I have told folks for years to use great social media to publicize their events, etc. – that they don’t need to go through the media any more, hoping or begging for an inch of print space or a moment of airtime.

Sometimes it was said, I admit, as a way to shuffle folks off, and say nicely that we don’t have time to publicize/cover every great event/announcement.

But a local law enforcement donkey basketball game I only learned of through a Facebook post a few minutes ago reminded me that if folks take that advice wrong – or in a way, take it too far – great things happen without us knowing! And alas, it’s happening more and more all the time (and who can follow all the vast social media counts, no matter what great tool you use? We only have two eyes, one brain and so many hours in a day!)

So let me be clear, I wasn’t saying to JUST go through social media. Mass media still has its place, and if we also know of your event/happening, with details and contact info, then we can make the call on whether to also cover it or tell folks about it in advance.

And having both kinds of “media” coverage is the best of both worlds – mass and personal/social. Right?

(PS a year later: It’s getting quite frustrating – even police are finding not only that social media is a great way to communicate, but they often don’t tell us what happened – a recent case of a missing person in our area, an “URGENT” post – wasn’t even sent to us as an email tipping us to check their Facebook page.

I use a great tool called Social News Desk to follow dozens of local police, fire and govt. Facebook/Twitter streams. Not to mention those of our station’s folks and our competitors. But I still only have two eyes, one brain and 60 minutes in an hour, etc. So knowing something is THERE is key. The soft stuff, I can see just popping to the social media. But even then, I don’t expect agencies to write them twice —  just use that media email list to give us a little head’s up to go check it out! Pretty please?)