If a company is mounting a social media presence it should announce that presence via social media. I also think it’s important to offer a traditional press release. Why?
A personal story: I took it upon myself to join Twitter a year or more ago since I though it’d be valuable for my work here at Directions Media. It has been. I joined LinkedIn mostly because Joe Francica had started a group for our Location Intelligence Conference. I held off joining Facebook because I didn’t have a compelling reason to join it… until someone gave me compelling reason. It became more and more clear to me chatting during long runs that I was not keeping up with my fellow runners trials and tribulations because I didn’t have them as friends on Facebook. It was important enough to me to know who fell on the ice, who bailed on track because they were sick or who had a great race at Hyannis Half Marathon to actually join Facebook. I probably would not have joined it because of another social media outlet; I joined it because of real live “word of mouth,” not existing social media.
By analogy, thus, I think it’s likely there are folks out there who are not yet on some of the social networks because they don’t have a compelling reason to be. If learning via a press release that the organization behind the GIS software you use at work or school is now on Facebook, it might just encourage you to check out Facebook. While press releases may seem “old fashioned” to some, that area of our website continues to be one of the most read parts of Directions Magazine in 2010. Further, as I’ve said before elsewhere, we feel it’s a public service to allow geospatial companies to post their news (it’s always free to do so).
If you’ve not seen some of the recent social media additions announced via press release, check out the ones about ASPRS joining Twitter and Clark Labs offering a Fan Page on Facebook. Fact: I learned of those two additions to the social media world via those press releases!
