The document discusses how organizations can use social media for public relations purposes. It defines public relations and outlines traditional media versus new media, with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and blogs highlighted. Benefits of using social media for PR are presented, including building relationships, driving traffic to websites, and boosting sales in a free, easily accessible, and interactive digital environment. Statistics on Barbadian internet and social media usage are also provided, along with sample posts for various social media platforms.

1. Social Media for PR
Tara Wilkinson-McClean
Tara Wilkinson Communications
www.twcglobal.net

2. Public Relations (PR)
“Public relations is a strategic
communication process that
builds mutually beneficial
relationships between
organizations and their
publics.”
-PRSA

4. Media Overview
 Old/Traditional Media  New Media
◦ Television ◦ Blogs*
◦ Radio ◦ Podcasts
◦ Newspapers ◦ YouTube
 Social Media
◦ Twitter
◦ Facebook
◦ Google+
◦ Blogs*
New: Technological Social: Technological &
(audio, video, and text) Interactive

5.  Free basic packages
 Builds relationships
 Easily accessible
 Build customer profiles
 Drive traffic to website
 Boost sales
 Encourages customer „buy in‟

6.  Online publishing technology
 Provides user generated
information
 Accessible & user friendly
 Interactive conversation
 Connect and share with
people with similar interest
 Of 286, 705 Barbadians,
188,000 have internet access
& 114, 240 are facebook
subscribers (65% penetration)

7. Facebook Sample

8.  Tweet what‟s
happening now
 Instantly connect to
what's most important
to you.
 Follow your friends,
experts, favorite
celebrities, and
breaking news.

9. Twitter

10.  Google+ aims to make
sharing on the web more
like sharing in real life.
 "Circles" enables users to
organize contacts into
groups for sharing
 "Hangouts" are places
used to facilitate group
video chat (with a
maximum of 10 people
participating in a single
Hangout at any point in
time).

11. Google+ Sample

12.  100 million+ members
| Manage your
professional identity.
Build and engage with
your professional
network.

13. LinkedIn Sample

14. Pinterest
 Online pin-board style sharing website
 Organise and share images/videos of interest
 Create and share theme based collections
(events, interest, hobbies)
 Users can re-pin things of interest
 Allows sharing via facebook and twitter

15. Pinterest Sample

16. Instagram
 Photo sharing program
 Allows modification of photos (colour,
texture, Polaroid effect)
 Free platforms (Wordpress,Tumblr, Blogger)

17. Blogs
 Published journal
 Displayed in reverse chronological order with
most recent posts first
 Sometimes interactive allowing visitors to
share comments
 Combines text, images, links to other blogs,
web pages etc.

18. Blog Sample