I look at the Bigelow Mountain Range from my livingroom window every day and I am so grateful that I am able to live in such a beautiful place. My dad, who passed away last year from Parkinson’s, hiked this range with me in the late 1970’s. I am so glad that we were able to have that experience together among the many other adventures we shared during his lifetime.

I’m a member of the Society of American Travel Writers, known as SATW.  At the most recent annual convention of the organization, Shel Holtz gave a fascinating and inspirational presentation about social media. As marketers, we can no longer think that our clients simply need Web sites, instead, we need to take into consideration how they build online communities around their brands. He talked about blogs, podcasting, and wikis. His presentation is available online.

Shel talked about how important it is to have a social media presence for building a brand and a reputation. It helps your organization to build a community around your brand, which in turn helps your reputation.

The statistics are compelling. Shel Holtz said that 1.3 million blogs are posted every day; that’s 18 per second; 100,000 new blogs are created every day, that’s two per second. The blogosphere doubles every 236 days, and there are now more podcasts than global radio stations. There are 100 million MySpace profiles and 50 million Facebook profiles, as well as nine million LinkedIn profiles. These numbers have inevitably increased since September of 2007 when he gave his presentation. Thanks to Diana Rowe who recorded all these statistics in the February/March edition of the SATW Traveler newsletter which is made available to SATW members as part of their membership dues.

I’ve been listening to Shel’s podcasts for the past several months and I encourage you to check it out if you are interested in the social media universe.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve had the privilege of doing PR in Maine for a wide variety of clients and organizations. It’s been a great experience, despite the many ups and downs of a sometimes stressful career. I’m starting this blog now in order to share what I’ve learned with others who are trying to communicate their messages. Communications methods have changed, however many things have stayed the same. Even though I used an electric Smith Corona typewriter when I started my first job in Maine public broadcasting, I still had to know what my message was and what audience I was targeting. When I got a new electric typewriter with an erase key, I was on the top of the world! It wasn’t until the late 1980s that I started working with a PC, and we started using the fax machine to get press releases to the media. But I still had to know my messages and my target audiences. So here’s my thought for today. There are three things to think about when planning a communications strategy.

1. What is the key message and the peripheral messages you are trying to communicate?
2. What tools are you going to use to get the message out?
3. Who is your target audience and what tools will work best for that particular audience?

Check back here regularly. I am going to continue to ponder these questions and others as I continue building my career as Maine’s PR Maven. Please chime in with your comments, too. It will be fun to hear what you are thinking about communicating in today’s 24/7 world.