Five Creative Ways to Use Social Media in Public Relations
When it comes to Public Relations, social media is an imperative tool to bolster PR strategies. The aim for any PR team is to obtain frequent and plentiful positive coverage for a client from a variety of sources and platforms. Social media has become widely used by the masses and is no longer just a source to keep tabs on friends and family but largely operated by brands to target their key consumer demographics. Saying this, social media can be a crucial component in securing media coverage, offering brand transparency as well as organic content removed from paid marketing campaigns. In the age of the digital era, the “media” has grown from traditional media to include bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, social media influencers and online TV channels creating further opportunities for PRs to promote brands and, of course, increase awareness.
Here are five creative ways to use social media as an effective and powerful campaign tool:
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Beyond the pitch of a press release
In Public Relations, there is an overall understanding of the role of media relationships within the industry. Engaging with journalists, media outlets and influencers on social media platforms provide the opportunity to expand professional relationships beyond the pitch of the press release. By developing those relationships online, it increases the chances of having the right channels to bolster your media coverage. However, the interactions need to be polite, courteous and genuine at all times as journalists are people too and don’t like to get spammed with information every second of the day.
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Audience targeting
Social media helps in streamlining your content as well as distributing it to the desired audience and potential customers. Collaborating with key media and influencers on social platforms is a great way to target the right audience for a brand. This will effectively create brand awareness and communicate the brand messaging to the desired clientele.
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Social Sharing in press releases
By adding social sharing capabilities to press releases, it is a simple yet effective way of integrating social media into PR campaigns. Furthermore, by linking to relevant social media accounts and posts in press releases, it ensures further engagement with the material and potential social sharing amongst the readers. Thus allowing media outlets and readers to easily share with their networks as well as successfully extending the press release lifespan.
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Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a creative way to promote brand awareness and gain social media coverage. Influencers are often used to bring in crowds or to increase the demand for a product by creating noise around a PR campaign. Inviting them to events, gifting them or loaning products is a simple but effective way to develop coverage for a brand.
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Create and Leverage Campaign Hashtags
Hashtags, when strategically used, can be a crucial tool in monitoring and following customer conversations online. By creating and leveraging specific campaign hashtags on social media platforms, this allows for a better understanding of how the campaign is performing among the intended audiences. Hashtags and other social media tools also ensure that campaigns and brand content is easily searchable online.
Social media has proven to become an integral tool in PR and one no one can afford to ignore. Learning how to navigate the online sphere and use social media as an effective tool is a great way to enhance PR practices in this online era and when implemented correctly it can make all the difference in a brands success.