As a publicist, I use lots of online media channels to get the word out about my clients. I joined MySpace when we started representing the Queen of MySpace, Tila Tequila and since then have made hundreds of poker-playing Friends. Through Bulletins, Comments and my Blog, they all receive news from my clients.
I also publish another blog which gets a fair amount of traffic and is indexed by Google etc. It also produces an RSS feed which I can use elsewhere.
The best use I've found for Facebook is keeping in touch with other GPWA and CAP members. Although I have hundreds of friends on Facebook I just learned that only the 20 or so that I've been in most recent contact with receive my updates in their newsfeed. So a Facebook profile isn't a great way to push information out to lots of people. I'm developing Facebook Pages for each of my clients though and that will enable me to push information to Fans. Friends will want some kind of incentive to become a Fan though so that's what I'm working on now.
Social Networking isn't going to replace any of our current media distribution channels but it is becoming an increasingly important way to reach colleagues and customers. I'd be very interested in discussing the most effective ways of using Facebook, MySpace etc. for publicity and marketing and will be happy to share anything I've learned myself so far.
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