Today’s Lakeland public relations can no longer avoid the power of social media and the influence it has over all aspects of promoting a business, boosting a client’s reputation, and answering questions about issues that could impact your client.
Even print journalists themselves are thinking about social media when writing their stories. A whopping 76 percent of journalists admitted that they think about the “shareability” of their stories on social media when writing them. They understand the power of social media and they are harnessing that power to their advantage.
Build relationships with influencers
Influencers are giving brands a voice that they could never use on their own. They have a lot of social media following, some big ones even have more followers than Hollywood celebrities.
Brands should be able to tap influencers who can promote their products and protect their reputations. If you can manage to build a good relationship with an influencer, you could use his/her voice to promote your business and defend your business from bad press.
Identify brand threats
It cannot be helped that even though you are protective of the quality of your products and services, some customers won’t be too happy with it. You should immediately be able to identify these problems once they come up and before they become a trending topic on social media.
Once a negative comment or post about your business has been shared and has spread, it would be difficult to contain the impact on your business. You need to proactively find these threats and address them immediately. There are many tools out there that could notify you when someone mentions your company’s name.
Influence journalists’ stories
There was a time when journalists would go to the streets for vox populi or the opinion of the people. If they want to know what others think, they would interview random people on the street.
But that’s over now. Thanks to social media, all journalists have to do is browse Facebook and Twitter and look for the opinions that they need. This is where your job as a PR officer can become useful.
You should be able to join the discussions and influence journalists to see your side of the story. You may not always see the story you want from the press, but you could keep the angle in the public eye.
Swiftly react to negative process
Social media is the first place that people look for when there’s an issue about a product. They check their Facebook accounts about how the public is reacting and what their opinions about the topic. Social media gives public relations professionals immediate access to a vast and attentive audience.
