VCU Mass Comm Week

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 10, 2008) -- Public Relations is completely different from what it was ten years ago. The internet brought with it social media, which changed a PR professional’s job forever. Geoff Livingston came to VCU to tell students all about it.

Livingston, CEO of Livingston Communications, gave a speech Thursday in Temple 1165 at 2 p.m. about how social media affects the role of public relations, and society as a whole in today’s world.

Advertising and traditional PR aren’t working the way they used to. Livingston explained that social media is changing the way firms do business and they way PR professionals represent them. Today, websites like facebook are changing the way public relations is done; turning word of mouth into the greatest weapon a PR pro can have in their arsenal.

Livingston started the seminar by showing comments made on his personal twitter about what PR majors should do first after the graduate. He then took several polls to show the audience how much we rely on our social media and how companies have made the internet and information so easily accessible and vital to our daily lives. People now rely on amazon.com to buy books, and blogs such as perezhilton.com or facebook for news.

“That’s the power of social media,” said Livingston, “Everyone is walking around with a Gutenberg press in their hand.”

Livingston also gave tips to people who might be looking to apply at PR firms such as his. He advised for people to clean up their facebook and myspace before applying, and if you don’t have one, create one.

“Let’s put it this way, if I’m going to hire somebody for social media, and they don’t have a facebook…what does that tell me? It tells me they can’t do it,” Livingston said.

Livingston used humor and examples (such as his own twitter website) to capture the audience’s attention and drive home the impact social media has on our lives and public relations as a whole.

“The lecture was very interesting. I never really thought about how much I rely on social networking websites and websites like amazon.com.” said VCU sophomore, Katrina Earley.

Earley wasn’t the only student who enjoyed and learned a lot from Livingston’s seminar.

“I really liked how he opened the seminar with the twitter tips from other PR professionals. The people gave some really good tips, and it showed how helpful twitter can be,” said Amber Seitz, VCU freshman.

When asked if he was ever criticized for his social media business approach, Livingston had a pearl of wisdom to share.

“Yeah, I have people who tell me that I’m crazy. That it’s not real.” Livingston said. “Then I tell them I just closed a $2 million deal on facebook and they shut up.”

By: Janelle Scott

# posted by Janelle Scott @ 10:29 AM