Make Public Relations Easier With Social Media

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https://emgonline.com/2018/08/make-public-relations-easier-with-social-media/

Social media is a part of every day life. 68 percent of American adults are on Facebook and almost 75 percent of those users are on Facebook on a daily basis, according to Pew Research. With this increased use of social media, public relations professionals have been quick to include social media platforms in their overall communications strategy. There have been successes and failures, but brands have found ways to use social media to their advantage.

Get Your Message Out

Social media can help you side step the traditional press release process. Instead of going through a newswire, you can get you brand’s updates out quickly through Facebook or Twitter. Using the right hashtags on your posts also help you get in front of the right audiences, and potentially in the hands of a key reporter or influencer.

Interact with the People Influencing the Story

Key influencers help brands establish credibility in their space. The rise in social media has made finding influencers easy. There are thousands of people with large followings that can help brands expand their voice to places they may not have been able to reach on their own. Getting one to help you share you message can be as easy and sending a message.

Interacting with reporters is also a key element of social media for any PR pro. Retweeting or sharing reporters stories can keep you top of mind, so the reporter is familiar with you when you make your first call. You can also send a quick alert or pitch about an update through direct messages. Reporters are busy people and will appreciate a quick heads-up as opposed to a long email they don’t have time to read.

Keep your public relations ahead of the game

One of the best and most underutilized tools for PR pros are social listening tools. These platforms allow users to keep their ear to the ground and see what the public is saying about their brand and messaging. Being in-tune with your audience can help you tune your message to be more impactful for your target audience, and even prevent crises before they start.

Some social listening platforms include:

But sometimes bad news gets out, and you’ll need to scramble to get out in front of the story to keep your brand’s reputation as clean as possible. Twitter and Facebook can help get you ahead of the news cycle, and give your brand a chance to tell its side of the story before it’s reputation is gone. You don’t want to be another United Airlines, who are still mopping things up after several hits to their reputation in 2017 and 2018.

Combining Social Media with your public relations efforts in a no-brainer. If you’re not using it to your advantage, you’re letting others tell your brand’s story or not telling that story at all.

For those starting out, here are some tip for using Facebook to maximize your PR efforts:

  • Make sure you are putting out quality content, and not just bombarding your followers with posts
  • Video can help boost both your paid and organic posts. Facebook Live is a great resource to help keep your content engaging, relevant, and fresh.
  • Make things personable. Messaging coming from a real person is more effective than a voiceover and text.
  • Leveraging paid option is also a good idea. Promoted posts show higher and news feeds, and will be seen by more people.
  • Use every post a conversation starter. Post with high volume of comments will be elevated in user’s feeds. Just make sure to keep on top of the comments to avoid the conversation getting off the rails.