Social media as important as it is, is only one strategic approach among many. Relationships with your audience, markets, stakeholders and employees are by their very nature fluid and based on the messiness and unpredictability of human interactions. No one approach (PR, Advertising, Social Media) can define and dominate this relationship.

In my experience the more time spent on really understanding these underlying relationships the more successful the program. Building the right integrated strategy that enhances reputation and builds brand equity into a cohesive whole is the better path to success. Integrating PR, Advertising, Social Media and the myriad of other tactics to serve a SINGLE strategy is the only way to build lasting relationships that will be with you through thick and thin.

All too often the PR strategy and the Advertising strategy and more recently the Social Media strategy — while serving the same company and even based on the same brief — often work against each other other or they are not integrated sufficiently to ensure positive results. We need to look at these as inter-dependant and intra-dependant variables that when executed in the right way deliver superior and lasting results.

Can our clients afford anything less?

John A. Bozzo