I attended Deltina Hay’s book signing at BookPeople in Austin last week. Her talk brought home the power of  social media once again.  Optimizing your presence on  a ring of social media sites has the potential of pushing you to the top of search rankings.  Your Web site’s natural search may not get you where you want to be, but the consistent tagging of content on Facebook, Twitter, deli.cio.us, your blog, Flickr and YouTube – all combined can make the difference.

For many, the stumbling block is how to get started.  They lament that they just don’t know how to use the tools of social media.  Where does one get educated on this stuff?

I am proud to say that our client, Deltina Hay, has the answers for small to mid-sized businesses.  Many theoretical books about social media leave the the reader in a fog as how to set up and use particular social media tools.  What a relief that Deltina took on the larger task of creating a book that actually empowers the reader step-by-step on how to use open source tools for promoting themselves online.  Her pragmatic,  book complete with print screen images and resource CD provides the tools to make it happen.

She aptly named it “A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization“.  You don’t have to buy it … but a professor teaching social media to her students at a local college told me that she will be using it as her textbook next Fall.

The second reason we are excited to attend is that our President and Founder, Cynthia Baker, is a panel moderator discussing how the convergence of media online affects marketing and public relations.

Media and communications are changing daily in response to technological advancements and societal change. Google, search engine optimization and RSS feeds affect the distribution of press releases and marketing online. The world of marketing and public relations is not the same; and businesses need to adapt their marketing and PR to keep up with the times.

Cynthia will address these issues as the lead of a distinguished panel that includes Jon Lebowksy – President of Polycot Associates, Clint Howell – New Media Specialist from BusinessWire, Adam Weinroth – Director of Product Marketing from Pluck, Omar Gallaga – Reporter and Blogger from Austin American Statesman, and writer Stacy Higginbotham.

The panel will discuss how social media has doubled the content of traditional media and that because of this; newspapers like USA Today and the Washington Post are racing to add social media to their Web sites. The panel will also discuss what the role of a PR agency is in the interactive news world and the challenges that PR professionals and news services are facing as the number of publications keeps growing.

Cynthia Baker, a third-generation native Austinite, and Accolades PR serves both regional and national clients in the technology, financial, franchise, advertising and business sectors. She is a member of the Austin Corporate Growth and Bootstrap organizations. Cynthia also is a co-founding member of the Austin Social Media Club and is considered a leader in new media public relations.

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