It’s easy to start going down the road of doing social media PR but then get off course. Here are 18 ways your social media PR is failing and some explanations of how to do a course correction:
1: Connect With Reporters - Social media PR is highly effective when the laws of social media are applied. This means you have to follow key reporters in order to build effective relationships with them. You can’t engage with people who aren’t in your network.
2: Openly Pitch Reporters - Once you’ve started following those reporters, it’s important to focus on building the relationship. This means chatting up interesting conversation and commenting on the things they are talking about. What you don’t want to do is pitch them a story idea because it’s very difficult to explain your full story in 140 characters and, more importantly, other competitors and reporters can see who you’re pitching.
3: All Business, No Personality - The last thing reporters want to see from you is ONLY business. If all your Facebook updates and Tweets are simply promotions about your company, they will tune you out. In fact, who can blame them, you’re showing them you’re a computer and not a human.
4: Not Integrating Other Social Platforms - Social media works the best when you connect all your platforms together. Let it be known that you’re on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. Reporters like to have access to background on you, whether it’s the social side, business side, video side or photo side.
5: Not Seeing Real-Time News - From the fall of Libya to the death of Michael Jackson, social media PR starts with breaking news. Whether the major networks like it or not, Twitter and Facebook are excellent sources of major breaking news. If you’re early in the know, you have the ability to fire off an email pitch to a newsroom offering you up as a subject-matter expert.
6: You Only Want Profile Stories - Don’t be like that. Don’t be the person who says it’s a waste of your time unless a reporter will do a cover story on your business. Stop it because those days, for the most part, are over. It’s still possible to land a profile story but for the most part reporters are shying away from them. Today’s news is all about the issue, not the company (unless you truly have a product that no one else has). Your goal with social media PR is to become a story source by using all of today’s social tools for pr.
7: Not A Product Resource - If you DO have a product that lots of people would like, be sure to offer up samples to key reporters you meet in social settings. This is a great way to build some excitement and rapport with them. Assuming they like your product they will also talk about it with their friends and go to you for questions - all in front of their network of fans, friends and followers.
8: Sharing Cool Stuff - This is where social media PR and viral marketing cross paths. If you are a part of a really cool video, be sure to share it with reporters who like to see that kind of stuff. You never know when Headline News will play your video simply because you tipped them off to it. Keep in mind this is different than #2 openly pitching reporters. You’re not pitching them a story here. You’re sharing cool content with them.
9: Looking For Influencers - The popular kids are all over social networks, and engaging with them can make for great social media PR. Find them. Get to know them. Make sure they know who you are.
10: Looking For Trending Topics - As a follow up to #9, all the cool topics can be found on social networks, too. Find out what’s hot and being talked about the most. Those are the popular conversations. How does your company and brand mesh with those topics? Join the conversation and formulate pitches that can be emailed to reporters.
11: Listening - Stop talking for a moment. Just listen to what people are telling you on Twitter and Facebook. If you’re doing it the right way, a lot of your customers are communicating to you. Good social media PR is not just about you getting your story out; it’s also about listening to what others have to say and making sure all’s right with your brand.
12: Collecting Customer Stories - Speaking of your customers, focus on them a lot. Most of the time customers will engage with you in social networks because they want to share some really cool way they used your product or service. Often times this can lead to a really cool social media PR story pitch. Reporters love it when you get a customer involved. We talk more about customer stories in the PR Toolkit for Small Business.
13: Harnessing Hashtags - Hashtags make it so that millions of people can be a part of a conversation. The social media PR opportunity here is infinite. If you’re a camping gear business and you create a video on the worst ways to camp (and make it a little humorous) and you tweet it using the hashtag everyone is using during the premier of “Survivor,” do you realize how many millions of people could potentially see your video?
14: Learning From Others - If you don’t really know what you’re doing in the areas of social media PR, there are lots of others that do and you can find them on social networking platforms. Get to know some popular PR people (I’m @sternalpr). We’re actually friendly people and will answer some questions here and there about how we do things. I may not give you every secret I’ve ever learned, but I’m a nice guy and will try to help out as much as possible.
15: Using Your Blog - Social media isn’t just Twitter and Facebook. Blogs are also part of the social media world. Your blog can be a valuable tool in getting your social media PR message out, either directly to customers or to reporters who follow you. Mom Bloggers have become legendary for this format.
16: Linking To Virtual Press Room - Use your social media networks to link over to your virtual press room so reporters can have access to a wealth of background articles, social media press releases, images and publicity videos of you, your company and products.
17: Branding Your Social Media Networks - I’m sure that new tattoo is really cool to a small circle of your friends, but don’t make it as your avatar on Twitter if you also use that space to talk about your business. Put up either a professional-looking photo of you or your company’s logo.
18: Relying Only On Social Media - Lastly, social media PR isn’t just about the social networks as a way to connect with reporters. The goal is a better relationship with reporters. It may start with a tweet but it may end with a phone call and in-person interview, two things that are considered “old-school” in the world of PR.
Have I missed anything? As always I’d love some feedback. It’s a great way for me to learn, as well as others in the UnderstandingMarkting.com community. Hopefully after reading this you won’t be suffering from one of the 18 ways why your social media PR is failing.
You may also want to read Why Your Small Business PR Isn’t Driving Sales.
John Sternal is co-founder of Sternal Communications, a PR and marketing consultancy helping businesses get noticed through publicity in the media. He is the author of the PR Toolkit for Small Business and currently authoring a book about DIY public relations for small business owners. For questions email John Sternal or connect with him @SternalPR.
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