CP Communications Director, Catriona Pollard recently shared her 101 PR and Social Media Tips in a new eBook that is jam-packed full of tips that businesses can implement into their PR and social media strategy.
In her recent video, Catriona discusses how implementing some PR and social media tips and tricks into your business’ current strategy can help to give it a shot of adrenalin and give your business a competitive edge.
Developing strong public relations and social media strategies can help to create real, financial success for entrepreneurs and organisations.
Here are some ideas that you can consider when planning a successful PR and social media strategy for your business.
Engaging with the media
Engaging with the media is an important part of PR that businesses need to improve if they are to be seen as an industry leader. Drafting media pitches, releases and articles is an excellent way to achieve this. It can be difficult however to achieve cut through with your content and have your work published in publications.
With most journalists receiving hundreds of emails a day, taking the time to improve your pitching and writing skills is essential. It is important to always write interesting, timely, relevant and knowledgeable content that your target publication will appreciate. Ensuring that you proof read your work and it is succinct and concise is also important.
Often when you send out a media pitch to different publications, you are offering up the opportunity to have an interview. It is important you feel prepared to deliver an interview that will help to position you and your business as thought leaders in your industry. Always have your business’ key messages prepared and try not to get side-tracked from the prepared topic.
Moving beyond the press release
When looking to build your personal or business profile in your industry, it is important to look beyond writing press releases and interviews and start engaging in activities such as speaking at conferences and entering award programs.
These activities can not only help to build your thought leadership, but they can help other individuals, experts and businesses to see you as an established leader in your field.
Enter awards
Winning an award for your business is a fantastic achievement you should share with your customers, clients, stakeholders and social media followers. Promoting your award win is a great way to stand out from your competitors, boost your credibility and reputation, gain media coverage and attract new clients or customers.
Speak at events
Speaking at networking events or conferences conveys your messages directly to your target audience. Consider where your expertise lies and create a speaking topic around which will be interesting to a live audience. Start with small gatherings and work your way up as you gain experience.
Attend networking events
It is also important to try and attend networking events, which can be a cost effective way of reaching potential clients and making new contacts. Strike up conversation with people to find out more about their field of expertise and their experiences instead of waiting for people to come up and talk to you. The key to good networking is to attend events alone. Don’t take someone with you for support as you will inevitably use the event as a catch up. If you do attend with a colleague, split up during the event and catch up after.
Developing a social media strategy
Social media is a game changer for savvy entrepreneurs and businesses that have learned how to harness its power to build loyal followers position their business in the market and increase their brand reputation. However there are still many businesses struggling to make sense of social media, with many going from tactic to tactic with no cohesive strategy.
An important part of making the most of social media is to develop a sound strategy. A strategy will help you define the best platforms to use, the people you want to engage with, the type of content you should be posting and the frequency you should communicate on social media.
It will also give you the big picture necessary to help you truly leverage all your social media efforts.
It is important to think about the quality of content you will be producing and sharing as part of your social media strategy. This will impact the level of engagement with followers as well as the overall success of the strategy.
Using the most appropriate social media platforms
With so many social media platforms available it can be difficult to figure out which platform will deliver the best results for your company.
The first step is to determine where your target audience is – whether it is on Facebook, YouTube, Goolge+, Pinterest, Twitter or LinkedIn. Go further and examine each social media site to determine which one best suits your goals and business values. For example, if your goal was to make new business contacts, LinkedIn, as a professional networking site, would be the most relevant.
Once you have determined which social media platforms you would like to target, start developing your social media strategy. A large part of this strategy will be ensuring you post interesting and relevant content that will engage your target audience.
Feeling overwhelmed?
There is a lot to consider when you are looking to improve your PR and social media strategy. Start by taking the time to think about your business objectives and goals and how you can best use social media and PR to achieve these.
Catriona has shared her top tips for getting real results for your business with smart PR and social media.
The 101 PR and Social Media Tips eBook is available to download for free here.
Want more PR tips? Download this free ebook
Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.
