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It’s More Than 140 Characters

By Brooke Parker

“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.”

—Simon Mainwaring

With 156.5 million Facebook users and 67 million Twitter users in the United States alone, it is clear social media has become nothing less than a social norm. As marketers know, social media is crucial for any business and can be an effective tool. Easily accessible, social media is measurable, has excellent analytics and features video and photo. Heads are buried in phones and fingers are constantly moving across keyboards. Social media is simply the way of today.

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A large portion of public relations practice is the tactical approach to social media. PR professionals post on social media a certain number of times per week on certain platforms to targeted audiences. Objectives such as this fuel PR campaigns; analytics show measurable success and prove goals have been met.

However, before hashtags are created and silly tweets are posted, PR people are also in charge of researching the audience with whom they seek to resonate with. The 80-year-old may not find dancing cats funny on Facebook, but the 17-year-old may find it hilarious on Twitter. Each social media platform has an audience and so do organizations. To use social media effectively as a tool, a heavy amount of research needs to be completed.

Here’s how PR is more than 140 characters.  

Let’s say Bob’s Bakery has gained traction on varied social media platforms. He has a large following on Facebook and would like to use it as a tool to promote his newest muffin, “the razz-appetizing.” Local ingredients make this muffin raspberry flavored. Bob likes to think it’s the only raspberry flavored muffin on the market. Let the social media campaign begin!

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The two questions Bob faces:

  1. Who will I sell my razz-appetizing muffins to?
  2. How do I reach them?

Before posting about how delicious this new muffin is, Bob needs to have a social media targeting process drafted. This is defining a target audience based on who he wants to sell the razz-appetizing muffin to. Because he is a small business owner with loyal customers, Bob wants to reach people who already consume his baked goods.

Because he has established social media platforms, he spends time analyzing his social media followers (good move, Bob). By studying followers through analytics, he can find demographics, lifestyles and platform usage from his audiences.

Bob notices 56 percent of his Facebook following is made up of middle aged women who work desk jobs and have a bachelor’s degree. The other 44 percent are men who are 30-years-old. They also work desk jobs and spend money on leisure activities.

Based on this information, Bob creates personas for each segmented audience. This is where he begins to think about messages and how they would fit strategically with each audience. What does each audience want to see from his posts on social media? Why would they want to try the razz-appetizing muffin? This process takes Bob longer than he had expected. How can he make a middle aged man who golfs crave a razz-appetizing muffin?

Thankfully, he thinks creatively and has the perfect messages for each audience. Because this is a social media campaign, Bob creates a media plan for each audience. This includes media objectives, scheduling, measurement and a way to evaluate his campaign. Here, he needs to research when the best days to post are as well as the time.

Finally, Bob can begin to attack the tactical portion of a social media campaign. He begins to post strategic messages on social media that resonate to his audience. His razz-appetizing muffins fly off the shelf. Way to go, Bob!

Now, imagine a social media campaign on a larger scale. Public relations professionals have to think about varied audience segments. On social media, these audiences are never-ending. Here are just some to think about:

Investors, employees, families, surrounding community, the environment, tourists, activist groups, politicians and influencers.

Every sector of an audience is on social media. The 156.5 million Americans on Facebook are consuming messages faster than ever before. The interesting part of the public relations role is understanding the different needs of an investor and an activist group member. Social media is made of GIFs, memes and cats. But next time, see if you can spot a hidden PR message. The Doritos Super Bowl commercials haven’t become a success on accident!

Follow Brooke on Twitter @parkebrooke

 

 

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