Six PR Tips for Social Media
By: Nina Pucci, Account Supervisor for PRLab
February 22, 2019
Social networks are door openers for companies aiming to increase relations with their audiences. On one hand, these platforms enables companies to better understand their audience, and more specifically, their desires, goals, and needs. To establish a closer relationship with them, companies use social networks to facilitate public debates on their audiences interests, smooth communication, and present services or products that shares relevant information about the company.
At the same time, presence in these channels allows companies to find themselves in a more vulnerable situation. For instance, social networks exposes them to any kind of information – true or false – that appear on public display. This is because the internet has allowed the dissemination of information on a large scale and in a short time, and especially in the case of social networks, many new sources of information have emerged.
# 1: Understand Your Audience
Many valuable doors and professional opportunities may close when disregarding the right manner to speak to your strategic public. When interacting with your audience on social networks, always remember to consider your speech and adapt it appropriately. For example, when speaking to a reporter, consider the environment where he or she works and what kinds of stories he or she writes. An important tip is: before interacting on social platforms, reserve some time to research your target audiences’ history and understand their personality, hence you’ll be able to dialogue more effectively.
# 2: Bet on Twitter
Capable of starting conversation easily and delivering content in an organized manner, Twitter is specially valuable to anyone working in the Public Relations area. It is a hub of professionals, interactivity, and fast paced information, thus, a time saver when trying to research and gain more knowledge in a specific subject. In addition, Twitter is also important for insights and ideas of content through its microblog profile. It is very easy to analyze and enter into conversations associated with a hashtag (just click on one to dive in and engage in a specific subject), as you can follow what is being commented and even quickly identify a possible crises.
# 3: Keep an eye on the gaffes
Unfortunately, it is very common to read news about professionals who had their careers suffer major crashes due to unfortunate statements on a social network. And since the company’s communication is not only through formal means, after all employees are also brand spokesmen – even if unofficially – you should also keep an eye on those profiles. Read these profiles as an extension of the professional personas; follow them and give tips on what is considered appropriate for those who are behind those profiles.
# 4: Don’t underestimate the power of blogs and news
Part of the PR work is still very much linked to stories and news on major portals and blogs. After all, these kinds of messages have a direct impact on the target audience. With social networks, the chances of the news reaching to them gets even greater with the power of sharing information in a few seconds. For example, if a portal or blog makes a story about a company having a defect in a certain product, the news probably reach a large number of users, following a cascade effect. So it’s important to be aware, not only the opinions left on social networks, but also on what mass communication channels are posting and how that has impacted the audience. Tools that quickly filters what was posted using the brand name or on a particular portal may be essential for quickly identifying those materials and building an official response to the company.
# 5: Work With Influencers
This type of personality that quickly grew with the digital environment has gained the power to be an opinion maker and trendsetter to his followers. Therefore, as a PR practitioner one must identify those profiles capable of impacting its audience, create and establish a close relationship with them, and may even follow repercussion of actions and novelties given through these channels.
# 6: Identify Crises Quickly
Although unexpected events are part of PR’s line of work, it is challenging to predict where and when a crisis will arise. To minimize risks and have a power of action in a few seconds, monitoring tools capable of performing a backward search are essential for a PR affair. Thus, the professional can have immediate results deepening the understanding of recent events and understand the repercussion on a subject without having planned for it. Social networks are powerful tools of the present times, but only efficient for those who know how to use them in its full potential. A PR practitioner understands the importance of communicating effectively with their target audience using social networks as one of their main tools.