- Test Your Content and Find Your Audiences’ ‘Softspot’.
You may feel like you already know your key audience, but experimentation is vital in order to maximise your social media potential. For example, A / B testing can help to identify what your target audience enjoys the most from your brand and can offer valuable results. Strategically play around with a variety of photos, videos, both with or without a link to your website to see the reach and appeal of each approach with your target base. You may be surprised by what you discover. Think of it like this, your mom and your best friend are both close to you, but if you wanted to make them each laugh, you would probably tell them very different jokes. Show people you understand them, by aligning your content to what works for them.
- Find the Right Tone of Voice and be Concise with Your Posts.
You want to identify with your customers and having a tone which is too corporate can be a serious issue if you want them to relate to your brand. It is surprisingly valuable for an account to display a conversational, yet professional ‘voice’. Use a mixture of both casual and professional to maximise your appeal to the average consumer. Furthermore, a simple tip to remember: don’t simply post snippets of your new product press release onto social media. You have to create concise and brief posts - digital media does not do long or boring and some claim that the average human attention span is only 8 seconds! Keep an eye out for anything that looks too dull, text heavy, or includes industry jargon.
- Be Helpful and Interactive!
Enhance your brand's online presence and reputation by being accessible and cooperative with each and every one of your customers. Negative review? Message them publicly and then privately, offering assistance. Try to take the conversation off-line with the intent to de-escalate. Tagged in photos on instagram? Interact by commenting, liking or resharing - consumers appreciate and enjoy this level of communication, but don’t just stop there. Be sure to create brand awareness by engaging and interacting with industry influencers. This will help forge new relationships that will increase your prominence and provide results in the future.
- Try all Aspects of Social Media.
We mentioned this in our last blog but it is important to not get stuck in the habit of just using default platforms such as Facebook and Instagram - it is crucial to experiment with a variety of social media platforms to reach a wider audience. Many people react to different mediums of communications, so expand the brand's horizons by including videos on Youtube, Stories on Instagram, Photos on Pinterest, Company interviews on LinkedIn, and so on. Explore each of these avenues to build your company's online presence and attract new users who otherwise would not have engaged with your posts. You can gain a lot of coverage from a wider selection of platforms for the same piece of content if you: launch a video on Youtube, put a quick preview on Instagram, Tweet about it on Twitter and then put the best quotes on Facebook to gain as much attention as possible. More networks = More engagement.
- Stay on top of the News.
It is beneficial to interact with popular headlines to create buzz about your brand. Providing your take on what’s hot in the news, entertainment or viral world can have a large, (and if done right) positive impact for your company. Creating content with wit and humor can increase traffic to your account, find new audiences and generate a lot of positive feedback. If the timing is right you can include a trending hashtag or @ a famous account to further expose your brand's efforts - however, if this is a sensitive issue, keep your involvement tasteful and delicate. Many brands have failed at this before, so proceed with caution.
STIR PR hosted several Chivas events featuring Japanese style cocktails, which were well received as Japanese cocktails became increasingly popular in Hong Kong.
Here are some examples of quick and clever PR work that quickly went viral and received media attention for their brand:
Smirnoff's advert for Donald Trump’s ties to Russia
McDonald's Tweet to a Popular US TV Show That Referenced the Chain
Time.com's Ranking of 'Sassiest' Twitter Brands with Examples
Further Reading:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2014/04/28/winning-social-media-strategies-for-public-relations/#23f659b15f9c
https://www.pubclub.org/1549/best-practices-integrating-social-media-pr-content-digital-campaigns/
https://www.marketingcloud.com/blog/social-media-best-practices-for-brand-engagement/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-in-public-relations/