Are your social media efforts working as you’d hoped? Use PR tactics to achieve long-lasting effects

Social media is everywhere and doesn’t seem like it will disappear anytime soon. These days, if your company is not on social media, it’s almost like you don’t exist. Still, many companies have no idea how to take full advantage of this engagement tool or use it properly.

When done correctly, social media campaigns can have a huge impact on moving your targeted audiences through the sales funnel, from lead generation to actual paying and repeat customers. However, to achieve these results, you must know the best methods to make social media work for you long-term. These tactics will help.

Social media must become a major component in your overall strategic and content planning. As the influence of social media continues to grow, so does its effect on your company-wide goals. Therefore, you can no longer think of it as that little something extra you do only when the mood hits. During the creation of strategic plans and PR campaigns, you must include social media components at the very beginning of the process.

Assign or hire someone to work on your social media initiatives full-time. First, this will ensure that social media efforts are never overlooked because there will always be at least one person whose job it is to think about it all the time and develop ways to incorporate it into every organizational objective. Second, with a social media manager or strategist dedicated to this area, you will be better able to stay abreast of new trends and ever-changing tools that may benefit your company.

Choose the right social media platform. According to the recently released Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP VIII) study, published by the Strategic Communications and Public Relations Center at USC, the use of Twitter as a social media tool has increased while Facebook use is unchanged over the previous year. In addition, outlets such as Google + and Pinterest are growing in popularity. Of course, none of that makes any difference if your targeted audiences’ use of social media does not match these statistics, so you must first learn their patterns and habits and plan your initiatives accordingly.

Always think about spreadable content. There are a number of tactics to make your content more shareable (see our blog post here: http://www.axiapr.com/blog/10-things-you-must-do-to-create-more-spreadable-content.-helpful-insights-from-pr). When followers share your posts and content with others in their networks, it’s the equivalent of breathing new life into your information. It also provides an opportunity for you to connect with potential customers you would not have reached otherwise. While you don’t need to make every social media post as epic as the Ellen DeGeneres photo from the Academy Awards or Commander Chris Hadfield Tweeting from space, you should follow certain strategies to make content more shareable.

Pay attention to quality and frequency. Social media is constantly moving and evolving and you must do the same to keep up; there should be information coming from your company on a regular basis. Nonetheless, don’t be in such a rush that you get sloppy with text or send out inappropriate messages. Forgetting these guidelines is the quickest way for your followers to lose interest.

Find the right PR firm to handle all this for you. Let Axia show you how to use the global phenomenon that is social media to help build a branded community and improve your search engine rankings. Download our e-book.The Essential Social Media Management Guide or contact us today to learn more.