For those of you in social media, I’m sure you’ve had that conversation about 1000 times. It goes something like this…
Stupid Person A: So what do you do?
Me: I work in public relations and social media marketing.
Person A: So what does that mean exactly? You Facebook?
Me: Yes, while you do really important things like excel spreadsheets, I sit around and play on Facebook all day. Social media marketing at it’s finest. Well not exactly…. long pause …. yes, I do Facebook.
Person A: Gosh, that must be great. I wish I could Facebook at work.
At the end of the day, despite the prevalence of social media in our everyday lives people still don’t get it. Despite the fact that everyone updates their Facebook pages, read blogs, Tweets; despite the fact that social media has moved from the future to the here and now, people still have no idea what sort of role social media marketing plays in their everyday lives.
Social media marketing is a constantly evolving job. It straddles the line between “geek” and “street.” A good social media marketer understands the way Google works and has at least a basic understanding of the principles behind web development and design, but at the same time can get down and dirty with the common man. They have a gift for SEO and a gift for writing, they understand title tags just as well as they understand split infinitives.
Public relations is just as fun. No matter how many times you tell people you are working to get your clients landed on television, in print or on the radio, the person you’re talking to always gives you kind of a blank stare. You can always tell the ones that are thinking, ‘How hard can that be?’ For most people public relations just happens. They don’t understand the hours of hard work that go into landing a television placement or building relationships with reporters so that they’ll answer your calls, let alone turn to you for information. At the end of the day public relations is about the people. A good public relations professional can connect with everyone. They are outgoing, friendly and fun. They are the kind of people you’d like to have for a drink.
So there you have it. A little explanation of social media marketing and public relations and what professionals in those fields are all about. I look forward to the day that I don’t get asked about Facebook. Until then, it’s all good. I have fun at work. You probably don’t 
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