{"id":22945,"date":"2012-06-28T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=22945"},"modified":"2012-06-28T08:00:29","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T13:00:29","slug":"mixed-signals-your-life-as-a-pr-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2012\/06\/mixed-signals-your-life-as-a-pr-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Signals: Your Life as a PR Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mixed Signals<\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/strong>is Erin Straza\u2019s weekly musing about marketing miscellany in advertising, branding, and messaging. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Why is the use of social media so popular? It\u2019s fun. It\u2019s lighthearted. It offers a reprieve from life\u2019s heaviness.<\/p>\n

This is also why businesses are benefiting from social media. It provides a place for customers to interact casually with the brands they love, personifying them, integrating them.<\/p>\n

Although our personal updates are in-the-moment comments about the dailyness of life, for businesses, social media updates are serious business. It\u2019s hard work to make planned, purposeful interactions sound spontaneous and personal and well . . . real<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why many businesses are using social media planners to manage their online presence. Bringing order and purpose to your company\u2019s online mutterings is helpful, but sometimes that planning can hijack your entire marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

Social media can begin to takeover your every waking minute: Posting to Facebook and Google+ morning, noon and night. Sending Tweets by the hour. Pinning to Pinterest every chance you get.<\/em><\/p>\n

All these can be valuable tasks to build your online presence. But these tasks can quickly sidetrack you from the greater thing, causing you to neglect the very reason you are using social media in the first place.<\/p>\n

Over at Social Media Today, Brad Smith reveals \u201c3 Social Media Mistakes You Don\u2019t Know You\u2019re Making<\/a>.\u201d Mr. Smith calls us back to the basics: our business. He explains<\/p>\n

People always want to know \u201chow many Tweets per day should they send\u201d or \u201cwhat day should I schedule my blog posts?\u201d<\/p>\n

But these questions are usually pointless. Social media can\u2019t save your brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, your product and service is your marketing. That means:<\/p>\n