Social media is one of the key business channels allowing you to connect with an audience to share information. What goes in hand with social media is public relations, as its purpose is to persuade audience perception through managing and spreading information. Social media PR aims to highlight your business’s positive reputation and ensure it is always portrayed in a positive light. This is achieved by sharing information to create a positive brand image and networking with creators to increase audience trust. Statistically, 78% of social media users talk about the brands they follow to their friends and family. Did we mention that social media PR is totally free?Does your business have a social media PR strategy? If you don’t, not to worry. Keep reading to find out different strategies you can implement right away!
- Connect with your target audience
Let’s start with the basics. Every brand should be in frequent communication with their customers on social media.
All the likes, comments, and retweets-you should be doing them all, on the daily. Even though this is a simple social media PR strategy, it does not mean it should be overlooked, as it is one of the key influencers on your business success! No one wants to go feeling like they aren’t being heard, especially on a social platform.
These days, customers and potential customers will decide whether they like your brand, or not, based on your engagement on social media. Every response to a customer query ensures that you keep them happy and make them feel special. If you receive a negative comment or tweet, have a plan for how you and your team will respond to the message. This response should be polite, informative, and willing to help solve the customer’s concern.
You should also always aim to keep your target audience updated, this means social media announcements. You have seen it everywhere. This common practice is a great way to leverage your social media. New product? Announce it. New Service? Announce it. Change to your business? Announce it.
A great-looking announcement is also advantageous, so consider using high-quality photos or videos with an attention-grabbing caption to match!
- Dealing with a social media crisis
No business wants a PR scandal, but this is what a PR strategy is for. An unhappy customer or a system outage and your business can find itself in hot water. You and your team must create a social media crisis communication plan before that event occurs.
With social media, one post with a complaint can reach thousands of users and impact your business reputation. With a social media crisis plan, you have legal advisors and PR agencies on speed dial. These two bodies can help you with damage control by quickly preparing an official statement and revising your social media PR efforts.
Crisis communication sends out a message to your audience that you are a brand who cares about their customer’s needs. This type of practice demonstrates integrity and promotes customer loyalty and satisfaction. Overall, increasing the longevity of your business.
- Guest feature on a podcast or blog
These days, a popular PR strategy is guest podcasting and blogging, as they are highly informative and sharable.
Podcasting is an ever-growing industry with 380 million listeners worldwide! Guest featuring on a podcast reaches a niche targeted audience and spreads awareness of your business. Not only will you be connecting with your customers but also with potential customers. It has been reported that 67% of podcast listeners receive brand information positively. After you have appeared on a podcast, you can share the behind-scenes clips with your audience to make sure they tune in.
Once your featured episode is live, you can share a link to all your social media pages!
Guest featuring on a blog is also an effective strategy, as appearing in a reputable publication increases customer trust and helps you to reach a wider audience. Don’t be intimidated to reach out to different publications and bloggers, as they also benefit from the fresh content they receive from you.
After a blog has been written, do not neglect sharing the links to all your social media platforms. It’s also a good idea to recycle a few quotes from the blog post that can be shared on social media. This way, you are also doubling up on your social media content!
- Get friendly with influencers, content creators, and journalists
Influencers or content creators with all different sizes of audiences can help promote your business.
It’s as simple as sending your product to their doorstop in exchange for a review and, of course, exposure. Then, after they have shared your product with their audience, you can once again double up on content (with their permission) and share what they created on your social media platforms.
A helpful tip is to engage with influencers or content creators with a similar audience to your target market. For example, if you’re a hair care brand, make sure that you are not sending your products to a food content creator.
Also, keep in mind that you do not always need to engage with the most popular influencers out there. Sometimes, a micro-influencer can have more engagement with their followers than a macro-influencer!
Like influencers and content creators, journalists also have considerable influence over a wide audience.
So, it is worth getting friendly! You can do this by using different social media platforms to connect with them. Share their stories, comment on their pieces, and tag them! As with publications and bloggers, journalists are also looking for fresh content and stories. After you have already exchanged a few messages here and there, pitching an interesting story to them is a great way to capture their attention.
Once a piece has been written, don’t forget to share it on your social media platforms!
Are you feeling ready to implement these strategies? Do not wait to leverage social media PR to grow your business today!