MEDIA ADVISED TO UTILIZE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Jakarta, March 22 (ANTARA) - The social networking sites on the internet such as Facebook and Twitter can be very useful tools for a media to attract customers, a digital public relations expert said.

Steve Rubel, director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm, said media such as news agencies could make use of today's social networking boom by creating their own fan page in either facebook or twitter. This step, he argued, would enable the media to build direct contacts with its customers.
"There is a real opportunity there for any business to deeply engage their customers in a way that perhaps is not as easy to do elsewhere and to build thought leadership. It's easier to go where the people are than to get them to come to you," he said during a seminar themed "Three Digital Trends for the New Decade; Building Marketing Strategies that are Real Time, Visible and Data Driven" hold by ANTARA News Agency and IndoPacific Edelman here on Monday.

Rubel cited as an example Associated Press (AP) which uses Twitter accounts to push their followers to their facebook page.

"On that hub they syndicate many stories, blog posts and dispatches as full text. I think this is a downright brilliant and visionary move," he said.

He said the AP page on Facebook had reached around 9,400 fans. He predicted this number would grow over time as people spend more time on Facebook and slowly become more accustomed to getting their news there, in addition to friend updates, games,etc.

However, he reminded the media to also look after their news content as more people in the future would often use a search engine to get information over a certain topic rather than clicking a media site.

"I would suggest to the media to make good news content with specific word choices. In that way, the news may find its way to google in a very strong way," he said.
On the same occasion, ANTARA News Agency's President Director Ahmad Mukhlis Yusuf expressed appreciation for the holding of the Monday seminar with Steve Rubel saying that the forum was very useful for ANTARA's employees to learn about the development of contemporary digital media.

"In the future, we will produce more effective news products which can reach a broader market," he said.