Thursday, June 9, 2011

Social Media for PRSSA Chapters-- Lauren K Gray

In public relations, we know that social media is one of the top tools for PR today. With that, PRSSA National has many social media platforms to communicate with members around the country and out of the country!

Social media pages for Chapters are very beneficial. My Chapter, the Western Carolina University Chapter @WCUPRSSA, uses Twitter, Facebook, blogging and LinkedIn to post industry news, Chapters news, National news and other updates as they surface.

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Our Chapter also uses the Facebook page for events and discussions. We post job and internship opportunities at least once a week, which is beneficial for our members who could be searching for jobs and internships. Events on Facebook are useful because members get a reminder of the upcoming event and they can RSVP to the event and get more details about the event.


Twitter seems to be a PRSSA favorite lately! @PRSSANational posts job and internship opportunities as they arrive on the PRSSA Internship Center. For your Chapter, you can tweet individuals to remind them of meetings, thank people for coming to meetings and more. I think Twitter is more personal than just a mass message on Facebook. It’s very useful! A lot of Chapters retweet @PRSSANational posts and posts by other Chapters. 2010-2011 PRSSA President Nick Lucido even created a list of Chapters on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nicklucido/prssa-chapters.

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Twitter and Facebook are also great ways to communicate with other Chapters. I know our Chapter has gotten a few ideas from other Chapters for events and meeting topics, we are all here to help each other!
A lot of Chapters also have a blog or a website to talk about industry news and PRSSA topics. For example, the WCU PRSSA Chapter has our blog http://wcuprssa.wordpress.com where members can get information about our point system, meeting calendar, blog updates and more. We posted notes from a few different conferences our members attended and more.
I think it’s important for Chapters to use social media to communicate with members because while email is very important, emails rack up quickly and are easily overlooked. College students are on their social media sites every single day. Does that mean they will check the Facebook and Twitter pages? No, but it is another method of communication for reaching more people.

As the 2011-2012 PRSSA National Vice President of Public Relations, I will communicate to members through our social media channels, the bi-weekly update and the PRSSA President phone and email tree. It’s very important to check these channels for PRSSA news and updates! Here are our links to our social media sites:
           Something new we will be doing will be adding videos to the YouTube channel from the National Committee members! We will add introduction videos to tell you more about us and our initiatives. I will also ask Chapters to submit Chapter news via video so we can upload Chapter news to our YouTube channel as well! We want to utilize all our social media channels to their fullest potential.

            If you have any questions about starting social media for your Chapter or social media for PRSSA as a whole, please feel free to reach out to me! Tweet me on Twitter @laurenkgray or email me at laurenkgray2@gmail.com.
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2 comments:

  1. It’s very useful! A lot of Chapters retweet @PRSSANational posts and posts by other Chapters. 2010-2011 PRSSA President Nick Lucido even created a list of Chapters on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nicklucido/prssa-chapters. Visit Our Website

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  2. Thanks for stopping by and for the tip, Elizabeth!

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