PR and Social Media Tips

As you seek to promote yourself and your business in the Southwest Florida region, it is necessary to define your goals. It is absolutely essential to understand the difference between social media management (engagement and conversation) and public relations (getting others to shout your praises). Social media focuses on engagement — helping others respond to you, your brand, and your products. It takes work to define who you are and understand what comprises your brand. Public relations refers to the work of getting the public (including one way media outlets) to speak accurately about you and your brand. That being said, there are a few tips I’d like to share with you regarding effective marketing via social media and public relations. 1. You can’t market what you aren’t. If you have a bad reputation — or a reputation for having negative customer relations or providing sub-par products, it will be difficult to get others to talk about how great you are. You can say what you like, but before others start shouting your praises, it will be difficult to be truly honest. Manage your reputation. 2. Go to where your customers are. Are your customers on Pinterest? Are your customers on Yelp? There are tons of popular social media outlets, and tackling every single one of them will be difficult. Hence, pick the ones on which your target audience and existing customers spend the most time. 3. Do not create a page, and then leave it. About 90% of business pages are created and then left to rot. Be a business who composes content strategically and posts it to customers and prospective customers. 4. Write engaging content. Post photos, run contests, and ask questions of your followers. Be interesting people, not product pushers. 5. Manage your content effectively. Do not let all of your employees have administrative access to your pages. Be the gate keeper, and proactively manage content. We

hope these tips and tricks help as you continue to engage with others. If you would like additional help, be sure to contact us. We would love to partner with you to provide support as you engage with your customers and manage your digital reputation.