Pandemic Watch: How social media has displaced AP, Bloomberg and Dow Jones Newswires

As someone who has spent his working life in PR/marketing, it is my dream to have my company’s story covered by the AP, Bloomberg and Dow Jones Newswires. The story would be in front of thousands of eyes. In the old days, the local newspapers would take the wire stories and add them to their coverage of the news or let the wire story stand on its own.

As things progressed or digressed when news went online you’d see your story on every news website. When the coverage is good it is a marketing person’s dream. We would all celebrate in the office.

Over the last few years, we’ve now seen the rise of citizen journalists reporting on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other sites. These methods are becoming and/or replacing the traditional wire services. I helped create the initial socia media outreach at one of the companies I worked at. I was on a team of people coordinating this at two other places of business. Not any different than getting your news announcement covered by the wire services. We love comments, likes and shares. The online conversations spark interest in our products and services. Yes, we know there will be negative comments. Proper responses are created.

Of course, we have our posters. Thanks to Covid-19 this has enhanced. These are the people that now wire services. In many cases, they are the town criers. They post every story from every news site on social media apps. Some post commentary at the top. I looked at most. They just copy and paste the lead graph of the news clip. Some are adding their commentary. Much better. Some write their own clip. Like everything it is can be useful or harmful.

With the onslaught of social media, we’ve all noticed many things. Too many. At work, people are generally happy with the splash we’ve made. Of course, we constantly research competitors to compare their metrics to ours.

Community group social media is another animal. I run pages for several community groups. These organizations span a wide array of activities. Recently one of my organizations has witnessed major jumps in its visibility. Over the last few weeks, we are getting thousands of views of our photos. Our page likes have increased over 200 percent and people reached have increased over 1500 percent.

Many people across the country are sharing, liking and commenting on our material. We are asking for people to send their stuff. They are. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I am not complaining. We are creating conversations. I’ve met new people from all over the USA.

Remember social media is like the wire services. You see the same copy everywhere. For some it gets overwhelming. Why? It just does.

Many people in these groups are retired and until recent times have only been using social media apps to share photos of their grandkids, nieces, nephews and group gatherings. Or never used it at all. These days we’ve noticed an uptick in social media usage. Many people who were tired of it are back.

Many have joined multiple groups that all focus on the same topics. So naturally, the same copy and photography will be splashed across all of these groups. I’ve gotten complaints from some saying, I saw this on the 8 different pages I belong to. Or, why are you posting photos of these people?

As far as those who are members of many sites, I chose the old tell don’t yell protocol. Sure, I was annoyed that they were complaining. But then the thought triggered in my mind they are not marketing people. Perhaps they are new to social media? Due to our lockdowns, they are probably bored and itching for new stuff. I explained the visibility needs and that while anyone can access these sites they are spread out by activity and geography. The person was quite thankful for me reaching out to explain. It felt good.

Others have complained that I shared their photos without their permission. Some don’t understand that once you post something it is pretty much open to the world. And most are dying for people to share their work. It can help them make money, show their boards they are working, etc. I chatted with them. We understood each other.

As for the people complaining about posts of people they don’t like. Or activities they don’t care for. I don’t care about every activity I post. I may not like everyone in the shot. I do not dislike them. But they aren’t the people I want to hang around with at the campfire. However, I am aware that you need to include everyone and everything.

It has been an interesting learning experience. I have enjoyed helping people learn the ins and outs of social media apps and new ways of communicating. I am still learning. It gets a little crazy. But what fun would we have if we didn’t get a little crazy?

Please read the “official” newswire stories. But keep telling your stories.

Other posts can be viewed at:

“Pandemic Watch: Have masks replaced fuzzy dice in windshields?”

https://mitchellthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/pandemic-watch-have-masks-replaced-fuzzy-dice-in-windshields

“Pandemic Watch: How will we be entertained?”

https://mitchellthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/pandemic-watch-how-will-we-be-entertained

“Pandemic Watch: Communicating via video,”

https://mitchellthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/pandemic-watch-communicating-via-video

“Single Life,”

https://mitchellthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/pandemic-watch-single-life

“Pandemic Watch: Seniors and lifesaving phone calls during the pandemic or other times,”

https://mitchellthoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/pandemic-watch-seniors-and-lifesaving-phone-calls-during-the-pandemic-or-other-times