Making Social Media Work for Your Brand

We all know about it. We’ve all been taught how to use it throughout our entire college career. We grew up in the generation where it was created. It’s social media, of course. It’s obsessive, addictive and sometimes incredibly dramatic (especially for me). But, it is definitely a must to be educated on, especially for public relations professionals. In fact, it is important no matter what career you pursue in the future. It is probable that social media will be a part of your day-to-day responsibilities. 

socialmediasmarketing.com

Public relations and social media go together like peanut butter and jelly. You can’t have one without the other. It is a way to engage with an audience and also get information out about a brand, company, business or nonprofit. It is such a fast-paced development and if you aren’t keeping up, it is likely you will be forgotten.

So part of the responsibilities of the younger, less experienced public relations professionals is to keep up with a company’s social media page, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and so on and so forth.

Word of mouth is huge on social media, so it can influence opinions about a brand, negatively or positively. So what are the most important things to consider when posting to social media on behalf of the business you are working for? What things need do you need to avoid doing to prevent a major crisis from occurring?

Engage in conversation

Don’t be on social media just to be on social media. You have to make use of the vast audience that you have on various sites.

Share links

Whenever a story is published about your company, be sure to share it so your viewers can read it as well. People want to hear good things that your brand is doing, so be sure to share. Also, it is nice to share things about other companies that you’re associated with. It can build your following base, as well as theirs.

Know when to post

Each social media platform has an ideal day and time in which posting is appropriate. Just because it works on one platform, does not mean it will work on another. Know the platform you are on and your audience. Socialmediatoday.com has a great infographic about the best times to post.

socialmediatoday.com

Pictures, please

Always share pictures with your audience. Links to articles and websites can only keep attention for so long. Share a picture every once in a while to keep your audience excited about your brand or company.

Keep it real

Every brand has its own personality so don’t steal someone else’s. It’s okay to admire another company’s social media presence, but don’t become something else that is completely different from the brand’s identity.

Create content for each platform

Just like certain times do not necessarily work for each platform, some content does not translate across the board. You have to create different content for each social media site that your brand is on. Some things work better on Twitter that might not work on Facebook, and vice versa. It is okay to share pictures on all social media sites, because who doesn’t love pictures?

Sources:

Richards, E. (2013, November 11). 8 Easy Ways to Use Social Media to Optimize Your PR Campaign. In Social Media Today. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://socialmediatoday.com/erinr/1905096/8-easy-ways-use-social-media-optimize-your-pr-campaign

Frasco, S. (2014, January 7). 15 Do's And Don’ts of Social Media. In Social Media Today. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://socialmediatoday.com/stephaniefrasco/2039866/15-dos-and-don-ts-social-media

Role of PR in Event Planning

Whenever an organization wants promote a new product, service or cause that it is supporting, it does this by hosting an event. An event can be held in a variety of ways, but the main idea is to provide information and fun to people within an organization and its audiences or stakeholders. Because an event is all about connecting a client with its publics, event planning has become a very important and specialized part of public relations. Event planning entails generating buzz surrounding the event that is being promoted.

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Recently for an internship, I planned an event centered on the reopening of a salon due to its change in ownership that occurred at the beginning of the year. I had never planned an event in my life, so not knowing where to start, I did what any future public relations professional would do and started promoting the event on social media. I used the company’s Facebook and Instagram accounts to release online flyers of event information. I planned all the essentials after that, including food, beverages and entertainment.

Social media flyer created by me

I only had about a month to plan everything to it all happened very quickly, and I didn’t get to plan everything as well as I would have liked to. As a part of public relations, event planning is something I will probably have to do as a part of an entry-level job in the future, so I wanted to ensure that I would be prepared next time I would have to plan an event.

• Develop a PR plan for the event – develop a communications plan (like we have been doing in class) that lists the goals, objectives, strategies and tactics for the event. It will also include who the target audience will be and what the key messages will be. It is very important to know how the audience wants to be reached:
• Social media
• Traditional media
• Integrated media
• Make a list of event details in advance – everything from décor to food needs to be decided upon months in advance. It doesn’t need to be pushed aside until the very last minute.
• Have a hook – what is going to be interesting about the event you are promoting? Are there going to be prize giveaways, entertainment or a theme to differentiate it from past events. Make the event stand out and promote what ever it is that makes it special.
• Have a budget in mind – it’s not the most interesting part of planning an event, but you must know how much the business is willing to spend so you can plan accordingly.
• Promote the event to local residents and businesses – for the event I planned, we used the local newspaper and the Chamber of Commerce to disseminate information about the event to local businesses and residents of the community. We also had a ribbon cutting ceremony that many business-people attended and it was featured in the paper the next week.
• Promote the event through social media – to me, this is the most important part of event planning. You want to inform your audience, which takes the time to follow and engage with your business on social media, about the event. Start Facebook contests or Twitter and Instagram hashtags a couple of months in advance to create excitement for the upcoming event.

Sources:

Spiewak, M. (2012, May 8). It’s My Party: The Role of Public Relations in Event Planning. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://smpsboston.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/its-my-party-the-role-of-public-relations-in-event-planning/

Warner, J. (2013, June 2). 42 Tips For Producing A Memorable Small Business Event. In Small Business Trends. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/06/small-business-event-planning-tips.html