Lara Kretler’s blog

I’m on a real tear with social media lately – I talk about it with anyone who will listen. I talked about social media with my Mom while she was visiting, to the point where she was able to tell the lady at Hallmark all about Webkinz World (I was so proud). I’ve talked about social media to clients and prospects, resulting in some great new projects which hopefully I’ll be able to blog about soon. And I’ve talked about it enough at work that people are really starting to get excited about it – my boss even came with me to the Ohio Web Leaders conference yesterday to see what all the fuss is about.

So what do I love so much about social media? I can think of a bunch of things, but here are my top 5. What are yours?

1. The social media community is so welcoming, open and generous. People are only too willing to give answers, advice, tips and more to a relative newbie like me. When I needed a few case studies recently for a presentation, I couldn’t find anything relevant on Google so I asked the question on Twitter. Instantly I had folks sending me links to resources that were really, truly helpful – far more useful and on target than anything I could get from an automated search engine.

2. The social media community is unbelievably creative. Have you seen all the blogs and social networks out there written and hosted by dogs, cats and more? There are hundreds of blogs in my subject area alone, PR 2.0 (the intersection of PR and social media), yet each of them is distinctly individual and unique. Just by reading many of these blogs and starting to blog myself, I’ve enlivened my own creativity and energized my professional life. I wake up in the middle of the night now, my head jumping with crazy ideas incorporating PR and social media. I’ve even entered a Twitter-based creative writing contest. There’s no end to the creativity in this space. 

3. Being more engaged with social media is helping me with my wee (small, tiny, insignificant) clutter problem. See, I’m a bit of a packrat and I’ve been known to hoard business cards for years. Decades, even. But now, as soon as I get home from a conference or meeting where I’ve exchanged lots of business cards, I enter everyone into LinkedIn. If there were people I really connected with, I’ll enter them into Facebook and Twitter as well. This allows me to connect with these new contacts in a much more personal and multi-faceted way. I can see if we have other shared contacts or interests, and we can stay in touch even if one of us changes jobs. Plus, the business cards can be recycled, freeing up an entire desk drawer or eliminating one or more “file piles.”

4. I love the social aspect of social media. I know some skeptics think we’re all a bunch of geek hermits with our noses in our keyboards, rarely seeing the light of day or breathing fresh air. However, the reality could not be farther from that. Just search on Flickr for “social media” and you’ll find pictures of conferences, blogger socials and so much more. Yes, we love to connect and meet and write and share and engage with one another online, but we also love to get together in person to talk about this stuff. Preferably over drinks or Nutella. Social media has allowed me to meet people and make friends who share my odd mix of personal interests. It’s enabled me to get back in touch with colleagues and even family members I haven’t seen in years. My cousins in England are now also my Facebook friends and it’s so great to be back in touch in such a fun, engaging way – far better than an impersonal email.

5. I love the way social media is shaking up my profession and making it the best it can be. There’s such a great fit between social media and public relations - they go together like peanut butter and jelly. We PR people are used to communicating in an educational, informative and credible way – not just writing to sell or market something. We’re also great at connecting with people, focusing on relationships, and being comfortable in a fuzzy, grey area that can be hard to define and measure at times. I see so many brilliant PR people stepping up and serving as leaders in the social media sphere and it makes me proud. I am thrilled to be starting out on this path and in such good company.

So, what are your favorite things about social media? I’ve barely scratched the surface here.