Social Media Can Be Helpful in a PR Campaign
The field of public relations has come a long way in the last decade. Press releases, launch parties, and planted news items were once the standard way of calling attention to a new brand, company, or product. They could also be wielded by experienced PR experts to help improve the reputation of individuals and companies after bad press. Those tools are still available, though they have been adapted to a post-internet world. Press releases now go out through email and news feeds and executives like Daniel Drimmer , CEO of Starlight Apartments, are as likely to be interviewed on a popular real estate blog as by a Canadian newspaper.
Good PR today includes not just traditional channels like print, radio and television, but online channels like social media. Being able to create a coherent social media presence and leverage that presence to generate positive attention and buzz is the key to protecting the online reputation of any company, individual or brand.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow individuals and brands to interact directly with both customers and the public at large. This type of direct contact was impossible 20 years ago. Donald Trump can respond to tweets from fans and critics alike and the top companies use Facebook to promote contests and products and to get immediate feedback from fans on everything from commercials to new product lines. A good PR campaign is going to make use of these social conversations in order to build a loyal following.
Business executives are learning that a well-written and maintained profile on a site like LinkedIn can be a cornerstone to their online reputation. By setting up a profile, such as Daniel Drimmer on LinkedIn , they can network with clients, vendors, college friends, and press contacts. Linked In usually ranks high in the search engines for individuals and companies that have active profiles, making it a good way to get positive news on the web with little effort.
It is important that the social media match the intent of the given PR campaign. It would do no good to publicize a product targeted to senior citizens on a social site that is populated by tweens. Knowing which sites are appropriate to a given PR objective is half the battle. Then it’s just a matter of tailoring the content to match the intent and then implementing the plan.
image courtesy Kadir Ozpinar on Flickr. Creative Commons License
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