From the Intern

After diving right into projects when I first stared at Pure a few weeks ago, things have yet to slow down for me. I have been busy working on a variety of research assignments that have allowed me to familiarize myself with some Pure’s clients and gain a better understanding of how an agency operates. Prior to Pure, I worked for in-house PR and marketing departments. Needless to say, I am already noticing a lot differences between in-house departments and agencies. I love the variety of projects I am assigned and I am learning so much from my colleagues and mentors.

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend my first PRSA luncheon at the Curtis Hotel with fellow Puritans. Vice president and managing partner of GroundFloor Media, Ramonna Tooley, led a discussion about “PR in the Digital Age” and shared a few case studies to highlight effective social media strategies.

As a social media enthusiast, I use social networks for both work and play. I have seen firsthand how social media can successfully drive a campaign or event promotion and I avidly use Facebook and Twitter on a personal basis. That said, I felt conflicted after hearing news of Twitter’s ad platform possibly launching as early as next month.

As a user, I loathe being bombarded by Facebook ads (especially since the latest ads to overwhelm my homepage are concerning weight loss and matchmaking websites...). Moreover, Twitter is an incubus of advertisements. As someone with a public profile, it seems as though I am constantly attracting followers who solely exist to promote a product or service. One of my tweets about Nuggets basketball resulted in six new followers, all of which were advertising some sort of athletic, sports or fitness related service or product. As a user, the introduction of ads to Twitter sounds a bit overwhelming.

 
The professional side of me, however, is thrilled at this idea. Twitter has proven to be a great tool in marketing campaigns and PR; the addition of ads allows for endless opportunities. Although Facebook’s ads can be irritating, they are not nearly as dominant or hindering as MySpace’s ads. Hopefully, Twitter will be just as cautious as Facebook when considering advertisement placement and prevalence. Read more about Twitter’s new ad platform here.