PR and social media go together beautifully. It’s about public relations on the web, protecting and enhancing your reputation through various digital channels.

Public relations has always been about protecting your reputation in the eyes of the public. And we’ve traditionally used newspapers, magazines, television and radio to get our messages across.

Social media is where a lot of the focus lies now. It’s believed to be causing the biggest cultural shift since the Industrial Revolution. Whole industries are having to adapt to cope with the changes it’s causing. Take the newspaper industry, for instance. People are now finding their news online these days, so newspapers are consequently suffering and having to seek new revenue streams as circulation figures continue to drop.

Then, look at PR and marketing agencies. Naturally, they’re having to adapt as well. Many are getting it right but so many are still getting it wrong – trying to apply the same old PR techniques.

Because many are using social media as a one-way conversation when in fact, it’s a two way thing. Social media isn’t like the old marketing days when you could just throw out an advert or press story for your local newspaper or trade magazine. It’s about talking directly to your audience in real-time. Scary huh? Well not really. It depends how you look at it…

Social media might be about talking directly to the public and engaging in two-way communication but it’s nothing to be frightened of. Unlike traditional media, you can actually track the results of your investment through Google Analytics, social media monitoring and stats on social media networks.

You can give yourself clear and defined goals and targets. You can respond quickly and easily to any issues or problems that might arise. You can attract whole new markets and potential customers via the Internet. It’s wonderful and PR agencies who are switched on to social media will help you make the most of everything that’s out there.

If you’re thinking of making better use of social media through your own public relations, then do some research on any PR agency before you approach them. ‘Mention’ them on Twitter; ‘like’ them on Facebook, read their blog and see how widely spread they are on the search engines.

A good tip is to see whether they respond to your tweet and how long it takes them to do so. Because a ’switched on’ PR agency will reply almost instantly and be happy to chat about your needs…