There is a misconception that public relations and social media marketing are two entirely different things, with PR being comprised of activities such as attending exhibitions, press events and product launches, conducting briefings with the media, and writing and distributing press releases, while social media marketing makes use of the different social networking sites for reaching out to all the target customers and clients. However, considering the present state of the digital world which revolves around building bridges and smart tech, PR and social sharing are not entirely poles apart. These two disciplines are actually underpinning each other, similar with how social and SEO or PR and SEO are combos that should never be separated.
Through the years, numerous events, products, services, organisations, and businesses have proven how powerful Twitter is when it comes to PR campaigns.
For instance, during the 2012 London Olympics, Nike was able to outshine Adidas. Nike was able to score a total of 16,000 tweets that are associated with it directly, which is a truly greater number as compared to the 9,295 tweets acquired by Adidas. How were they able to do this? While Adidas proceeded with their campaign of #TakeTheStage, Nike busied themselves with the #FindGreatness campaign. You can say that Nike actually chose well, getting an engagement of 77% compared to the mere 59% that Adidas got.
Without a doubt, Twitter has already become the best venue for PR campaigns, and according to FourthSource.com, an independent online publication, there are actually several ways on how you can make use of twitter for strategically achieving all your PR goals and objectives.
Find Opportunities for Media Coverage
Twitter is now becoming the most common discovery tool utilised both by businesses and consumers. This will not just locate prospective clients but at the same time, this can be used for understanding the things that will be published by the different publications as well as the things that they have already printed. This way, you will be able to look out for possible openings where you can secure reactive pieces of comments.
Easy Networking
Similar with attending press events for meeting influences, journalists, and potential customers or clients, Twitter can be used for networking virtually. Using the correct hashtags (#), Twitter can serve as the best avenue where you can find inspirations that you can use for stories, find potential customers as well as serve as a great forum for promoting other local companies. Although it might be a bit difficult to create or find an engaged group located in your specific geographical area or something that is related to your specific field, there is a still a great chance to stumble upon people sharing the same interest, making it worthy of your time.
Ask a PR professional and they will surely agree how much the industry has changed together with the incessant growth of the internet. Using Twitter effectively is just a single example on proving that at this day and age, it is already very possible to push yourself through the noise of your rival brands and stay on top of the competition.
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