Social media has changed, and still is changing, public relations.
Some companies might overlook social media's importance and use it as an afterthought, but fully 77% of customers will choose a brand over its competitor after having a positive experience on social media, Sprout Social found.
That considered, you need to take advantage of social media to create awareness and generate buzz for your company. Here are some social media PR tips to help you boost your brand's visibility.
1. Use influencer marketing
The right influencers can help boost your brand's visibility and awareness. But how do you find the right influencers in the first place?
Your best shot are the niche influencers in your industry.
Niche influencers not only post authentic content but also enjoy trust-based relationships with their audiences—which is invaluable for your brand. Fully 49% of customers say they depend on influencers' recommendations to make a purchase.
Here are some ways to find social media influencers in your niche.
Search Hashtags
Social media networks allow you to search relevant phrases or hashtags to find influencer accounts. Searching for a keyword such as "shoes" on Instagram will give you a list of hashtags and personalized accounts based on your location and activity, as shown in this example:
Source: Instagram
From your hashtag search results, you can choose influencers who create and share relatable content that would endear people to your brand in the long run.
So, rather than focusing only on follower counts, look out more for influencers with higher audience engagement and personalized content.
Advanced Search Tools
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all have advanced search tools to help you search for influencers faster.
On LinkedIn, for instance, you can streamline your search using the location and industry filters:
Source: Orbit Media
It becomes easier to find potential influencers once you know how to use such tools. But you need to pay attention to influencers' engagement rate and their communication with their audience. That will guide you into finding not only an influencer a high engagement rate but also one who drives conversion.
Free Social Media Tools
"Freemium" tools, such Klear, and free tools, such as Followerwonk, are options when looking for influencers relevant to your brand.
Here's an example of using Followerwonk to search for influencers on Twitter. Once on its website, you'll see the "Search Bios" tab on the homepage. Click on it. Then select "More Options" below the "Niche" column for the advanced search options.
Source: Followerwonk
A form like this one will appear; t he form narrows the search when you enter the location, niche, and the number of followers you want:
By entering the keyword "Games" for the niche search and "Los Angeles" for the location, you get the results shown below, filtered by the number of followers, niche, location, and account age:
When using such tools, search past the company accounts and look at the individual accounts. Also, pay attention to how often the influencers share content and how well they engage with their followers.
Search Engines
You can perform a Google search with relevant keywords using the search term "K followers" or "M followers," wherein the "K" means thousands and the "M" means millions of followers. That search query sorts influencers by the number of followers they have and saves you the energy of checking for them individually. If you just type "Event planner influencers on Tiktok," you'll get results without the number of followers.
Below, I used "K followers" to search for potential event planner influencers on TikTok.
The SERP shows their videos and number of followers. Use that method to find influencers to work within your industry.
Once you have your list of influencers, just reach out to them with your proposal. You might want to send them an email instead of a social media message: You probably will have more of a chance to have your message read.
2. Seek help from journalists on social media
Journalists, who typically also have social media accounts, can paint your company in a positive light, helping you build brand reputation and visibility.
Establishing a trust-based social media relationship with journalists helps them understand your brand value so they can recommend your products or services to their followers.
As you would do for social media influencers, research the journalists you're looking to ask for assistance with your social media PR. Seach results will help you understand their writing or reporting style and whether it resonates with your brand. It will also give you an idea of the social media channels they're most active on and the kind of content they cover. Having that information will strengthen your pitch.
Once you know whom to reach, create a social media post with an excerpt of your press release and a link. Both your post and PR should capture the journalists' attention. Always lead with a newsworthy event.
For instance, if you're launching marketing software with new features or you have secured small business grants for your startup, instead of talking about your mission and vision in your first paragraph, lead with those new developments: the launch of the new product feature and the recent grants secured.
Once you have all that in your post, tag the journalists in question.
A final tip: to increase your chances of journalists' carrying your story on their social media accounts when you tag them, interact with them whenever you can. Hold yearend gatherings for the media in your niche and build rapport with them during industry events.
3. Share your company news on your social accounts
Sharing company news, such as campaigns and promos on your social media accounts, is a good PR marketing strategy. It keeps followers informed of buzzworthy company activities. It's also a great way to boost Facebook followers, get Instagram likes, and increase retweets.
It's wise to keep your announcement simple, like AttackIQ did here:
Source: Sprout Social
Like you did with your posts tagging journalists, include an excerpt of your press release and a link to it. Include relevant hashtags to increase your post's visibility.
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There's no cut-and-dried way to boost your brand's visibility on social media. But the tips discussed in this article can help you take intentional steps toward social media PR.
More Resources on Social Media Branding and PR
On Social Media, a Little Brand Personality Goes a Long Way
Four Powerful Groups of B2B Brand Advocates on Social Media, and Five Tools You Can Use
