Whether you work in the mailroom or sit in the C-suite in a big company, you most certainly have heard about the media revolution now underway. Social media is here to stay, and knowing what’s happening in the vanguard is important for everyone in the media business today.

How does the social media revolution affect the spokesperson role in your company? Should social media voices be controlled? How should they be trained and in what messages?

These are the kinds of issues keeping PR professionals up at night. To address them, Ann Handley at Marketing Profs helped me bring in a couple of experts - Doug Haslam and Shel Holtz. They offer some sage advice on social media, along with a “state of the union” view of PR today. We hope you enjoy the discussion and will join in.

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About Doug

Doug is a media and public relations professional with a career dating back to 1989. Starting as a jazz DJ, then cutting tape and pointing fingers (in a non-accusatory, rather more of a “cue-speak now!” manner) at public radio’s best, he embarked on a technology public relations career just in time to ride the Internet bubble. Now engaged wholeheartedly in social media, he has been plying the PR trade, as well as blogging and podcasting, with Topaz Partners since 2005. While also engaged in local blogging and Second Life, he is trying to maintain Gischeleman’s blog to catch all the other thoughts he feels like throwing out there.

About Shel

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. His clients have included Intel, Sears, PepsiCo, Petrobras, Aetna, John Deere, Manulife Financial, Hewitt Associates, General Mills, USAA, Applied Materials, Symantec, Raytheon, The World Bank, Amdocs, Disney, FedEx, Freescale Semiconductor, The International Monetary Fund, National Geographic, The American Red Cross, and Monsanto.

Before forming Holtz Communication + Technology in February 1996, Shel was senior communications consultant and the communications practice leader for Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group in San Francisco, California. (A&ACG has since been acquired by Aon Consulting.)

Shel has more than 30 years of organizational communications experience in both corporate and consulting environments. He is experienced in employee communications, compensation and benefits communications, corporate public relations, media relations, financial communications, investor relations, and marketing communications. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, communicating business initiatives, and communications research.

Please visit Shel at his blog, http://blog.holtz.com, and his podcast feed, “For Immediate Release,” at http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz.