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by
Laura Burkey
 Positive
PR is the ultimate
goal for public relations firms and their
clients alike. Why? Because good vibes lead to more purchases.
There are plenty of tried and true ways to improve a company’s
reputation, but social media has been the main game-changer
during the last few years. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and
YouTube are the more streamlined networks to grow a company’s
presence and to manage its reputation.
There are plenty of ways to use social media to promote a brand,
but clients need to see what their return on investment is. The
first step is to determine what exactly the ROI should be based
upon. Examples include the number of comments, Facebook likes,
Twitter followers, website clicks, etc.
Get (and stay) in the conversation
Whether a PR professional is trying to create or improve a brand
image, it all begins with joining the social media realm’s
conversations. The only way to know what competitors in the
company’s industry are saying and doing is to be smack-dab in
the middle. On Twitter, follow the competition and participate
in their conversations. You also can track keywords in Twitter,
which can help quiet the noise sometimes.
Speak to the company’s fans, ask questions, and develop a
relationship, which is the foundation of social media success.
PR professionals can use social media to share and re-tweet
interesting and relevant articles in the client’s sphere of
business, engage in conversations, introduce new products, and
much more. All interactions lead directly to more traffic to the
company’s website, blog, and products or services.
Build brand loyalty
It’s one level of success to attract customers, but it’s a whole
other level of success to create raving ones. Social media is
the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing tool. Positive feedback
travels fast, and negative comments spread even faster. (But
we’ll get to that later.)
One way to attract rave reviews is to launch contests and
giveaways, which create positive buzz about the client. These
promotions usually cost little capital and hold the attention of
a captive audience for a certain period of time. The real work
begins after the promotion is finished. There have to be solid
posts and tweets to keep the audience engaged.
Boost your Google rank
Remember those negative comments? This can affect a company’s
rank online, as well. Managing a company’s reputation must be
tracked whether through setting up Google Alerts or using a
monitoring service.
Respond to complaints (and compliments, for that matter) swiftly
and publicly. Never remove negative comments because it gives
the impression the company doesn’t care, isn’t listening, or is
hiding something.
If the conversation heads in a southward direction, take the
conversation into a private message, email, or phone call.
Ultimately, social media strategies need to align with the
client’s communication strategy and goals. The regularly
scheduled posts need to be done well and not thrown together as
an afterthought. The public can see the difference and responds
accordingly.
These types of networks create a conversation that would not
have occurred otherwise. It offers a way for small and large
companies to interact on a personal level, meet negativity head
on, and fix problems publicly and quickly.
Laura Burkey writes for numerous websites such
as
Reputation.com
on various topics, including cyber safety, parenting
and green living.
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