Digital PR or Social Media That Connect Millions For Free

Friends, Thank you for reading my earlier blogs and sharing your views. I really feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comments column. Friends, presenting my 48^th blog titled “Digital PR or Social Media - That Connect Millions For FREE” to you.

Yesterday, I was honoured to be one of the speakers at a workshop on ‘Effective Use of Social Media’ for Hon’ble Vice President of India’s social media team members at Vice President House. And, topic was – Public Relations with a focus on Online PR / Digital PR. This gave me the idea to write my next blog on this topic only, hence this blog.

 Friends, sharing some important data to ponder…….

v  India’s population is over 138 Cr. as of now.

v  Smartphone users in India are around 40 Cr.

v  55% of India’s population is using internet.

v  Facebook Users in India are 34.60 Cr.

v  Twitter users in India are 1.70 Cr.

v  Instagram users in India are 10 Cr.

v  Pinterest users in India are 6.80 Cr.

v  LinkedIn users in India are 6.2 Cr.

v  YouTube users in India are 26.5 Cr.

Today, PR is all about Perception, Image, and Reputation Management through strategically communicating the data combined with an engaging narrative to attract the attention of target readers, listeners, and viewers and that’s why it’s most essential to design your communication strategy based on reliable data.

Digital PR or Online PR refers to use of various online strategies such as social media, influencer outreach, content marketing, and search engine optimization to increase online presence. Digital PR uses both popular and emerging social media platforms, according to the need, to effect digital campaigns that build brand awareness, increase sales, improve search rankings, shaping and developing online reputation. Therefore, it’s important that in order to reach out our target audience, we must draw a Digital PR strategy to further strengthen our digital presence which should be capable enough to enhance image, visibility, and online presence of our brand.

Our Digital PR strategy should include creation and execution of digital PR campaigns that can build brand awareness and acceptance through creative storytelling that can efficiently communicate our brand’s message on a chosen digital platform which has the capability to enhance visibility of our brand and can help in building new connections with our target audiences.

Digital or Online PR includes;

v  Blog Development

v  Community Management

v  Content Creation

v  Influencer Outreach

v  Online PR Crisis Management

v  Online Reputation Management (ORM)

v  Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

v  Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

v  Social Brand Campaigns

v  Social Media Advertising

v  Social Media Analysis

v  Social Media Strategy

v  Website Analytics & Reporting

v  Website Audit

Friends, use of social media has become a basic necessity and an integral part of everybody’s life because social media platforms allow brands to create and nurture relationships directly with their target publics in many ways. Also, the various uses of social media are transforming the style of functioning of almost all the professions globally.

Following are the advantages of using social media for any vocation:-

1.   Almost every internet user has a social media account either on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and or LinkedIn.

2.   One can easily find his / her target audience by going through their profile info and send a request to connect.

3.   Most of the account holders, barring a few ones, share their true identity.

4.  Communication takes place on one-to-one or one-to-many through groups.

A good rapport with the journalists is an integral part of PR profession which is also called media relations in traditional PR. With the advent of social media platforms, functioning of the journalists, their style of writing etc. has also brought a change in the functioning of the PR professionals from their traditional style of connecting with the journalists to the innovative style of connecting through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and a new style of media relations has evolved and is termed as “Social Media Relations”.

Social Media Relations is becoming more effective as more and more journalists and bloggers use social networks to research sources for stories. Hence, PR professionals should also find out, how their target journalists prefers to be contacted on social media.

Social Media for Online PR are as under:-

ü  Facebook

ü  FBLIVE

ü  Twitter

ü  TwitterLive

ü  Instagram

ü  InstagramLive

ü  LinkedIn

ü  LinkedInLive

ü  Pinterest

ü  Snap Chat

ü  YouTube

ü  Wiki

ü  Website

ü  Blog

ü  Email

ü  Webinar

Seven important things to understand while using Social Media for PR:

Ø  Objective - Why you need to use social media?

Ø  Platform - Which platform to use for interaction?

Ø  Governance - What are the rules of engagement on social media?

Ø  Communication Strategy – Whom & How to interact or what to post?

Ø  Pilot - How to create and sustain a community or target audience?

Ø  Institutionalization - How to embed social media in the overall structure of the organisation?

Ø  Engagement Analysis - Who is talking about what, where, when and what are the main points of conversations?

10 Point Programme To Digital PR Success

Ø  Define Your Goals: Define what you want to achieve, expected revenue, and ROI.

Ø  Who Are You Targeting: Use your existing or competitor’s data to define who your ideal target market is? This is critical to the success of your campaign.

Ø  Why Would Your Ideal Customer Pick You: What differentiates you? If you cannot answer this question for yourself, imagine what your customers are going through. Focus on your USP.

Ø  Identify Your Platform: Where your target market spends time?  Social media, search engines, blogs, news websites? Pick top 3 targets.

Ø  Define Your Conversion Journey: It’s rare that a customer will see your advertisement and jump to purchase what you offer. It must be guided process, informative process. Define each touch point.

Ø  Nurturing Mechanism: Create a sales funnel, an email campaign, and an experience for all your leads to be nurtured towards conversion.

Ø  Create An Offering And Distribute Your News: Get your news, your product offerings, and your services out into credible media outlets through a press release.

Ø  Create Platform Campaigns: Get the right copy to tie into your overall pitch and the appropriate visuals – then launch your traffic campaign.

Ø  Target The Right Niche: Target specific journalists and trade experts to hit the right niche for your offerings.

Ø  Monitor And Modify: Monitor all efforts across platforms, measure ROI over a specific term, identify gaps and tweak your approach.

Courtesy - PUBLPAD

 

Thank you for reading the blog :)