How to Leverage PR using Social Media?

Public relations have seen huge change in the mode of communication strategies with the rise of social media marketing. Digital marketing has enabled new forms of communication tools which have enabled organizations in better engagement with stakeholders. Public Relation Agencies has also embraced this new form of communications, but the biggest difficulty remains on incorporating both these forms together. Here are few techniques which can help a PR Professional to adapt social media for PR. 

• Social Sharing with Press Releases: Rise of social media has enforced changes in press release to social media release, as press release communicates only to journalists. Social media release incorporates social sharing buttons in press releases as journalists rely a lot on this feature. This feature also helps to build credibility as journalists have a wide following of readers on social networks. Social Media release also enables ease of dissemination of release since it follows the principle of shares, so is less spamming. As social media release is targeted to the online content generators, it is preferable to share only information rather than PR Jargons. Also Social Media Release incorporates all the elements of social media, SEO along with press release, offering all required information for the reader. SMR is beneficial to target bloggers, journalists, content marketers, etc. When creating a news release for print, catchy headline works to attract attention, but when writing for an online audience have to include the keywords and search terms that you want to be found for. 
• Build Campaign around Case Studies: Case study helps to build story for engagement with journalists in much easy way to explain about products / services, since explaining about products is quite boring. Creation of visual case study has better impact than textual. 
• Journalist access and insights: Social media has greatly helped PR professionals to source information and likes about journalists, this helps to build better relationships with journalists. Social Media has also given rise to citizen journalism, which emphasis importance of bloggers, authors, content generators, etc. Further, journalists often search for sources of information and social media is the first place they update about their requirements. 
• Sharing is caring:  To be successful on social media it is important to be helpful and offer information, whether related to your client or information from market. Providing information to journalists and fans helps in developing engaging relationships. Social media is more about working collaboratively. 
• Managing Reputation: Reputation management is about reaching out to fans and clients through social media, rather than depending on journalists as the turnaround time is more. Social media is viral, usually one social media day = 8 hours, so response time for crisis has to be immediate. Also with social media is much easier to respond to crisis, as offline media takes time to respond. To avoid such situation engage regularly rather than when NEEDED. Even though social media gives the option to engage online, any negativity should be taken offline as high chances of hitting viral. Provide clear instructions which are helpful, don’t confuse. If you don’t know then assign person having technical knowledge