Social media evolves and changes quickly, and even the experts learn something new every day – if they want to remain “experts”, that is.
Here are five social media tips we picked up from MyPRGenie users. What did you learn recently from your online friends? Share it with us – we’re always looking for guest bloggers! Just click here to get in touch with our editor!
Blog Frequently
Think writing a blog post every now and again is enough? High-traffic blogs post new content at least once a day, every day. We’ve found that twice a week is the minimum for us if we want to keep attracting new subscribers and readers. A new post doesn’t need to be long – and it doesn’t even need to have words. A great photo, a licensed cartoon, or a video you want to share may be enough.
Mom was Right
Remember what your mother said: mind your manners online. “Please” and “thank you” are still the magic words.
Thank your new Twitter followers (and not with an auto responder). Tell people that you like their content – don’t just retweet it blindly. Thank people who help you get the work out through RT’s, shout-outs, mentions, and likes. It matters.
Cross-link Everything
Bring in more followers and fans by placing links to your Twitter feed, Facebook fan profile and blog URL in your email signature files, on business cards, in printed collateral, and (of course) in your social media profiles.
Use the “share” icons on MyPRGenie every time you post a new press release, so that your content is submitted to the social bookmark sites like Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious and so on. Don’t forget to share great content with the LinkedIn Groups you belong to, or within your own company.
PR and marketing managers understand the social media strategy and have the content — but your front-line managers and salespeople, customer service and tech support people have the relationships with customers. So don’t forget to give them the tools they can use to help you get your message out.
Focus on Important Characters
PR and social media are ways to tell stories to people who might not hear them if you put the same information into an advertisement. So focus your storytelling on the most important characters in the story: your customers.
Yes, it can be hard to get customers to agree to let you use their names in case studies and promotional copy. But in most cases, you don’t need permission to say, “One of our customers, a large telecommunications company, needed to solve this problem. Here’s how we helped.” As long as you don’t give away proprietary information, you’re probably safe. (Forbes published an eight word social media policy that can come in very handy in situations like this.)
Get Involved with Experts
Even if you’re not famous (yet), social media is a great place to link up with people who are well-known experts in your field. Invite them to participate in a webinar with you, or contribute a guest post to your blog.
Don’t forget to start a conversation with these people. They’re online in social networks. So don’t be shy about sending them a direct message to ask a question or share a comment about what they’ve posted. Once you have a dialogue going, ask to connect with them in other social media — if you start the conversation on Twitter, ask them to connect to you on LinkedIn or Facebook, for example.
For more tips on using social media & PR effectively together, download one of our white papers — you’ll find several at this link that offer tips and best practices for social media and PR!