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Public Relations and Social Media

Guest post by: Jennifer Wezensky

Article Overview: The time to get into social media is now. Social media has become an essential piece of a public relations campaign. Social media is a great opportunity to spread positive news about your company or organization.

Public Relations and Social Media

Social media over the Internet has rapidly claimed its place as an essential piece of a public relations campaign. It is the new form of spreading the news by word of mouth. Call it word of web.

Word-of-mouth campaigns have traditionally been a significant means of getting news out and creating a buzz. It's no wonder, because you are hearing a piece of news from someone you know; quite likely a friend or an acquaintance. You are predisposed to listen to someone you trust, unlike an item in a newspaper or an ad on TV where you have to be convinced to pay attention. When someone receives news through a social media contact, there is the same predisposition to listen to what's being said. The difference is the speed that a word-of-web item spreads over social media, which is much faster than word of mouth, and the impact is greater.

Ignore social media, and at best you miss a great opportunity for spreading the news about your company or organization. At worst, you lose control of the news about your business that skips across the Internet at a lightning pace, whether the news is good or bad, accurate or not.

Social media for B2C

Building relations with customers requires keeping them in the know of what your business has to offer consumers, responding to requests and complaints and maintaining a regular and personal contact with the people who do business with you. Before the Internet, a business had to rely on advertising, a customer service department and maybe a newsletter. Now, a page on Facebook can make all of those jobs easier.

Social media such as Facebook or Twitter caught fire as a way for people to connect with friends and family, also maintaining those connections by updating the events of their lives and spreading the word automatically to anyone interested. Yet social media quickly became an obvious channel for businesses wanting to stay connected with consumers in much the same way.

The majority of businesses today have a website. But most business websites are a place to present information. Overall the websites are mostly static, focused on information about the company's products or services, store hours and contact information. Adding a Facebook page for the business, a Twitter account and a blog begins a two-way conversation with current and potential customers. Don't look at social media as something to add on once you can find the time. Rather, it should be an integral part of your public relations and marketing campaigns to broaden your company's reach.

Start simply

Using social media effectively takes time. If the size of your business does not allow you to hire someone to run your social media a campaign, the thought of getting into it may seem daunting. And if you wait until you're ready to start a major PR campaign to get into social media, the task seems impossible.

The time to get into social media is now. Facebook is the most popular of the personal social sites, and if you don't have a personal account yet, it is easy to sign up and free to use. Once you have a personal account, it takes only a minute to add a business page. Of course you are not done yet. You need to build a presence on that page. Add your logo, describe the company and start giving updates of sales, promotions or whatever else your company is up to that consumers may be interested in.

As you begin to do all of these things, you will start to build your network. Put a link to your Facebook page on your formal business website, use the Facebook logo in your advertising and brochures and ask customers to become "fans." Reward those fans by tipping them off to sales or special promotions ahead of your regular advertising.

Most importantly, when someone posts a comment to your page, respond. Begin the communication process.

Do it over time and build your social media efforts into part of your routine. Add a Twitter account to give shorthand updates, but don't overdo it. You do not want to overload your Tweets with inane comments. Begin a blog through a service such as WordPress to give longer commentary about trends in your industry, the market place or events that impact your customers. Through these actions, you are building up a level of trust with consumers and building up your own comfort level in communicating with customers through social media.

You also get to learn what's being said about your company on the web, and can respond quickly to fix a customer service gaffe or correct misinformation before it goes viral across the Internet.

Then, when you're ready to begin a major PR campaign for a new product release or your company's response to a news event that has a major impact on the market, you have a ready channel to reach your most important audience.

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Article Tags: doityourself public relations, JW PR Toolkits, JW Public Relations, public relations, publicity, social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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