A crash course in social media

I'm very much in the 'late adopter' category when it comes to social media. This is, in part, down to pure laziness. I prefer to sit back and let someone else do the work and test out new applications, the latest technologies and build an existing network that I can tap into without  much effort on my part.

Professionally, this was the year I found social media having an impact on my professional life as up until this point I was a very light Facebook user. That soon changed as more and more consumer clients in the Dublin PR agency where I worked wanted to jump on the social media bandwagon and were prepared to invest resources into making it a success. With zero budget available from the client for creative design or advertising support, we created Facebook pages from the ground up and all growth was organic.

When I decided to leave Dublin for the bright lights of London this summer social media got a starring role on my CV.  I was still completely skeptical about the impact social media could have for a brand but I knew that inevitably I'd end up in a job where I'd need to step up to the plate and offer a client advice on their social media strategy.

Now, I'm working for a PR agency who are genuinely invested in social media as a value added service for their PR clients. Support is available when needed, from monitoring emerging trends to suggesting blog topics and tweet calendars right down to bringing clients back down to earth when they throw out the suggestion of investing their entire communications budget into twitter!

I may have started off this job as a social media skeptic but I'm slowly coming round to it and this blog is just one step in my attempt to shake off my cynicism, keep up to speed with new social media trends and learn from the truly great campaigns happening right now.