Recently we were asked to include social media best practices in a proposal. To follow is our list. As Peter Shankman and Sarah Evans wrote on their blog post, very few people can call themselves social media experts. To that end and given the dynamic nature of the practice, any suggested changes, contributions are welcomed!

1. Social networking channels, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, require a degree of authenticity and transparency not always evident in traditional forms of marketing
2. Organizations that create a presence on social media channels must be willing to engage in a two-way dialogue with their target audiences and recognize it’s about human-to-human contact
3. It is critical to determine the role(s) – customer service, informer, reputation management – an organization wants to play before setting up a social media account
4. An organization should only share information via social networks that is easy (and desirable!) for others to share
5. A mix of social media channels can optimize an organization’s ability to participate in social media, as each tends to offer its own unique attribute and/or audience
6. The real-time nature of social media combined with its virtually unregulated content makes it imperative to monitor — and respond where appropriate – on a very frequent basis
7. Organizations should develop and utilize social media guidelines for their employees that outline how individuals characterize their affiliation

What are you doing? A simple question that has started a micro-blogging revolution: Twitter.

At first, I was hesitant to join Twitter. I’d already stopped checking my neon-colored, disaster of a MySpace profile in favor of my clean, crisp Facebook page and wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to yet another social networking site. But after reading Clive Thompson’s “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” article in The New York Times, I was compelled to dive into the Twitter pool. Thompson wrote that Twitter’s design makes updates “skimmable, like newspaper headlines, maybe you’ll read them all, maybe you’ll skip some.” I figured I could manage.

Six months later, I’ve come to embrace Twitter. Though I do not tweet every day, I like knowing I have the option to when I have something worth sharing with my 250+ followers. I don’t understand how some of the people I follow are able to tweet 20 or more times a day, but I do enjoy perusing their posts and learning new things in the process.

As a public relations professional, here are my top five reasons for utilizing Twitter:

5. Enhancing relationships. Maybe it’s your colleague based in another office, or a former client, but connecting with people you rarely see in person via Twitter is a good way to keep your relationship intact. Tweets fill the gaps between in-person meetings.

4. Instant research. Google is great, but when I want insight from influencers, I turn to Twitter. Pose a question about any topic and you’re sure to get intuitive replies from a wide range of people. Plus, it’s a great conversation starter.

3. Meeting new people. I have no rules for following people on Twitter – I’m open to following just about anyone (get rich quick schemers not included). Through Twitter, I’ve met a feisty journalist based in South Africa, a stay-at-home mom who blogs about environmentalism and a gentleman from Atlanta with a strong interest in fractals and mental disorders.

2. Monitoring the conversation. It’s important to know what’s being said about your clients and their competition. Twitter’s search tool allows for real time monitoring of posts, and as such, complements a traditional media monitoring service.

1. @skydiver. Peter Shankman’s urgent HARO queries help connect journalists and sources in record time.

Follow me on Twitter: @jleckstrom

I suspect I am not the only person in the public relations industry who has wondered why I didn’t think of Peter Shankman’s “Help a Reporter Out” service. I applaud him both for the idea as well as the commitment of time required to gather and disseminate three story opportunity-filled emails each day. I saw Shankman speak a little more than a week ago at the PR News Platinum Awards reception. The woman who introduced him read his bio and misstated the number of subscribers to his site by a factor of four. That’s how quickly the awareness has spread. I believe a service like HARO is not only a useful tool for unearthing media opportunities for your client or cause, but it also provides a sense of what’s newsworthy among a diverse range of influencers. A seasoned marketing colleague asked me if I’d heard of HARO just last week. Someone he knows in PR had mentioned it to him saying, “It’s a great service for journalists, but not so much for PR people as the chances of getting a story placed are slim with so many people subscribed.” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s a free service filled with “live” story opportunities. If you have a relevant, credible source (and a smart pitch) it’s far better than a proverbial shot in the dark. We’ve placed a number of stories we found out about on HARO (and the similar, long-standing paid service ProfNet, run by PR Newswire). Shankman, a PR man himself, sells sponsorships and surely benefits in the way of journalist contacts and new business leads. Perhaps the person who questioned HARO’s value wishes he’d thought of the idea himself.