Social Media in PR

Becky Livingston President Royal Apple Marketing

Becky Livingston—President, Royal Apple Marketing

! 20+ years of marketing, technology, and communications experience

! Trainer 6+ years

! Author, blogger, and avid Twitter fan!

! Big-Picture Thinker & Strategist

! Client list includes non-profits, small companies, and CPA firms

Twitter: @RoyalAppleMktg or @bmliving

Agenda

! How Social Media has Shaped Public Relations

! Leveraging Social Media in Your PR Pitch

! How to Pitch Journalists in Your PR Efforts

! Best Practices of Social Media Usage in PR Efforts

How Social Media Has Shaped PR

PR Importance

! Managing communication between an organization and its publics

! Prospects

! Customers

! Media

! Investors ! The Government

! Employees

Social Media’s Impact on PR

! Conversation versus a Speech ! Facebook alone grew from 67% for time spent

online over 1 year ago

! 2-way communication is key

! Information Gathering

! Keyword-based search ! Changed the journalist/PR relationship

! Personal Service

! Consumer expectation

Leveraging Social Media in Your PR Pitch

Blogger Relations

! Connect and Develop Relationships ! Technorati

! Twitter – follower bloggers in your industry ! Twitter Grader (location & authority)

! Muck Rack (source/pub beat) !  JournalistTweets

! Facebook & LinkedIn ! Once relationship is established,

use these tools

Define Goals

! Generating traffic to the website

! Getting journalists/bloggers to write about your company/story

! Publishing “ceremonial announcements”

! SERP-related !  Inbound links !  Increasing SEO

How to Pitch Journalists

Source: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Infographic_How_to_engage_journalists_on_social_me_11206.aspx?format=2

Pitching ! Stay targeted

! Don’t spam (Bad Pitch Blog) ! Paid Services: Vocus & Cision

! Don’t pitch the same people over and over

! Brevity is key!

! Offer something interesting

! Personalize the pitch

! Consider tools ! HARO (Help A Reporter

Out)

Social Participation is Critical

! Exponential growth in exposure – good and bad

! Audience size increased

$20,000 scholarship based on a single Tweet Generated > 1,000 media placements &

9 million social media impressions

Best Practices in PR

Content and Format

! Direct/Concise

! Have something newsworthy

! Write using a newsworthy angle

! Keywords…keywords…keywords

! Descriptive headline <= 80 chars

! No more than 300-500 words

Content & Format, cont.

! No jargon!

! Don’t use formatted bullets (rarely get syndicated)

! Include logo

! Don’t embed multimedia

! Put the most important link at the beginning

! Always use anchor text ! Use full URLs to anchor important links

Content & Format, cont.

! Avoid repeating links/anchor text

! Refrain from littering releases with links

! When appropriate, link to inside site pages

! When possible, make the anchor text the same as the Website page title (SEO)

Additional Resources ! Recommended Wire Services

! Marketwire ! Business Wire ! PR Newswire ! PRWeb

! Other Resources ! Press Release Grader (grade the effectiveness of

your press releases) ! Gobbledygook Grader (check your content for

gobbledygook) ! PitchEngine (build social media news releases) ! Social Media News Release template from SHIFT

Communications ! Press Release Marketing Kit

Your Project – Fake IDs

Your Approach

! Determine goals

! Define the schedule & platforms

! Identify Champions/Audience !  Identify those who support the effort to help spread the

word

! Know your audience demographic

! Measure…measure…measure

! Share results

! Modify the plan

Social Media Effort ! Twitter

! Designated Hashtags ! Targeted/Impactful and scheduled messaging

! YouTube

! Text Messaging Campaign (SMS)

! Facebook - App

! Pitching Journalists (on/off Campus)

! Blogs !  Informational, educational, emotional, situational ! Backlink to successful bloggers

Tips from Successful Campaigns

! Know the laws

! Coordinate strategy across campus (social & traditional)

! Invest in education/training

! Get students involved

! Ads on Facebook

Examples

! University of Arizona

! Boston College

! Michigan State

! University of Colorado-Boulder

Goes to the SafeCats Dean of Students page rather than an ID reseller.

Questions?

Resources !  http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/02/social-media-changing-pr/ !  HubSpot “How to Leverage Social Media for PR” !  http://mashable.com/2011/03/08/social-pr-campaigns/ !  http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/

Infographic_How_to_engage_journalists_on_social_me_11206.aspx?format=2

!  http://mashable.com/2011/07/08/college-social-media/ !  http://www.fels.upenn.edu/jewish-exponent-covers-old-york-road !  http://columbussouthsiderevitalization.blogspot.com/ !  http://www.handmadeinamerica.org/economic-development%2Fsmall-

town-revitalization !  http://ci.carson.ca.us/content/department/eco_dev_service/

shellproject.asp !  http://uafamilynewsletter.arizona.edu/e-news/march/2012/235 !  http://www.bcheights.com/features/fakes-fuel-underaged-

drinking-1.2756135#.T4rrK45kj0A !  http://www.michigandaily.com/news/faking-21