facebook were a country, it would rank third, behind the People’s Republic of China and India and around 190 million ahead of the United States. Its growth is staggering, two years ago it had around 100 million users. Its growth is up 64 percent from a year ago, and up 22 million from just February, 2010. Facebook now dwarfs MySpace which not that long ago was seen as the premier site in terms of numbers. Twitter and a professional networking site, LinkedIn, are growing, but pale in comparison. The numbers are constantly moving targets but it was recently that Twitter had 105 million and LinkedIn 70 million users Social bookmarking sites are also experiencing rapid growth. On these sites users save links to Web pages that they want to share and they share their own information. The more popular sites include Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz! and Reddit. So, whereas it’s clear that social media is a major force in the world of marketing and communications, it still can be a daunting task to figure out exactly how to effectively utilize these various sites. It’s often the case that a company spends more time working social media than benefitting from it. It is best used in conjunction with a traditional public relations campaign and although in many ways the forms of communication are similar, in other ways they are markedly different. For example, although you can use the information from a press release on social media sites, you don’t want to send out a standard, traditional press release. Social media and blogging are about connecting and personal communication (even though it is, ironically, on a mass scale) therefore the style needs to be less formal and more conversational. Where many traditional marketers have trouble with social media, is that in the past they were used to delivering a controlled message. In the world of blogging and social media it can be quite a challenge to try and control a message or the reaction to it. That’s not always a bad thing. The feedback received, even when negative, sometimes particularly when negative, can be invaluable. Social media also often allows for communications between a consumer and a decision-making member of any given organization. That’s a shift in the communication world. Social media and blogging are similar to PR in that content is king. The more informative, educational, amusing or controversial the message, the more effective it is. In this world the most effective messages are short and concise. Also, the way the information is written and delivered is different. In the world of social media you are talking directly to consumers and the public, in the PR world you are addressing the media and journalists. And speaking of the media, when it comes to the press, not only are more people using social media, but so are more journalists, editors and producers. The media regularly searches on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Whereas Google still rules as the main information source, it is reported that 89% of reporters turn to blogs and 65% of journalists use social media. Just as when pitching the media in a PR campaign you want to pick the media outlets that match and speak to your market; you want to do the same with your social media campaign. Understanding your current customer base will be your best guide to picking the appropriate social media sites. It wastes your time, money, and effort to focus on social media that your customers do not pay attention to, which is one of the points I’ll be addressing in an upcoming article. Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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