HomeJuly, 2008 -

Putting social media to work for your clients

For the past couple of years, attendance at events with the words “social media” in their title have drawn large crowds. Workshops and seminars that focus on the new communication technologies have greater demand than just about any other topic.

In a recent conversation with another independent public relations practitioner regarding social media, the sentiment was expressed that although us indys may be familiar with social media, most of us really aren’t adept yet at utilizing the new tools. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is we focus on billable hours and are often kept plenty busy keeping clients happy.


PR tops lists of work-from-home jobs

One of the benefits of being an independent practitioner is the freedom to work in whatever type of environment you wish. Some rent office space; others maintain home offices. Personally, I’ve chosen to work from home since taking my PR consulting business full-time more than four years ago.

Being a fan of working from home, I was excited to read an article on Yahoo! recently by Kristina Cowan from payscale.com.  She identified five lucrative work-at-home jobs, and three of them were related to communications — PR, writing, and design. “Success with work-from-home jobs depends on self-motivation. and professional experience, freelancers say — the more you have of both, the better. You also must be disciplined and skilled at networking, so you can attract clients/contacts,” she wrote.  Read her full article here.


IPA virtual conference utilizes Facebook to help spread the word

PRSA IPA members and anyone interested in joining in during the section’s first virtual conference now have another promotional tool to help spread the word about the first-of-its-kind event: Facebook.

PRSA has created a Facebook event page for the PRSA IPA Virtual Conference – Big Business Solutions for Small Agencies.

It stands to reason that social media can support and connect independent public relations practitioners spread across the country and around the world. What better way to promote the IPA virtual conference than through a social media tool like Facebook?

Visit PRSA’s website for event registration and information.