Why Social Media Participation is Critical for PR
It’s hard to know the difference when planning marketing and public relations. Is public relations dying out? We don’t think so. In fact, the internet enhances to ability to reach media you had no ability to contact before. So can you effectively use social media and marketing together to enhance your PR efforts? This blog post is the first in a series where we will discuss the integration of public relations success using social media.
People have always said good – and bad – things about brands, and now that social media has risen in popularity, it means people have another platform to talk about your company and products/services. The major difference, however, is in the viral nature of this platform. When someone mentions your brand in social media, there is much more potential for other people to notice, and it‟s monumentally easier for conversations to spread much more quickly and easily. In addition, these conversations have the potential to reach a much larger audience than ever before. If your company is not participating in social media today, it‟s missing an opportunity to spread its message and missing valuable – and even damaging – conversations that could be taking place about your brand.
Generating Media Coverage
Getting coverage in media publications (TV, radio, podcasts, online video, newspapers, magazines, online news sites, blogs, etc.) is a great way to spread the word about your business. Where advertising is paid placement in media publications, PR coverage is free, third party validation, which often results in more credibility for your business. So how do you secure coverage in these publications and media, and how can social media help you do this?
Action 1: Connect & Develop Relationships With Influencers in Social Media
One of the best ways to land a mention or feature of your business in the media is to start by connecting with the journalists, reporters, bloggers, and influencers who cover topics in your industry. You previously had to go through mass media to get your message across, the web and social media now give you access to a whole slew of influencers with which you can easily interact and develop relationships, all by yourself. By communicating with these influencers, you can ensure your business is top-of-mind when an opportunity for a story comes along. Below, we’ve highlighted ways social media can help you build relationships with influencers.
Are you aware that many journalists, reporters, and bloggers make themselves available on Twitter? Using Twitter is a great way to introduce yourself and your company to the media. But how do you find the influencers in your industry on Twitter? One way is to look for influential blogs in your industry (use blog search engines like Blog Search Engine or Alltop.com), subscribe to them, and start following their bloggers on Twitter.
How To Find Influencers on Twitter:
- Twitter Grader: Twitter Grader is one of our free Grader tools that can help you find the top Twitter users by location and also measure the authority of a particular user.
- Muck Rack: Muck Rack is a free website that enables you to search for and locate journalists by source (publication) or by beat (topic).
- Awario: a social listening tool and it does much more than just finding Twitter influencers. It monitors all major social networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and the web, and finds influencers on all of these platforms. Check out ‘How To Find Twitter Influencers‘.
Facebook & LinkedIn
Per Hubspot, Facebook and LinkedIn are great ways to maintain relationships with media, but beware: These tools are a little bit more personal than Twitter. Don‟t start “friending” every reporter you find in your industry. Instead, use Twitter as a way to initiate and grow the relationship. Once the relationship exists, consider connecting on Facebook and/or LinkedIn.
Crowdfire helps you discover and schedule content, and manage all your social accounts from one place.
Influence.co takes a vastly different approach when compared to most influencer platforms. Although Influence.co offers all the usual influencer marketplace services, it also acts very much like a social media platform. This helps brands sustain the types of authentic and long-term relationships that are intrinsic in influencer marketing. Indeed, Influence.co now has a social network and marketplace with over 250,000 members, 150,000 of whom are influencers, 70,000 businesses, and 30,000 other people.
ACTION 2 NEXT MONDAY … more PUBLIC RELATIONS SUCCESS USING SOCIAL MEDIA.
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