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Utilizing Social Media for PR


Both public relations and social media can have a significant impact on a business's marketing strategy, however, the two fields are not mutually exclusive. If done well, synergy between a company's social media and public relations efforts can help increase brand awareness and ultimately boost sales. At Alternative Strategies, our Public Relations and Social Media departments work in tandem to shape a brand's online identity.

Know Your Audience

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great tools to take advantage of to conduct research on your target demographic. Through these platforms, marketers have access to valuable insights on your target audience's interests, likes and dislikes. From doing a simple Twitter search to check engagement on a specific hashtag, to analyzing metrics and data through Facebook's Ad Manager, there is a wide spectrum of capabilities that can help your target market take shape.

Finding Influencers

Once your target market is determined, implementing influencers in your marketing strategy is crucial to your business's success. Influencer marketing uses existing communities on social media as a resource. These communities are often tied to a specific person, group, or niche, with upwards of thousands of active community members, or followers. Influencers can come in a variety of forms, from local bloggers to Instagram moguls. When looking for social media influencers to partner with, it is easy to focus on the number of followers they have. This can be a trap, however, as a successful influencer is no longer measured by their following count, but by the number of engagements the account garners. When it comes to influencer marketing, quality over quantity is a great rule of thumb to follow.

Taking Action

Social media provides a real-time insight into the public's opinion on a brand before it becomes a trending topic. This can be crucial in the P.R. realm, not only to shape the brand's online presence, but to identify brand threats and swiftly react to negative press. Social media is one of the first places people look to learn more about a brand, whether that be an announcement about a new product or to find a brand's reaction to negative press. Utilizing social media as a tool to immediately reach your audience is the best way for your brand to control how quickly your message reaches its audience.

Consistency

When building a consistent online presence, whether through results of your public relations outreach or through social media outlets, it is important to use social media and PR in tandem to create a consistent online presence. By sharing secured PR on your social media platforms, you can establish credibility for your brand, while also maintaining a good relationship with your media outlets. Synergy between your PR and social media efforts in your day-to-day social media engagements is the best way for your brand to find its voice online and to establish brand awareness.

Speaking of consistency, we here at Alternative Strategies send out marketing tips each month that business owners can use to succeed! Email info@altstrategies.com to learn more.