TOP PR STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
Public relations and social media go hand in hand. With the influx of social media usage, there is no better way to connect with your external publics. How, then, can you effectively implement public relations strategies in social media? Here are four of the top PR strategies for social media.
Create Engaging Content
In order to have compelling content, it needs to engage your audience. One of the goals of social media for PR is to interact with your publics. Having open communication is an effective way to build good will with your external audience.
Your content will look different depending on the platform you use. Below are a couple ideas for some of the more popular platforms:
Post content about customers using your products or work with an influencer for content. Your posts for Instagram should be image-focused with a short caption. Short and sweet works the best for captions as many users will not read longer captions. Have compelling photos or graphics to draw your followers into your post and account.
Similar to Instagram, focus on your products and services by emphasizing the customer experience. You should also have striking photos and graphics that will entice readers to learn more about your company. You can have a little longer content for Facebook posts, but try not to write over 3-4 sentences.
TikTok
For TikTok, following trends is key to success. By following popular trends, your content will more likely be seen and engaged with. Create fun videos of your products being used or have your employees try the latest dance challenge. You can also work with influencers on TikTok to promote your brand.
Twitter is the epitome of short and sweet. Write short messages about events or new products. You can also include images and graphics on Twitter, which is a great way to complement your written content. Remember to get to the point in your messaging as Twitter is a direct and concise communication platform.
Post Consistently
No matter what social media platform you use, you need to post consistently. This is one of the top PR strategies you need to integrate into your PR tactics. In order to build relationships with your target publics, you need to communicate with them on a regular basis. If you do, your audience will expect your posts and be more likely to interact with them because they know when to expect content.
If you are posting on different social media platforms, make sure your content is also consistent. Now, this does not mean that all your posts need to be exactly the same. It is most important to make sure your brand voice and personality is consistent throughout all of your content. An easy way to do this is to reuse content across platforms, however, only do this a couple times a week when you are starting out. This way, you can set the same tone on each platform and then slowly start making different content for each platform.
Interact with Your Customers
Interacting with your customers is one of the best ways to build a relationship with them. However, this can become messy. Not all comments are good ones, so you need to be prepared to respond to negative comments.
In Jennifer Smiga’s article, “Social Media PR: 6 Tactics to Improve Your Social Public Relations,” at HubSpot she recommends being proactive in your PR strategies, especially concerning social media. She discusses how you need to have a crisis management system for social media in order to stop any negative messaging from getting out of control. Make sure you have a plan on how to quell any social media fires before they multiply.
However, not all of your comments will be negative. Hopefully, the vast majority will be positive. This is another area where being consistent is important. Respond to comments in a timely manner in order to engage in open communication with customers. This way, your company comes across as being open and caring as you show this by engaging with your audience and taking their comments to heart.
Use Hashtags
Using hashtags is another top PR strategy. Smiga also talks about the use of hashtags in her article. She discusses how hashtags give you the opportunity to not only monitor the conversations about your content but also to lead other customers to your content.
Hashtags are easy to use. Simply pull out words that tie to your content. You can also use your company name on all of your posts so that you can track any time your company is mentioned and easily evaluate your own posts. This also helps consumers find out more about your company. For example, if you are a manufacturing company and you have a hashtag about a product you sell, if someone looks up that product in general, they will be directed to your post.
All in all, social media and public relations are a great team. By using these top PR strategies, not only will you strengthen your social media channels, but you will also build more quality relationships with your customers.
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