Seat at the Table

I’ve always pointed to political campaigns as a consistent example of advertising effectively used as a direct public relations tool.  In these campaigns, advertisements are used to communicate information to very specific interest groups and in a manner that complements other forms of communications (speeches, media appearances, direct mail etc). 

I’ve already been testing Facebook Flyers, and found it a great way to target specific groups by sending a specific message to a specific type or community of people at a specific time.  This is a valuable companion to keyword search advertising which allows me to send specific messages to specific people, based on their search criteria, but only when they come looking for that message.

My only complaint, or hope, for this beta service was that the targeting could be even more specific.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook and Myspace (through a new HyperTargeting ad program) are about to launch tools to provide more specific targeting.    Public relations, corporate communications and public affairs executives should all take note and follow this development closely.  These advertising tools have the potential to be the center piece of direct to consumer public relations.  I’ll be testing them over the next several months and reporting results.