It is no secret that social media has become a key conduit to how consumers, business and even politicians, interact with one another.
We live in an era of the 24/7 news cycle. The vast majority of consumers use social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter, to read, share and comment on breaking news because they are right at their fingertips. The instantaneous nature of social media creates many opportunities to quickly share news (and your opinions about that news) with a variety of different target audiences. However, this also means that there’s a small window of time that your news or commentary could be relevant.
Creating compelling content and staying top of mind in a short news cycle can be a challenge. Below are three tips to consider before sharing your news on social channels.
Tip #1: Stay up-to-date on the news in your space
It is important to be well-read and up to speed on current events in your industry and the world-at-large, before publishing your news or commentary on social media.
Timing is everything. On July 20, 2012, an NRA-affiliated magazine, American Rifleman, tweeted: “Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” around the same time details about the tragic shooting that occurred in Aurora, Colo. were being released.
Unfortunately, nothing ever truly goes away once it is posted to the internet.
Tip #2: Tailor your content to each platform
Social media has become a necessary promotional platform for many organizations; it is an effective and powerful medium providing users access to millions of individuals around the world. Publishing tailored content on different social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat can be an effective strategy to quickly connect with a diverse population.
Given the variety of audiences for each of those platforms, figuring out what exactly to post on each site can be a challenge. Having an understanding of the content and social media your clients use is an important factor to consider to ensure your use of social media is valuable and moving the needle. It’s important to be relevant but always remember to stay true to the organization’s core values and brand.
In our blog post, How Different Social Media Platforms Can Benefit your Business, Hannah Hughes explains, in detail, how each platform is set up and how to use them to your advantage.
As the number of social and community-focused sites and apps continue to rise, PR professionals must become proficient in not only using them as consumers, but utilizing them for their clients. When Snapchat first became popular, it was used for photo-messaging between users. Snapchat can now be used to promote businesses, events, and even cities by using Geofilters.
Tip #3: Critical thinking is critical
It is important to think critically about how your target audiences may view and react to your posts. Overlooking this could result in a crisis scenario brought on by messaging that misses the mark, or cringe-worthy content.
We, as public relations professionals, must remain a few steps ahead of the public when it comes to trends and public sentiment, and learn to counsel our clients about how their social media content and presence may be interpreted by all audiences.
The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking may help you decipher this method by asking you questions like, “Why is this relevant to me/others?” If you can answer these questions, you are on the right track.
Food for thought:
Social media has revolutionized the way we as individuals and professionals communicate with each other. In turn, it has transformed the way we approach creating new public relations and marketing campaigns. Understanding how to utilize these tools is not only important, but has become a must-have in order to stay top of mind among target audiences.