It’s nearly impossible to separate social media strategy from Public Relations, given the ubiquity of digital and social media, as both a s, a news source and a driver of brand reputation.
At Starbound PR Firm we understand how to develop a marketing campaign—to use social media to amplify earned media coverage and build a relationship with the company’s most important audience and stakeholders.
Here are some guidelines for the development of an effective social media strategy and public relations initiatives.
Set Goals
Social media strategy is not an end in itself, but part of an overall communications plan.
Listen
A good social media strategy and plan should start with a social audit of your category and an analysis of competitors and partners.
Know your Audience
The next step is to take a deep dive into the persona of your audience – their needs, problems, and passions – to achieve maximum exposure.
What is a marketing persona? Hubspot says that a buyer persona is “a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers”. Digital Marketing Institute defines it as “a personality that embodies a key segment of your audience”.
Identify KOL’s.
Social media is based on relationships, including those with influencers or “key opinion leaders”.
Develop a Brand Voice
It’s critical that your social media voice be true to the brand character and business’ values.
Be Conversational
Businesses should adopt a voice, tone, and persona that’s specific to their brand, but social media is a two-way street, and it’s always more effective to engage in conversation than to merely broadcast content.
Social Media Engagement
Public relations officers are natural storytellers who know how to craft a narrative or foster a conversation that’s a real dialogue, not a one-way commercial pitch.
Social media engagement and activity doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so it should be informed by the company’s overall communications strategy. The public relations and social functions should be aligned within the business or company. The business’ professional communicators ideally should be involved in the social media strategy initiatives and content creation.
The Critical Difference: Customer Network Behavior
Due to emerging technologies and platforms, marketing has shifted from a single business marketing initiative to a new paradigm defined by Professor David L. Rogers in The Network is Your Customer, called customer network behavior, wherein there are five cores behaviors that customers are seeking to fulfill:
Access – Seeking immediate, simple, and fast access to data. Engage – Seeking engaging content that is relevant. Customize – Seeking varied customized experiences that are relevant.
Connect -Seeking digital experiences that allow communication and expression.
Collaborate – Seeking to work together towards a shared goal.
A good marketing plan includes objectives, timetables, advertising campaign plans, media buys, budgets, customer surveys, market research, KPI’s (Key performance Indicator), competitor research, and a great ROI (Return on Investment).
Marketing advertising evaluates customer reviews, pay per click, bounce rate, and website visits.
Digital marketing measures, social media insights, visits, likes, shares, and conversions into sales.
Call Maggy Martinez at 404-543-3046 to schedule a free consultation.
www.starboundpr.com
