Social Media Advertising: A Guide for New PR Pros

February 16, 2015Stephanie Vermillion Leave a comment

Remember the good old days when a brand could post on Facebook and reach 10 – maybe 13 – percent of its followers?

As a new pro, I had this luxury for probably six months before the Facebook-algorithm apocalypse hit. {Dun, dun, dun…}

And, once it did hit (which seemed like a slow, painful waiting game), the PR world was never the same.

That is, until Twitter introduced advertising.

Then LinkedIn.

Then Pinterest

Then … You get the picture.

Within a few short years, the PR job description morphed from traditional PR into a combination of:

Pitching media,
Tweeting,
Pinning,
Posting,
Writing optimized content,
Email marketing, and
Advertising on social media.

… And breathe. That sounds like a lot.

But here’s the good news:

You’re already trained in the traditional PR tactics from school. And growing up as a millennial, you should have a pretty good handle on the organic side of social media (as long as you read social strategy content regularly).

But social media advertising is where you may fall short. It’s not something you (usually) do for yourself, and companies are hesitant to let interns handle monetary decisions.

So, to make sure you have a grasp of paid media before your next interview, here’s a quick Facebook and Twitter advertising overview for new professionals.

Facebook Advertising

With Facebook advertising, you have a number of options:

Power Editor
Facebook Ads
Boosted Post

Power Editor is a top-of-the-line tool, and it’s one you’ll want to use once you have a bit more experience under your belt. (Here’s a guide if you’re ready to dive into the deep end.)

The regular Facebook ads are much easier for beginners. Facebook starts by asking you what your objective is, then develops a campaign to help you meet that end goal.

Once the objective is selected, you select the audience (this is the great part – you can get really specific here), budget, images, etc.

In terms of budget, the more you spend, obviously the more people you’ll reach, but you don’t have to go on a spending spree. Even a $5 – $10 ad can work (and this amount is good for a starter test if you have a major campaign on the horizon).

The boosted post is another super-simple option. You’re basically boosting the content you already have slated into your editorial calendar that’s posted on your page’s wall. You can get specific with audiences here as well.

For example, if your post is about a triathlon, target those who like the page of a triathlete magazine. If it’s about a new hotel chain, target people interested in travel who like direct competitors’ pages. (And if you know the target age/ gender/ location, by all means – narrow it further!)

You can get as creative as you want, but make sure you monitor how posts are resonating – and driving conversions – with different audiences to guide your strategy moving forward.

Twitter Advertising

Just like Facebook, Twitter has several advertising options:

Regular Twitter Advertising
Twitter Quick Promote

The first option is the normal Twitter advertising, which (from my experience) requires a budget in the high hundreds or thousands to perform well. Of course, the brands really winning with this are spending well beyond that, but we saw great results for a client when using about $500 – $600.

With this option, Twitter presents a number of objectives (again, just like Facebook) to help guide your campaign. Options include clicks, installs, followers, leads and engagements, among others.

After you select the objective, you can determine audience (again, very specific options!) and budget, including overall and your bid for website clicks. We had success bidding toward the lower end of the suggested scale – about $1 more than the lowest bid – but you may want to do some smaller-scale testing since so much depends on your content and audience.

The second option is the new Twitter Quick Promote tool. It’s designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers similar advertising options, but on a smaller scale to fit within a smaller budget (we’ve done successful campaigns on this site for as low as $20 – $40).

Quick Promote is, as one would guess, quicker than normal advertising. You choose a tweet that’s already resonating with your audience (by viewing engagement analytics on your Twitter dashboard), then promote it right there, within the dashboard.

While social media is designed for fun, these companies aren’t messing around anymore. They’re profit-driven, and they have to be in order to survive.

That means paid will only become more integral to the PR world, and those new pros who understand social media advertising elements – even just vaguely – will have a much better chance to stand out during a job interview.

To learn more about advertising on all types of social media site – including those I didn’t touch on – take a look at Hootsuite’s beginner’s guide. And, if you have any questions for me, please leave them below and I’ll be happy to answer!

—

Stephanie Vermillion is a senior account executive at Wordsworth Communications, a public relations agency in Cincinnati. She is the PRSA National New Professionals blog co-chair, and is on the PRSA Cincinnati Leadership Team. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn and Twitter (@SMVermillion).

Why Your Social Media Team Needs an Asset Audit

February 12, 2015Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

It’s Taco Tuesday, and you and your friends want to make some delicious margaritas. You make a list of ingredients, and check your kitchen to see what you already have. You jot down what you’re missing and head to the grocery store.

Without even realizing it, you just did a type of audit. You identified what you needed, what you already had and what you still needed to get.

Whether your social media team is relatively new or made of more seasoned professionals, there is incredible value in taking the same approach when it comes to content for your social channels. An asset audit helps you identify what content you need , what already exists within your company and identify gaps that your social media team need to fill.

So how does this identification process work? It’s simple: Make a “wish list” of assets and think through who touches that type of content at your company. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Photos. Who else takes photos within the organization? Is there an archive of photos and headshots (with the necessary release forms)? If yes, see if you can get access. If not, consider developing a common drop location for people within your organization to submit photos.

Written Content. Your social media team might be new, but your company has probably been writing stuff for quite some time. Think about websites, brand publications, white papers and e-newsletters. Reach out to the individuals who manage the content to identify opportunities for collaboration. Not only does repurposing content save time, but it also brings consistency to your company’s messaging.

Icons and Custom Visuals. In social media, we always need new visuals and graphics whether it’s cover photos, Facebook posts, infographics, presentations or more. Whatever it might be, it’s a heck of a lot easier to create quick graphics if you have a custom library of icons and other visuals to pull from. If your company doesn’t have custom icons, there are a lot of free icons and open source icon sets out there as long as you follow the correct attributions.

Video. Has your company created videos in the past? If so, where does the raw footage live? You might be able to pull b-roll, or just audio that could be repurposed for a new podcast. If you can’t find existing footage, make a list of all the evergreen b-roll that you’d like to have on file and set aside time for capturing it.

Spokespeople. Executives and subject matter experts can be a huge asset as you look to position your company as a thought leader and trusted expert within your industry. Think of all the potential spokespeople at your company. Are there any that might be interested in guest blogging? Being the expert for a Twitter chat or video series? Consider developing a spokesperson database with titles, bios, expertise and what social media opportunities they’d be interested in.

Taking an asset audit and organizing your company’s content resources can be a long process, especially if you’re a social media team of one. However, putting in the work up front will save you countless hours in the long run.

Have you ever done an asset audit? Have any suggestions on how to effectively manage an organization’s content? Share your ideas below!

Carly Getz is a public relations and social media professional, and works to integrate the two in her current position at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. When she’s not exploring digital tools and trends, Carly is most likely to be spotted dancing, traveling, or cheering on the Syracuse basketball team. She’s an active member of PRSA, IABC Detroit, Toastmasters International and Social Media Club Detroit. Connect with Carly on LinkedIn or Twitter (@cpgetz).

Show Your Worth: 4 Ways to Prove Value with Social Analytics

February 10, 2015Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

So there you are, a PR pro updating executives on the progress of their company’s latest social media campaign. You describe the strategic messaging and execution, which has increased engagement and strengthened their web presence, but there’s only one problem…

These executives aren’t communications professionals and they don’t understand why any of this matters.

Measuring success and proving value is an age-old challenge for PR pros. Today, we’re fortunate to have many programs available that provide detailed analytics, which makes it easier for non-communications executives to understand the value and impact of our work. To help them understand the value PR pros create, keep these four tips in mind:

Validate Your Target Audience. Regardless of whether the executives understand the importance of public relations, they most likely do understand the importance of reaching the right customers. With many social media channels and analytics platforms today, we can be certain that we’re targeting the correct markets. For example, social ads with Facebook are highly-targeted and can focus upon people with very specific interests, jobs and education levels.

Similarly, social media analytics platforms can often tell you the gender, location and ideal engagement times of your followers. Making sure that your message gets across at times of peak engagement can increase the odds that the message will stick.

Use Charts and Graphs to Visualize Your Data. When discussing the progress of your campaign, you’d be wise to use visual tools because they’re easier to understand.

For example, a line graph that has been fairly constant and then sharply increases is far more impactful that simply saying, “Our engagement is up significantly this month.” The visualization makes it easier for the executives to see the difference between where they started and where they currently stand, which brings us to our next point…

Draw Comparisons. To show that you’ve made a meaningful contribution, stack your statistics up against those of when you started. One way to do this is to maintain a year-over-year chart. Where was the number of followers in February 2014 versus February 2015? If there has been a significant increase, take a look at things like website traffic and online sales. While it’s safe to say that a social media campaign is not the only factor influencing these metrics, it’s also safe to say that it has had at least some impact, which can be supported by your comparison.

Translate the Language from PR-speak to English. I can hear the executives now:

“Okay, so you’re saying we’ve increased in, uhhh… organic… impressions. And our number of unique visitors is up too? That’s great, I guess.”

The bottom line is that your analytics will have no impact if the executives don’t understand what you’re saying (click to tweet this!). Take the time to explain what these results truly mean. Remember, people won’t always speak up when they’re confused. The burden lies upon you to be clear and thorough in your explanation. You have the data at your fingertips – make the most of it by explaining what it means.

Remember these four tips when the time comes to provide a progress update of your social media initiatives. Aside from these, how else have you used social media analytics to prove value?

Jeff Adkins is a communications associate with MCCI (Mort Crim Communications, Inc.), a Detroit-based integrated marketing agency. An active member of the Detroit chapter of PRSA, Jeff enjoys connecting with fellow PR pros and seeking out new professional experiences. He’s an alumnus of Wayne State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Public Relations and was a member of the university’s PRSSA chapter. In his free time, Jeff enjoys being active outdoors and volunteers as a public relations officer with Portal Paranormal Society. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter at @jeffadkins14 and LinkedIn.

Why Facebook and Twitter are Reviving PR

February 5, 2015February 6, 2015Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

When I landed my first public relations job in 2012, I sensed the field—and those within it—were experiencing a paradigm shift. Working next to seasoned professionals, I watched as savvy practitioners stumbled over using one of the most important public relations tools of our time: social media.

In my opinion, practitioners often lose sight of the purpose of public relations, focusing on output-oriented measures like the number of press releases sent out or the amount of media coverage received. Over the last three years, though, I’ve seen social media bring an exciting transformation to the field.

Thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter, publics expect honesty, quick responses, interaction and engagement more so than ever before. Gone are the days of hiding behind press releases and media outlets. Social media makes public relations operate on real time. More importantly, social media has helped PR rediscover its relational roots.

This public-focused approach has transformed the way my company operates and executes its public relations strategy. If you’re interested in harnessing the power of social media for PR, here’s four ways to step up your strategy:

1. Use social media to refocus on relationships. I firmly believe that relationships are the glue that hold public relations and social media together. As practitioners, it’s our job to know, understand and advocate for our company’s or client’s publics. Social media offers us the opportunity to do all three on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

2. Use social media to empower your position. Social media makes the need for a public relations practitioner mandatory. In addition, in order for the company’s social media pages to align with the business’ goals and values, the public relations practitioner in charge of social media must have support and approval from the dominant coalition, making way for opportunists to discuss and make the presence of public relations known.

3. Use social media to facilitate two-way and symmetrical communication. Social media enables businesses to practice two-way and symmetrical communication with their publics like never before. In other words, answer questions, create opportunities for dialogue and get personal! Social media efforts flop without a human touch.

4. Use social media for environmental scanning. Used as a tool for analysis, social media allows for practitioners to listen to the concerns of consumers and other risk bearers. In fact, I’ve started to track every single complaint we get on social media. It’s a great way for me to detect trends and a useful resource when asked for customer feedback.

What other ways do you feel social media has impacted public relations?

Audrey Roeder works as a public relations coordinator for two of the nation’s top-selling master-planned communities. She’s an alumna of Texas A&M University and the University of Houston, where she received a Master of Arts in Public Relations. In her free time, Audrey enjoys exploring her city’s ever-growing restaurant scene, binge-watching Netflix with her fiancé and posting too many pictures of her Siamese cat, Sibel, to Instagram. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Three Ways to Let Analytics Guide Your Social Strategy

February 2, 2015Ashleigh Mavros 3 Comments

Every PR pro knows a good online strategy is nothing without great content to back it up. Social media should not be overlooked when it comes to strategic planning. As more and more organizations incorporate social media into their overall PR strategy, it becomes increasingly important to create content that sets them apart from competitors and builds trust with audiences. There are so many great tools available (for free!) that can help guide social content to maximize its benefit.

Here are a few ways to use them:

1. Find the Right Time to Post. Timing is everything. The great thing about social media is its instantaneous nature, so messages can get out to audiences in seconds. But is it really necessary and/or beneficial to deliver every message in real-time? Social media users can be connected to hundreds of other users or organizations, and every post is competing for attention. Most PR pros work typical 9-5 hours, so it might seem like it makes sense to post a link to a new blog on Facebook during your work day. But if those who follow a brand on Facebook aren’t online during that time, the post becomes buried among a hundred others.

Tools like Facebook Insights allow organizations to see the demographics of their Facebook followers. One of the most valuable pieces of information is a daily timeline that shows follower activity peaks. Insights is completely free to business/organization pages on Facebook, and it can help pinpoint the best time to schedule posts. It may turn out that time is at 7:00 p.m. on a Friday evening. There are plenty of tools available to schedule posts automatically so the prime posting window isn’t missed because it is outside of traditional work hours.

2. Figure Out What Content Works. It can be easy for a social media strategy to place too much focus on building an audience. Social media is a tool to engage in conversations with an audience. If the audience isn’t responding, something isn’t working. A large fan base does not equal a successful social media strategy.

“While the number of page likes or Twitter followers seems like an obvious metric to track, it is important to measure reach and engagement as well,” said Katie Hinerman, Freelance Digital Marketing Specialist.

Twitter Analytics is a new tool available for organizations to measure the engagement of their Twitter content. The dashboard shows overall impressions (how many times a tweet was viewed), engagement (how many users interacted with a tweet) and engagement rate (ratio of tweets to interactions). A good social media strategy should include a plan for increasing engagement rate across all social platforms.

“Social media marketing as we know it is changing,” added Hinerman. “In 2015, brands are going to have a harder time reaching users organically. This is why it will be especially important to track reach and engagement metrics when measuring your efforts.”

3. Measure Your Success. A strategy can’t be created without goals, and goals can’t be deemed successful unless they’re measurable (Click to tweet!). A social media strategy is no different than any other part of an organizations’ overall communications plan. Once SMART goals are set, they should be measured and tracked for progress. Lack of progress toward a goal could mean efforts need adjusted.

Google Analytics includes statistics on web traffic referrals from social media accounts. If increased web traffic is part of a social media goal, this tool is the best way to measure progress. The results are offered in real-time, and a variety of time frames can be analyzed and compared. Google Analytics is free to use and offers several tutorial videos to coach beginners through the analytics process.

In a world where PR pros are already stretched thin and wearing many hats, strategizing and measuring social media efforts can keep everyone on the right track. Using analytics to guide social media strategy is a great way to make sure that too much or too little work isn’t being done. Knowing what content is most engaging and when audiences are looking for it maximizes the impact with audiences and minimizes the drain on staff. And that keeps everyone happy.

Jennifer Materkoski is a graduate of Kent State University with a Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications with a specialization in Public Relations. She has worked as a writer and editor for both newspaper and television and as a member of a non-profit marketing and development team. Materkoski is the owner and principal consultant of a boutique public relations firm, Songbird Public Relations. She is an avid sports fan and a yogi. Materkoski resides in Wheeling, West Virginia with her husband and son. Find her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter @MrsMaterkoski. She can be reached via email at jen@songbirdpublicrelations.com.

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