I’ve just finished my first round of a 90-day workout routine that has taken our office by storm. It’s called P90X and the underlying premise is muscle confusion: change your routine every day so your muscles don’t get used to the exercise. If they get used to it—the theory holds—you’ll get less out of the workout. By keeping the muscles “confused,” you get higher returns.
The exercises are actually pretty difficult, which is why they break up the routine over 90 days into an “adaptive” phase and a “mastery” phase. The adaptive phase is to learn the exercises and get your muscles used to moving in ways they may not be used to. The mastery phase is where all the benefit happens; you’ve mastered the moves, now—in the language of P90X—it’s time to Bring It!
I think it’s time for a social media workout. The explosion of social media in the last year has some PR professionals back on their heels, trying to digest and apply new technologies as sites like Facebook and Twitter become key message channels and new devices like the iPad disrupt the way we access information.
Amidst these changes, brand image can soar overnight and fade just as fast. PR pros have to learn how to leverage social media to communicate their message and measure results. Success in this environment requires an agility not previously known—an ability to leverage opportunities and react to unexpected changes in real-time. In the words of H.G. Wells, it’s “adapt or perish.”
But most PR professionals are still in the adaptive phase—learning the movements and cadence of social media. Many are not listening to the online buzz about their company or engaging with consumers via this channel.
Mastering social media takes practice, so if you haven’t waded into social media yet, here’s a workout program for getting started over the next 90 days:
Stretching – Pick one of the free tools available like Blogpulse or Twitter Search and look at your brand or a keyword topic. Are people talking about it and in what volume?
Warm-up exercise – Look at the sentiment of the conversation. Is it positive or negative. Have you done anything recently that might account for this tone?
Cardio – Tap into a professional tool to help filter out the noise from the insight and identify your key influencers for targeted media outreach and ROI metrics.
Follow this program and you’ll soon be on your way to using new technology to your advantage. Start with learning the moves and adapting to the new tools. Then focus on mastering them, and just like in P90X, the mastery phase is where you’ll see accelerated performance gains.
See you in 90 days!
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