Social Media Rocks

There was a time when social media was simply about being social. Nothing wrong with that, but many business sectors have been ‘laggards’ in the adoption of it as a powerful communications channel.

There was a lovely campaign that I wrote about in Saving Social Media, where twitter was used to recount a real-time 24-hour reconstruction of the D-Day landings. An imaginative example of how social media can be used to powerful and emotive effect.

Campaigns don’t necessarily need to be as complex to be impactful, though, and I have been involved in a lot of ongoing social media that adequately achieves its objectives.

An example of a well-executed short-term social media project was the online blog for Planet Rock Radio’s three-day festival Planet Rockstock, which I was fortunate to be directly involved in at the end of 2013.

The engagement of the station with their listeners – both those who were at the festival enjoying the event as well as those who weren’t able to attend – was a priority for the station and a real-time blog posting interviews, news, videos and images of the event onto the station’s website was the perfect solution.

The commitment to such a news-stream can’t be underestimated, it was a huge undertaking to ensure that all the bands performing we’re adequately represented, any interesting stories were reported effectively and that the whole event was promoted in a timely fashion.

The continual updating of content ‘as it happened’ was the main challenge around the logistical issues that occur with live performances and the obvious late nights/early morning that inevitably come with a rock festival.  Nevertheless, great coverage was achieved and, from a personal perspective, was a definite career highlight for me in 2013.

Rock on, social media!