Social media has evolved into a very effective public relations tools and is a valuable asset in every P.R. tool box these days. I love how up-and-coming Republican Senator Mark Rubio used humor to respond to the onslaught of a full-fledged Twitter meme after he awkwardly took a sip of water during his State of the Union response with a #WaterBreak.
Social media is just one of a many number of tools used to get your message out in the digital age, but always remember that at the end of day, broadcast public relations has the most credibility – whether you’re getting TV news from your flat screen, smartphone, or other mobile device.
For those of you who like numbers (and I think we all like numbers in this business of public relations), TechCrunch.com’s staff writer, Gregory Ferenstein, has collected the latest statistics on social media:
I find statistics absolutely delicious. Pew research released fresh stats on what slice of Americans are addicted to all of the various social networks as of December 2012. There are a few big business and cultural implications.
Pinterest has practically caught up with Twitter, with 15 percent and 16 percent of adult U.S. Internet users on each network, respectively. Pinterest, which launched in 2009, has experienced explosive growth, especially with a white, female and affluent user base. Women are five times more likely to use Pinterest (5 percent vs. 25 percent) and almost twice as likely to be white and college-educated. It’s become a magnet for hip urbanites searching for the hottest wedding gowns and apartment decor. Twitter, however, gets a lot more attention, since neither presidential campaigns nor Middle Eastern activists are leveraging style catalogs to rearrange their countries’ political leadership.
There is no longer a minority gap in social media use. The surveyed groups (whites, Hispanics, and African-Americans) hover around 68 percent of total adults. Almost twice as many African-Americans (26 percent) use Twitter as whites (14 percent). The disproportionate African-American use of Twitter has fascinated culture commentators and scholars. One study found that African-Americans in celebrity news strongly predicted their Twitter use. Former web editor of the The Onion, Baratunde Thurston, hypothesized that “there’s a long oral dissing tradition in black communities,” explaining, “Twitter works very naturally with that call-and-response tradition — it’s so short, so economical, and you get an instant signal validating the quality of your contribution.” Read More.
Peace and coconuts,
Marianne Schwab, Executive Producer, CMP Media Cafe
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