Member Spotlight

Doug    Haslam

Doug Haslam, currently a member of the PRSA Boston Chapter Board and its Vice President of Social Media, is part of the PN Connect social media team for Voce Communications, a Porter Novelli company.  

Why Social Media?

There is a lot of talk about “who owns social media” among communications and other business departments. As a 15-year PR practitioner, I come at social media squarely from a PR tradition of helping companies tell stories. The big difference now is that companies can publish the stories themselves, but the inherent skills translate well there.

How did you arrive at social media?

I spent the first decade of my career in radio, producing programs for WBUR-FM in Boston, the Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. During this part of my career, I developed a love of story-telling and acquired the skills to write, edit, record and publish. I found these skills translated well to public relations, and made that transition back in 1998.

A little less than a decade ago, I started to hear about “blogs.” As it turned out, I found myself lucky enough to work with and among many early thinkers and doers in the social media field. At that time, I started to meld social media into traditional PR; the ratio continued to change until I landed my current role, a 100% social media-focused role helping clients run their own publishing channels and communities.

I’m pleased to be able to leverage my skills and knowledge to promote PRSA Boston’s Social Media Summit on May 14, the chapter’s second annual event on this topic.  The half-day Summit will focus on content creation, driving engagement and measuring effectiveness.  We’ve got a fabulous list of speakers representing such leading firms as Dunkin’ Brands, EMC, Life Is Good, LoJack, Monster, Raytheon, Stonyfield and Boston Parent Bloggers.  We’re looking for a great turnout from the PR and integrated marketing communities.

What is the future?

For PR, I see an increasing need for all communications departments to work more closely together. This was always true in some way, but the various uses of social media-- for PR, marketing and advertising – means that not only will these departments need to coordinate more closely, but that PR practitioners – and their agencies - will need to integrate other skills; paid media, content production – into their repertoire of skills to be able to compete.

Sometimes it can seem like that evolution is slow, but in my observation the social media IQ of professionals here in Boston has been rising to the point where total integration seems less like a reach and more like a possibility.

Find us on all your online communities