Knowing and targeting your social media audience

Everyone hates spam (the electronic kind, not the lunch meat). If there’s one thing in this world that reminds us we are just one fish in a sea of millions of other demographically similar fishes, it’s spam, a terribly impersonal form of outreach.

Social media done right should create a personal connection between your brand and your brand users or “followers” as they are more commonly known in the world of social media. So, how do you target and reach out to your audience, a sea of unknown fish, without becoming another piece of spam they want to weed out?

On our YouTube page, Donna Phelps, vice president of public relations and account service at CommCreative, discusses the nuances of pitching to the business press. She talks about how to become a valuable resource for news media that cover the business sector.

A 60 Minutes producer just called to arrange for an on-camera interview with you regarding your company. Your first reaction: “Wow! Cool!” Your next one: “Christiane Amanpour or Morely Safer?”

As the host of a weekly interview show on a local radio station and an interview subject for numerous radio, TV and print outlets, I can attest to the value of “free media.” That is, media opportunities for which you don’t have to pay a red cent – at least, for the air time. But as there’s no such thing as a free lunch in life, there’s none in media, either.

The short story is that SXSWi 2010 was an amazing conference this year and brought back some truly invaluable knowledge to CommCreative, but getting it wasn’t easy.