Are Your PR Efforts Tag-Teaming With Your Social Media?
I’ve been working with a business partner for a while now and have seen great success. With her focus more in the PR domain, and mine in social media, we have been able to create program after successful program combining our individual expertise. More and more, I realize how these two areas of marketing can work together to support your overall business.
If you do it right, of course!
Time is money, and social media is a big beast … I know. So, here are some tips for how you can leverage PR with your social media campaigns to get the most bang for your buck.
How to Rocket Your Marketing Efforts Into High Gear
1. Start by doing research on Twitter, industry-related websites (and more specifically, their blog post topics), and LinkedIn updates.
Find out:
- Who is writing about what you are an expert in
- Which reporters (online, TV, magazine) report on your niche
- Who is talking about what you want to talk about
2. Connect with these people on Twitter. Create a Twitter list called “Media,” make it private, and add these names to the list. This will help you organize your connections, and allow you to keep tabs on their updates (which can give you plenty of ideas).
But first, make sure:
- Your Twitter profile is professional
- Your Twitter description is interesting and has strong keywords
- You engage with a call to action somewhere in your profile
3. Connect with this same list on LinkedIn. In your connection request, be sure to mention, “I just read your article/saw your segment, I loved it, and would love to connect with you here on LinkedIn.” Stay personal, authentic, and real. Similarly to your Twitter list, you can tag connections on LinkedIn as “Media” to keep them organized.
Check to see if:
- Your LinkedIn profile is rock solid, polished, and professional
- Your summary and experience really speak to what you want to do and who you want to connect with
- Your profile picture is up to date
- You’ve posted a few updates recently that show up in your “Posts” section
Now that you’ve built your foundation, it’s time to make sure they know you exist!
4. Schedule a few times per week to dip into that Twitter list you created. Research who has tweeted what and see if there are tweets that are relevant to your expertise and niche.
With these tweets, it’s always great to:
- Favorite them — it never hurts to give your contacts a good old ego boost
- Retweet them — if you think something is interesting, share it
- Reply to them — engagement can really grow your following on social media
5. Do the same on LinkedIn. Schedule a few times per week to research your connections. Sort them by the “Media” tag you created, and then go through that list of connections.
You are looking to:
- See what they’ve shared recently
- Comment on posts that are relevant to you
- Like and share those posts through other networks
Why You Should Do This Sooner Rather Than Later
Do these five steps NOW to set the stage for reaching out to contacts as resources, prospects, or collaborators later on.
Make sure your name is recognizable to them as someone who adds value, is an expert, and is generous with sharing their content. This is where you begin to build the relationship — long before you ever contact them directly. It’s always better to make connections before you need to tap into them. That way, when you have an idea, a pitch, or a prospect, you’re approaching them as a warm contact.
No more cold emails, cold connections, or cold calls. This means the possibility of a successful outcome skyrockets. Your target contact is much more likely to respond favorably to your request.
These media contacts can be of huge value to you, because one nicely placed media shout-out can bring you tons of new business!
The best part? These five steps are all free and very easy to implement. It doesn’t take a huge chunk of time either, if you spread them out over a week or two. And when you put in the maintenance of a few minutes a day, a few times a week, you will be seeing the return very quickly.
So, how do my business partner and I make this work? While my partner finds and pitches influencers, I’m on the back end making sure the social media part is supporting her efforts, and guess what? Our clients are killing it: TV spots, magazine columns, paid speaking gigs, products on QVC and HSN, and more! I have absolutely no doubt you could do this too.
Have questions on how best to get started, keep going, or who to target? Join me in my LinkedIn Group and ask any question you have!