2010 Denver PR Predictions – Laura Love & Ramonna Tooley

By Laura Love and Ramonna Tooley
GroundFloor Media

We’re looking forward to 2010 as the year that social media earns a well-deserved seat at the proverbial table. We all witnessed social media hitting the mainstream in 2009, as organizations embraced tools like Twitter and Facebook as part of their strategic communications plans. It will be no surprise to see social media as a respected formal “PR tool” in the overall strategic communications mix in 2010. That being said, we see a few trends emerging in the New Year including:

• Companies will have social media guidelines in place for employees, similar to the standard HR policies.
• HR Directors will not extend an offer until a complete background check is conducted, including an in-depth scan of social media sites and personal blogs of each candidate.
• Attorneys specializing in social media laws and regulations will increase and PR agencies will work hand in hand with legal teams as laws shift and the industry evolves.
• The viral nature of social media will lend to increased issues and crises for companies to deal with (think Dominos Pizza), and organizations will need to have social media crisis response plans in place, similar to the traditional media response plans they have had in place (or should have) for years.
• Social media monitoring tools like Radian6 and SM2 will become even more commonplace as companies monitor both their social and traditional media coverage.