How Do Public Relations Professionals Utilize Social Media?
Today, it’s safe to say that social media and public relations go hand-in-hand. People everywhere turn to social media to talk about and connect with their favorite brands. That means that public relations professionals need to be active on the right channels if they want to manage their client’s reputation effectively, and make sure that they’re making the right impression on their audience.
Using social media as part of a PR campaign can be a powerful strategy. With the right plan, a social channel can give more volume to a company’s message, help them to develop relationships with influencers and other media professionals, and ensure that they’re one step ahead of crisis management. Here’s how PR professionals tap into the social world.
1. Developing Valuable Relationships
Relationship management is a significant part of the PR experience. Public relations professionals on social media can interact with journalists, influencers, and media outlets to extend a company’s relationship with other important individuals to something that goes beyond the standard press release.
By connecting with the right people on social channels, PR agents can ensure that they build a reputation of credibility, authority, and professionalism for their clients.
2. Strengthening the Brand Message
Another way public relations professionals use social media is to enhance the company’s message with original, informative and branded content. Sharing content on social media helps to show the public what a business is all about, and it can also develop that brand’s authority too.
The key to success when sharing content on social media, is to make sure that every message shared aligns with the values of the brands, the expectations of the audience, and the objectives of the public relations campaign.
3. Incorporating Social Sharing in Press Releases
One particularly effective way for a PR professional to incorporate the social media world into public relations is to add social sharing links and buttons to press releases. This ensures that when a follower reads a release online, they can easily click on a button to share it with their friends and family, and thus expand brand reach for a client.
Embedding social media links into press releases makes it easier to distribute important information to a wider audience as quickly as possible.
4. Creating and Using Relevant Hashtags
The “hashtag” has emerged as an important tool in the public relations campaign today. One tag can help to connect different strands of a conversation all around the world, making it easier for professionals to keep track of the things being said about a company or brand. With a hashtag, PR professionals can monitor important conversations, get an insight into the perception an audience has of a company, and more.
Hashtags also ensure that campaign content shared on social media is easier for modern customers to find, as all they need to do is search for a single trending term.
5. Managing Reputations
Finally, one wrong message or rumor on a social media channel can be enough to permanently damage a company’s reputation — unless the problem is dealt with quickly and efficiently. Public relations experts active on social media can respond quickly to real-time situations of crisis management and keep on top of conversations.
Achieving success in this area often involves taking advantage of the “instant” nature of social media to maintain positive reputations for a brand and tackle crises whenever they occur.
Ronn Torossian is the CEO and Founder of 5W Public Relations.
