Peter Shankman: Twitter & HARO For the Public Good

GLAAD
Feb 18, 2009

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Peter Shankman
Social Media CEO & Founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

Peter Shankman (Twitter: @skydiver) addressed the packed room of 50+ in his casual and humorous style, peppering the speech with personal stories. Peter spoke about how he became the guru he is today and provided some solid insights for PR professionals.

Highlights

What's going to matter in the next 15-20 years?

  • Transparency
    Corporate culture is shifting away from old white males running all the companies and making all the mistakes. Transparency is becoming more important to companies.
  • Relevance
    The way we get our information has changed. From newspapers to TV in the morning to oodcasts to the Web to Twitter.... You can't just put a release on the wire and get results. You need to be relevant for your audience. Employ someone who knows which 140 characters to use to reach the right people, the way your audience wants it.
  • Brevity
    People used to spend 11 seconds reading a press release, now they spend 2 seconds. Remember, 140 characters is today's average attention span.
  • Top-of-mind presence
    In the 70s media mogul Barry Miller used to call ten random people from his Rolodex each morning. Just to chat. So when you needed something greenlighted you'd call Barry because of top of mind presence. Similarly, at 5:30 every morning Peter checks Facebook for friends' birthdays and sends out emails. The response is magical. Establish top-of-mind presence.

A final prediction from Peter: Facebook will start ranking who is important to you. You don't really care about everyone's updates and Facebook is going to adapt. It will be come more professional and less personal. In the battle of Facebook vs. LinkedIn, in 3-5 years there will be one profile platform and he's betting on Facebook.
 
Which companies have done well with social media? He gave examples from Pepsi and Walmart. Companies that have been roasted by social media tend to adapt quickly.
 
And, in keeping with Peter's tone, here are four things you may not have known about Peter:  

  • He finds TiVoToGo to be crystal heroine
  • Peter has a long waiting list of people who want to be his Facebook friends
  • Recommends Raving Fans as a must-read book

Submitted by Amira Rubin