Lessons Learned in the Social Media Pool

By Karen Reynolds, Publicity Club of New England President
February 9, 2010

Like many organizations, we at the Pub Club declared this year The Year we’d dive into Social Media.

Armed with a talented group of board members representing the best and brightest from New England, we identified several areas where we could make a big splash. We launched a blog, opened a Twitter account, and created not one, but two Facebook pages. We also implemented a continuing Social Media workshop series with an ambitious calendar of 5 events for the 2009-2010 programming season.

Sound familiar? Like many Social Media guppies, we made a big splash in the first few weeks loaded with momentum and tons of fresh ideas. We generated over 350 Twitter followers, had several Blog entries in the hopper and grew our Facebook fan club.

But with a team of dedicated Board of Directors who volunteer their time in addition to their day-jobs, we found that we’d spread ourselves pretty thin.

Our Social Media floaties were starting to deflate and we were sinking in the deep end. We’re giving our Blog some much needed CPR and we’re applying many lessons we’ve learned in the first 6 months.

Here’s what we learned…

Let Freedom Ring

• Don’t put the Blog behind a firewall
• Starting this week, the BellRinger will be open to all visitors to PubClub.org.

Let the Good Times Roll

• Do tap into our talented membership base to guest blog
• We invite our members to submit Blog ideas and Guest Blog for the BellRinger

Let it Be

• Do see your Blog as a work in progress
• Don’t dwell on the 6 weeks your Blog sat dormant, new content awaits!

Let the Saints Go Marching In

• Celebrate the victories!
• The Pub Club has hosted three tremendously successful Social Media Workshops with the generous underwriting of Duffy & Shanley and we have several more programs planned for 2010.