Social Media in PR Becky Livingston President Royal Apple Marketing
May 13, 2015
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