Over recent years, social media has made a great impact on the PR landscape, with press releases now being deeply embedded within the most powerful marketing tool in the world.
In today’s blogpost, we’ll be taking a look at what’s caused this shift & how you as a business can tactically improve your social PR.
How Has Social Media Impacted Public Relations
Communication
In today’s digital world, brands have a number of different channels to choose from when it comes to communicating with their customers. From engaging posts on Facebook to Instagram reels, they have the ability to showcase their personality through content that will resonate with their followers & provide them with personal levels of communication.
Compared to traditional PR methods (such as a television commercial) social media also grants users the opportunity to connect with their favourite brands, with the platforms acting as a two-way street.
The Power of Influencing
Social media has allowed ordinary people from across the globe to become influencers who can effectively help brands promote their offerings to specific audiences. This includes bloggers, vloggers & also industry experts in some cases.
In short, instead of the brand creating the content itself, they can utilise the creative power of these influencers to reach a wider audience & increase their conversions. For obvious reasons, influencers with a large following are frequently sought-after, however, it’s vital you look past the follower count & focus more on whether they are suitable for your brand.
The Internet Never Sleeps
As a 24/7 platform, the internet allows PR professionals to deliver updates at any time they wish, rest assured that their message will reach consumers.
However, whilst this is excellent, it’s also known that PR messages can have a shorter lifespan in the users’ memory due to the endless feeds of information they are open to.
Another downfall of the internet never sleeping, is that bad reviews & news can travel ever so quickly, so it’s vital that PR agents are always one step ahead & have the ability to stop said problems before they escalate.
How to Effectively Use Social Media for PR
To run an effective social PR campaign, a budget is needed, but whether it be big or small, you’re guaranteed to receive something in return. Here are some valuable tips on how to effectively create your campaign.
Include social share buttons within your message
One of the easiest ways to use social media for PR is to add social sharing buttons to your posts. For example, with a press release add-in buttons to share on Facebook & Instagram, & other social channels of your choice.
By doing so, you grant your consumers the opportunity to share your content & do some of the hard work for you.
You can also embed links to social media within the content itself, as this is great for engagement.
Collaborate with influencers
As we’ve touched on above, partnering with influencers to create PR content is advantageous.
When picking the influencers for you, you may look more at their follower counts but ideally, you want to pick those that will offer you authentic coverage & touch actual people.
Your chosen influencers or ambassadors must share, or create, relevant & personal content & they need to be just as considerate about delivering the right content for their audience as much about doing the work & gaining a paycheck from you.
Finally, when striving to cultivate a loving audience, you also want to build a pool of loyal & engaged brand ambassadors who will stick with you because they feel connected with & are honoured to promote the brand, not just because you’re paying them too.
Consistency is Key
When seeking the best results from social media PR, you need to be consistent. From publishing regular posts to swiftly interacting with consumers, all of this will help to grow your audience & keep them engaged.
Consistency also comes with keeping the same brand voice & tone, as by being relatable & valuable you can build a digital presence that effectively boosts your reputation.
Be Proactive in a Crisis
In the world of digital marketing, in the blink of an eye, a once-loyal customer can quickly turn & try to ‘cancel’ your brand.
With this in mind, you must have an active crisis management system in place for when the flames start to rise. Your set PR team should actively use their ability to reply instantly & fight the fires as soon as they arise.
Create Solid Relationships with the Media
A PR professional will already know how meaningful it is to have a good relationship with journalists & media outlets. By doing so, you can increase your chances of getting positive brand recognition in the right outlets.
Initially, you want to kick off the relationship by sharing practical, necessary & valuable information to extend engagement & spark conversation.
Whilst the above is beneficial, when it comes to forming these connections you must not spam publications & journalists, or even spam influencers with endless pitches & PR as over time it can be annoying & also disrespectful. Be sure to remain professional.
Use Hashtags to Your Advantage
When it comes to a post, one simply isn’t complete without hashtags, & you can use them as a tool to boost your campaign due to the following advantages:
- Engage your audience
- Direct the audience to the right content
- Let you monitor the user conversions
In Summary
Overall, it’s proven that Social PR doesn’t have to be expensive, but should you wish to achieve large results a small budget is advised, especially when it comes to collaborating with influencers & experts.
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