It is a fundamental part of any Facebook communication strategy to leverage the potential viral dimensions of content featured on the Page, said Edelman’s Matthew Gain at Frocomm’s 2010 New Media Summit. The more it lends itself to viral promotion (i.e. endorsement) the more fans will be attracted to the page (with all of the attendant benefits this can deliver).

This emphasises the need for a well thought out, long term and big picture content strategy. Issues to address include:
• What is the approach to the generation and usage of content across all communication mechanisms, for instance, including the corporate website?
• What communication platform gets the ‘exclusives’?
• I have even asked is PR missing the main digital game by focusing on social media and not the corporate website?

The key to engaging stakeholders through Facebook, said then Weber Shandwick’s, but now Edelman’s, Matthew Gain at Frocomm’s 2010 New Media Summit, is identifying existing communities where fans can be recruited, forming strategic alliances, leveraging off existing communication platforms and utilising Facebook advertising. This post focuses on tactical aspects of utilising Facebook for public relations results.

Public relations professionals external to an organisation can ‘control’, facilitate and contribute to an organisation’s social media activity as effectively as any in-house professional. (In fact, even marketers can do this if they can actually get their head around the notion of true dialogue.) So I was flabbergasted to read of marketers making the claim that it is best that social media should not be run by consultants.

Public relations should own marketing communication because: the traditional one-way communication characteristic of marcomms tools is more effective if applied in a two-way manner; communication is conversation and PR knows these ropes best; direct marcomms can be enhanced by the thought leadership and narrative powers that are embedded in great PR programs.