If you have a business or work for a corporate company, you probably heard the term public relations. PR is a quite important task because it can help you shape public opinion, create a strong and effective brand image so that you can easily attract more customers or build an amazing authority. Traditionally, PR uses press releases, networking with journalists and more however, for the last 10 years, PR has a companion! Social media and public relations are the new way of interacting with the audience.
It allows brands and companies to directly build a relationship with their customers in real time which means that you don’t need to wait or build a different strategy to increase your effectiveness over the media.
As you can see, this is an interesting subject and today we are going to see what has been changed since these two terms are mixed together! Let’s not waste any more time and get right into it, shall we?
Digital Outlets Transformed Public Relations!
Before social media took its place in our lives, public relations were using press releases, media pitching about their brands or products, and connecting with trusted journalists for coverage in newspapers, magazines, and traditional television. We were doing that because back in the day these could be quite helpful for companies. We were carefully covering the information with controlled channels to prevent any disruption but there was a big problem, you couldn’t have any direct interaction with the audience.
Since that’s the case, strengthening the brand image, increasing the trust of the customers required a lot of time and hard work that sometimes could go out the window! However, digital outlets such as social media, did reshape the how PR works.
Now, social media and public relations cannot be separated because back in the days, companies and brands were relying on one thing. We couldn’t reach any real time engagement, share news, managing reputation, or simply answering the public in times of crises.
Long story short, we are now embracing the social media as an essential part of the growing since social media and public relations are now make things quite dynamic and relevant to modern world!
Why Social Media and Public Relations Are Inseparable?
Social media and public relations are now inseparable because before the social media, PR was quite time consuming and demanding at the same time. However, social media revolutionized the way we handled these relationships. Now, everything is faster, broader with the greater transparency. Let’s make it clear:
- Healthy Communication: We all know that the healthy communication is the key to pretty much everything. Same thing implies here too. Now we brands can easily communicate with our customers and audiences real time by responding their comments and DMs, addressing their concerns, sharing the milestones and updates without using any other outlets that we used to.
- Increased Reach: Before social media, we had to use traditional ways to spread our names and products. We were in limited times, but now we can increase the reach and visibility of our names with social media posts, videos, live streams, and in fact we can now buy YouTube views to improve PR.
- Crises Management: Issues, problems, crises… These things can happen anytime. However, during PR crises, the process was quite long and painful. Now, we can easily clarify misinformation, issue statements, and control the narrative before it escalates.
- Trust in the Brand: If there is no sincere and heartfelt product, the trust in that product or brand is not very strong, it means that transparency and authenticity are quite important. But how could someone manage that back in the days of PR? Now though, it is quite simple, anyone can use social media to tell a story, share their human side with behind-the-scenes content, and open communication so that they can increase trust.
Social Media Platforms for Better PR Strategies
As you know, there are many options when it comes to social media platforms and each one of them serves a unique purpose for PR and you need to carefully choose one based on your brand’s goals, audience, and messaging style.
- X: X is quite ideal for updates, announcement, media engagement and especially for crisis responses because the theme is more of a text based and people love to discuss about the trends there.
- LinkedIn: To build credibility, business insights and connecting with other business, there are no better place to be rather than LinkedIn!
- Instagram and TikTok: These two platforms are might be the most crowded and brand-friendly ones because they focus on visuals and storytellings for brand humanization.
- Facebook and YouTube: Long form contents and community buildings are amazing in these two platform. PR teams can share in-depth stories, and connect with business here without breaking a sweat!
By leveraging the right mix of these platforms, PR professionals can amplify their messaging, build strong relationships with their audience, and maintain a positive brand image in the digital era.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can small businesses use social media for public relations without a large budget?
The beauty of social media and public relations is that it doesn’t require a lot of money. It is a cost effective way to build a brand awareness!
What are some common PR mistakes brands make on social media?
Social media makes things much easier but some brands take it differently. If your brand ignore feedbacks, delete the negative comments under the posts, or respond unprofessionally, you can damage your reputation which is the opposite thing of PR.
What role does employee advocacy play in social media PR?
Employees are the powerful brand ambassadors on social media. If your employees share the insights and updates while engaging with the audience, you can significantly increase your credibility and brand awareness in no time.
How can brands measure the success of their social media PR campaigns?
If you want to measure your success on social media, you need to take a closer look at your engagement rates, sentiment analysis, share of voice, and audience growth. Based on the results, you can change your strategy or make it more powerfull!
