It wasn’t so long ago that I was sitting on a Brand Hackers panel in New York City debating who owns social media.  It was the public relations professionals vs. the digital creatives.  Unfortunately, the conversation was off to an ugly start and the debate became heated.  Now, for those who know me, you must have heard me say on Twitter, Facebook, on my blog or at one of my speaking events that “no one really owns social media, but we all play an extremely important role.”  Nonetheless, we were tasked with debating this topic.  One reason I stated why public relations played such a key role in social media was because PR professionals are known to build relationships, and as a result of these strong associations, bring long-term value to our organizations.  And, although the PR side took a little bit of a beating that evening, and no one really won the debate, now I feel I’m armed with an even stronger case (and want a “do over”).

In the past three months or so, I’ve really seen some amazing relationship and community building efforts on behalf of the public relations community.  If you’ve ever participated in #journchat, #PRStudChat or #PR20 on Twitter, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.  These weekly and/or monthly chat sessions are really causing professionals to take notice, gather, interact, and relate to one another in ways that goes far beyond a one or two hour chat session.  I see in that both #Journchat and #PRStudchat have conversations occur everyday and people continue to bond and grow their relationships outside of Twitter.

Now, there’s a new grassroots movement that kicks off on Friday February 19^th from 10 am – 2 pm CT, involving PR bloggers, agency leaders, and PR professionals from across the country who will donate their time and talents to help fellow PR pros connect with employers.  It’s Help a PR Person Out day or #HAPPO. It’s been a tough job market through the recession, but there seems to be a new awakening on the job front in terms of available positions for communications professionals.  #HAPPO is an event on Twitter developed to help professionals match up to the right job opportunities, all by having PR professionals share information and champion areas of the country to help peers in their job searches.

Talk about a sense of community and relationship building.  Leave it to public relations professionals to create such a wonderful idea to not only help people, but to also to bond together and to drive the importance of mentorship and growth in the PR community.  I was asked to get involved by the founders of #HAPPO, Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon.  Many other PR champions involved also join me:

• Jeremy Porter (Atlanta)
• Kellye Crane (Atlanta)
• Doug Haslam (Boston)
• Jennifer Wilbur (Southern CA)
• Gini Dietrich (Chicago)
• Lauren Fernandez (Dallas/Fort Worth)
• Richie Escovedo (Dallas/Fort Worth)
• Justin Goldsborough (Kansas City)
• PR Cog (New York Metro)
• Valerie Simon (New York Metro)
• Heather Whaling (Ohio)
• Danny Brown (Toronto)
• Mike Shaffer (Washington, DC)

I only wish that I was sitting on that brand hackers panel now! I would give #journchat, #PRStudChat, #PR20 and #HAPPO as incredible examples of how PR knows how to use and “own” social media to rally the troops, ignite passion and learning and achieve results that help people (whether it’s knowledge and information about the profession or jobs for our fellow peers). Public relations will always be known for forging the best relationships and for creative ways to build community and foster positive sentiment.  I feel very proud of my PR community and despite the lumps that communications professionals have taken over the years, we are definitely showing a great and brighter side of what it means to be in public relations today.  We are working together to forge new roads and initiatives that clearly illustrate what we do best!

What do you think of the new ways that PR has been building its own communities and how do you feel that we are making a difference with our new approach?

I started thinking about all of the interviews I’ve conducted with public relations professionals who were seeking jobs over the years.  It’s hard to say how many people, in the last 12 years, visited with me to discuss a position with my agency.  Whether it was 50 or 250, one thing was consistent pre- social media.  Somehow that little newspaper advertisement (and later it was an ad on Monster.com) didn’t always match the right person for the position or my agency’s culture.

If you’ve ever interviewed someone for a position, then you will know that most people come in with a big smile, a strong handshake and a great resume based on a wealth of experience.  But, it’s often very difficult to know whether someone will be a cultural match for the company.  A paper resume and a couple of interviews just isn’t enough to make that determination.

There were PR professionals with excellent communications skills, wonderful strategic planning practices and great pitching tactics, but they didn’t work out because the agency environment really wasn’t what they wanted or the personality of the company wasn’t what they expected!  With social media, this is very different today.  Even before the job interview, as an employer, you get a very good feel of this person’s background, experience and personality.  Social media allows you to see beyond a piece of paper and a casual interview, to get a better feeling of just who will be joining your team. And, as a job candidate, you can really do your homework to see if the company has the personality and culture that’s right for you.  The job candidate can also learn a tremendous amount about a company just by researching its Twitter feeds, Facebook wall or YouTube videos (activity or no activity can say a lot).

I’ll tell you a little personal experience, with a job hire, which resulted directly from my conversations on Twitter. We were gearing up for a large account at my agency and we needed to find a senior project manager who would be able to handle a large client, travel, coordinate all web and social media PR efforts.  The position required someone with a strong personality, who needed to be outspoken. I sent out a quick tweet that said something like, “Looking for a senior account manager to handle a large account.”  Within two minutes my new employee was tweeting back (of course I didn’t’ know that he would be my new employee at the time).

We took the conversation to DM and then email. It was so easy for me to see his personality, and his communication style, both as a person and professionally.  As we began to talk, I remember he said to me, “You may want to check out my blog…I’m pretty outspoken.”  And, yes, I did check his blog and he was, but this is exactly what we felt our agency needed.  In addition, LinkedIn and Facebook provided me with more information but the blog was his biggest selling point.  I knew that this was the right person.  And, to this day I’m thankful for social media!

Social media saved me so much time and effort in the interview process. I found a new employee who was a great addition to our agency and never had to wonder if he would fit in with my quirky, fun and creative staff.  At the same time, he was able to do his homework to research my work and my company through social media to know that this position was a good fit for him too.

I’ll be using the same interview process moving forward.  This process reinforces how important it is to consider how we appear in our social media outreach.  Of course, in addition to our experience and professionalism, we always want our personality to shine through. In this particular case, it landed a very happy PR person a senior account manager’s position and made this agency owner really happy!