Social Networking in PR

Social Networking. It's safe to say no one living in this day and age doesn't know what social networking is and doesn't have their own account. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. We've all been exposed to a social networking site and for some of us it can be over several times a day. That's why it's vital in Public Relations to have an account on social networking websites. You need to communicate and keep yourself and others informed and up to date.It's also one of the best ways to create an "image" and it's up to you to create that image and show what you want people to see.

It's important to be well known in PR and social networking gives you that opportunity to develop relationships and contacts to make you well known in the industry. However some people can take social networking too far. Privacy is an issue because you expose yourself to friends and strangers and once you click post/tweet/send its released and is always there for people to see. If you're not careful though everything you post can be used against you. Inopportune comments and/or inappropriate photos have consequences and not just in the PR industry but for everyone. In this blog I will give you some examples of what not to do on social networking websites:

1. Don't post anything you would be ashamed of someone seeing. Even if its okay your friends see it. You need to remember even strangers can get access to what you post.

2. Avoid inappropriate comments. Don't post, like or share anything that could be seen as racist, sexist or discriminatory in any way.

3. Remove or untag photos of you that can be seen as inappropriate or shown you in an unfavourable light. You can manage your tags by enabling a tag approval setting which lets you decide what photos you want to be tagged in. You can also report photos to have them removed.

4. Don't join groups, like pages or retweet anything that others could find offensive or inappropriate.

Overall it's important to manage your social networking accounts so people who visit your page will like what they see and be interested in getting to know you or working with you. I hope this blog has helped. Keep and eye out for my next blog which I'll post within the next week.