In the world of PR, your clients are everything. You need to make sure your current clients and their campaigns are the talk of the town, and you also need to keep growing your clientele list. One of the best ways you can achieve both is through having a social media strategy.
Back in the day, PRs needed the help of the media and journalists to get information out for their clients. Although this is still a useful tool today, we live in a fast-paced world, and people want information now.
With the rise of social media, PRs are now able to share information themselves without having to rely solely on journalists and other media outlets. Social media allows PRs to connect with audiences immediately — not only to share information or run campaigns but also to make those important new connections.
Keep on reading to find out more from media update's Saads Abrahams on social media and its role in PR.
Why Does Social Media Matter in PR
The role of PR is to build and manage a brand's image, relationships and communication with the public and other key players.
With social media, PRs are able to use the platforms to connect with their intended audience without the help of a third party.
The perks of social media for PRs lie in its ability to help:
-
quickly and effectively handle a crisis
-
build and maintain a positive brand image
-
shape the public's perception
-
tell your brand's story
-
reach a wider audience
-
save money (it's cheaper than traditional PR tactics), and
-
have access to analytics, letting you know what works and what doesn't.
Steps to Building a Social Media Strategy for PRs
Now that you know why using social media is vital for PRs, you need to build a social media strategy that will ensure the success of your brand.
Set Your Goals
When using social media for your PR campaigns, you need to set clear goals for what you hope to achieve from this campaign. This will help you build effective strategies.
You need to be able to measure the success of your campaign. By making use of metrics, you are then able to see if you are meeting your objectives or not, and if not, you can tweak your strategy to achieve the original goal.
There are a few main social media KPIs that you can measure, including:
-
engagement
-
loyalty
-
growth
-
conversions, and
-
reach.
Identify Your Target Audience
An important component of creating a successful social media strategy is knowing who your target audience is. Knowing exactly who your target audience is will enable you to create a campaign that will capture them.
Research is key here — you need to find out the following:
-
What content does your audience prefer?
-
What social media platforms do they use the most?
-
What times are they most active on these platforms?
Through thorough research on your audience, you will be able to create a social media strategy that ensures you actually reach your intended audience.
Review Your Social Media Platforms
Auditing your social media platforms is a vital step for your social media strategy.
This involves:
-
reviewing past content and strategies used
-
evaluating what content and strategies worked, and why they worked, and
-
identifying which content your audience engaged with the most.
From here, you then need to:
-
get off the platforms that aren't working for your brand
-
amend any incorrect or outdated information
-
zone-in on the platforms that performed the best, and
-
delete any irrelevant posts.
Practice Consistency
A major component in ensuring that your social media strategy works is factoring in consistency.
Social media only works if you are consistent, and this should be reflected in:
Have a Crisis Management Plan
Finally, the most important thing for any PR is to create a crisis management plan in your social media strategy.
Social media can either help you create a successful brand or be the downfall of it. A few negative tweets about your brand can have a major impact on how people view your brand. This is why you need to have a crisis management plan in place to control the narrative.
Here's an example: Huda Beauty released a new foundation line, and PR boxes were sent to influencers to review the product before the launch. It was only then that the brand found out that there were issues with their darker shades.
Huda, the owner of the brand, then took to social media and created a post on how the problem occurred and what the brand is doing to correct it — as well as apologising for the mistake. This was received well by the public and placed the brand in a very positive light.
Did you find this piece insightful? Let us know in the comment section below.
*Image courtesy of Canva