OK. So every other email I get is about PR University's seminars on bloggers or how Twitter and Facebook can help a campaign or client. Surprise, surprise: It works. We are slowly but surely changing the way we approach social media as we watch members of the traditional media jump on board with both feet. Indeed, I can now say that enlightened clients are heeding our advice to incorporate social media into their overall PR plans. But I had to get my team on board first.

We learned it's actually easier than we thought, once we took the time to actually learn each application. As an aside, the biggest time constraint on client budgets seems to be MySpace (which I'm still kind of down on, even though it works). Budgets get eaten by having junior staffers spend hours inviting friends to the client page (but now I'm whining).

To help others in the PR space come up to speed on how (or how not to) incorporate social media into traditional programs, I've provided this quick breakdown of what we've actually done recently:

RSS Feeds

• All members of the firm use these to manage/customize news sources they need to get on a daily basis.
• Some feeds cover topics of interest to our clients, helping us to pin down talked about issues and who's commenting on what topics.
• Allows to us to easily monitor blogs to which we want to pitch clients.
• Practical example: We are currently monitoring architectural/real estate/green blogs, and are positioning an architect client as an expert.

Message Boards

• Used to monitor what customers are saying about the client.
• One restaurant client had an issue with a private valet service; a customer was trashing the venue on every message board all over the Internet. By monitoring these boards, we were able to contact the client to make them aware of the situation and help resolve the issue.
• Comes in handy during "crisis management"—also used for discovering client's image in the public (as per a lodging property client: what people said before renovation versus what they are saying now).

Blogs

• During Hamptons Restaurant Week (an annual campaign we operate), we pitched several area food bloggers who wrote about/mentioned the up–coming event. This particular event is extremely Web–driven, as the event's website lists the participants. Blogs use something called "link–love" and they will inherently link to everything they find interesting. In our case, the links helped drive traffic to our event website.

Online Newsletters

• We created a sign–up for a "Dishing on Dining" newsletter on the Hamptons Restaurant Week website. We now have over 2,000 subscribers who read about our client's latest happenings.

Event Posting Sites

• Many event–posting sites ask for a contact email, which helps in tracking effectiveness. One site we post on only allows 255 characters. This limits how much info about the event we can post. However, we often get emails from people asking for more info about the event or venue.

Flickr/Photobucket

• Posting photos has helped raise several clients' organic listing, and also allows for another medium (images) to come up when people are searching. "Tagging" photos with a short description helps optimize Google image searches.

YouTube

• Created video for a catering client about a month ago. While it only has 14 views, there is a link to their homepage that has been utilized.
• A Long Island Restaurant Week (another campaign we operate) video had 248 views in six months. These postings also allow for comments, links and sharing to several locations (MySpace, Facebook, del.icio.us, Live Spaces, reddit, mix, digg and StumbleUpon).

MySpace

• After setting up a page, the site allows you to search for friends. You can browse by several factors, including: zip code, gender, age, interests, etc. This feature brings your target audience to you.
• We used the targeting feature on behalf of client Chris Miller Wines to find friends on Long Island that were interested in "wine" or "wine tasting." We also posted the classes he teaches on various message boards and on all wine groups. Within a week, he had already received requests for more info about a class he was teaching at a local community college.
• We also used the service to find people in a certain age group that a local caterer serves. Our client received interest to bid for a large event and also heard from local entertainers offering services.

Facebook

• There are two levels: personal or business page.
• To have a business page, you must use a social ad (on Facebook) or outside advertising to drive traffic to your page; you cannot get "fans" on your own.
• For Hamptons Restaurant Week, I sent out an event invite to all my friends and was thanked for reminding them that the event was approaching.

Steve Haweeli is the president and founder of WordHampton Public Relations, one of Long Island's leading hospitality public relations firm. Founded in 1992, the boutique firm recently nabbed a PRSA Big Apple Award for its successful Long Island Restaurant Week campaign.