74% of people trust social networks – their friends and families, as well as influencers and celebrities – to help them make the right decision about buying a product or service. People are highly likely to purchase brands which they’ve been made aware of through social media.
So if you’re responsible for a company or client’s PR then you want to make sure you know how to handle a social media campaign.
But it’s hard to stand out on social media these days! The world of social media is dynamic and constantly changing and as soon as you’ve figured out a strategy one of your competitors comes up with something new.
That’s why you need creative ideas for your social media PR. Read on for a list of 7 of them.
1. Be a Contributor or Guest Blogger
Appearing on a well-known blog or website lends you authority. If you can get your posts on a well-respected site then you can do the following:
- Find a website with a following you want to target and share your expertise with them.
- Backlink to your site, giving yourself credibility with search engines and driving traffic from the website you guest posted on to your website.
All you have to do is reach out to the website or blog you want to post on and ask them if you can write a guest post. They’ll love it because it gives them additional content and you’ll love it because it gives you additional authority.
2. Have Your Company Leaders Take Part in Social Media PR
This works especially well for business-to-business companies because LinkedIn is a favored social network for them.
This works best when you have your company’s leaders (CEO, COO, CMO, Founder, etc.) write on either the company’s page or their personal page. It does two things.
First, it lends a note of authority to the information being shared and your social media PR. If it’s coming from the head honcho then it’s going to seem to have even more authority.
Second, it helps to personalize the message. It makes your company seem like everyone cares about the customers and the products and the services you offer. If they didn’t care then they wouldn’t be talking about it – so having your leaders share information and posts is a great way to build credibility.
3. Make Sure You Use Influencer Marketing
For each dollar spent on influencer marketing, companies see an average of $7.65 in earned media value returned. This means that influencer marketing is an avenue you want to make sure you’re exploring.
Basically, if you send out free products to social media influencers and they agree to use and share a review of your product(s) then you’re on the right path.
An influencer’s power comes from their followers’ trust, however, so know that they’re not going to sugarcoat their review. Make sure you’re sending a product that you’re confident will do well. Because influencers don’t hold back.
Worried because your social media plan isn’t returning these kinds of results? Check out this blog post to find out why!
4. Start an Ambassador Program
An ambassador program guarantees you great PR at any given time. To pick an ambassador or ambassadors you want to reach out to people who seem to be using your product(s) or service(s) a lot. And in exchange for cash, products, early previews, or other company perks, they agree to talk about and hype up your brand.
Brand ambassadors will talk up your product to their friends, family, and social network – which is basically like free publicity for you. And the better the perks you give them, the more loyal and happy they’re going to be – which means better hype for you.
5. Interact with Journalists
You want to build up a good rapport with journalists. This will get them interested in your company or service or product and will encourage them to try you out and, just possibly, give you good reviews.
You want to make sure you’re practicing good social media engagement, however. Do things like sharing their stories with a comment and their username. That will get their attention because you’ll be driving traffic to their work
You can also be helpful when they’re looking for sources. Instead of the canned reply of just offering yourself up, do some research and find sources that will truly help them.
And interact with them on a conversational level. Remember, journalists are people too!
6. Make Sure Your Press Releases Are Social Media Friendly
This should go without saying, but in this day and age, everything you create should be social media friendly. For example, if you share press releases on your website make sure that your customers can easily share them with social sharing buttons.
Additionally, make sure that you’re sharing the information from your press releases on all of your social media channels. You may have to tailor it a bit for an Instagram post or story or a Facebook post, but you want to make sure you’re getting it out there.
7. Create and Leverage Campaign Hashtags
Hashtags were created as a way to follow conversations online so by creating your own hashtags you can easily monitor what people are saying about you, your brand, your services, and your products.
Hashtags will allow you to do the following:
- Find out what your customers think and are saying about a specific campaign so you know if it’s working or not.
- Understand how the campaign is performing among intended audiences.
- Engage with your customers by getting involved in the online conversation.
- Ensure campaign and brand content is easily searchable for both you and your customers.
Make sure that your hashtags are appropriate, easy to remember, and contribute positively to the brand message.
Don’t Let Them Press ‘Unfollow’!
Now that you’ve got 7 new creative ideas for how to enact your social media PR plans, it’s time to actually put them into action. We can help with that!
Let us assist you in saving time and money when it comes to your social media PR plans. Contact us today for a free consultation.
