PR Internship Reflective Blog 2

Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://printernship-reflections.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

My top three social media tips

I’ve spent a lot of time on social media throughout my internship. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… you name it, I probably did it! Here’s some tips I picked up that might help you execute a social media strategy.

Be a consistent poster

Social media is not a static tool, it’s something you need to update regularly. I updated each platform once every two days to keep content fresh and different each time a person sees it. I also started a post series called “Pearl Tip Tuesday” and each Tuesday a new tip about pearls and their care is posted. I thought this would be a good way to get a sense of regularity and get people looking back through older posts. It’s been a good strategy so far, and will likely become a great tactic to keep in mind.

A picture says a thousand words

Did you know that including a picture in a Facebook post increases engagement (likes, comments, shares) by 39 per cent*? I was lucky at my company to have a big bank of beautiful photos to use in social media. Almost all of my posts had a picture attached as well, which makes the social media profile much more interesting and varied. If a posts pops up in someone’s newsfeed as well they’re much more likely to look at it if there’s an interesting picture as well.

Prepare in advance

Although social media has an advantage in being current and great for news updates, it’s really time consuming to post every day and it will often get pushed by the wayside when there’s other more pressing tasks. As such, I used Hootsuite to schedule posts to the company’s Twitter profile and Facebook’s scheduling feature to save time down the track. I ended up scheduling three months of posts in one sitting, which was a much more efficient way of doing things. We also posted more recent content from events and media as they happened, to make sure the page also had a sense of currency. It was a good strategy overall.

Do you have any social media secrets? Please feel free to share in the comments.

*7 Powerful Facebook Statistics You Should Know About: http://www.fastcompany.com/3022301/work-smart/7-powerful-facebook-statistics-you-should-know-about

7 comments:

Unknown said...: What do you find the most effective platform of social media is? Did you outsource any images? I have been working for a company and I think the biggest part of the work is finding images - there is so many out there! I like social media it is one of the best parts of PR, I think we are going to see in just becoming a bigger and bigger entity in business.; October 21, 2014 at 5:27 AM
Jessica Wilson said...: Hi Sara, thanks for sharing your post and these great social media tips. I have mentioned this in a couple of comments but I have been somewhat stalking blogs on here that relate to social media as it was a big focus of my internship.

And can I just say yours has been one of the best and most helpful I have come across. Your tips are simple and straightforward but very useful. I really like your idea of the Pearl Tip Tuesday post series and its something I hadn't thought of for my social media activities but that I think could work well in the fashion sphere that my placement. Something like a Designer Spotlight or Fashion Flashback Friday are a couple that come to mind. So a big thank you for the inspiration.

Also thanks for the Hootsuite mention. I will definitely be taking a look and keeping this as a tool to use in the future. Finding time to post and maintaining a posting schedule was something I had been concerned about.

Thanks and good luck! Jessica; October 21, 2014 at 7:00 PM
Joseph Madeley said...: Extremely good blog post Sara!

I also have spent a large amount of time on social media and have noticed that the most shares/likes come from the interactive posts such as; tag a friend, 'create a slogan for this image' and competitions.

We were also paying $6 a day for Facebook page promotion and went from 0 likes to 5000 in 2 months!

Keep bloggin'!

- Joseph; October 21, 2014 at 8:27 PM
Rebecca Keating said...: Hi Sara,

I was so happy to see this blog post on the PR blog page as I have also been responsible for social media throughout my internship and I am now completing this task as a consultant at Platform.

I agree with absolutely everything you have said. While it may not seem like a big task, constantly updating social media is very time consuming and I understand the importance of preparing social media posts, although this is something that I find very challenging as I manage the time I have for each task throughout my days at Platform.

I definitely need to look at Hoot Suite and understand how I can use this to enhance Platform's social media engagement.

I think it's a great idea to include an image on as many social media posts as possible as it makes the page look more vibrant and inviting.

Thank you so much for sharing your tips and tricks- I will definitely be using this throughout my social media strategies. I love the Pearl Tip Tuesday.

Thanks and good luck,

Rebecca; October 25, 2014 at 7:46 PM
Sonja Grasso said...: Hi Sara,

Great post!

This is really useful advice and I loved the inclusion of the link for information on Hoot Suite.

I couldn't agree more with your tips and tricks. Social media is a big task. I think people underplay its importance in public relations.

I think it's particularly important to have a social media strategy, that is planned out and executed regularly in order for your message to be heard. Additionally, I agree that images are incredibly powerful. From the (somewhat limited) research that I have conducted myself over the course of my internship, I have discovered that the most 'liked' posts, are those containing an image. Pictures immediately grab your attention and have the incredible ability to convey meaning at a glance!

All the best for the rest of the semester.

Thanks,

Sonja; October 27, 2014 at 1:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Hello Sara,

I do agree with the tips that you shared. Managing social media is really about consistency and attractiveness. It is also part of making the page seems exciting to the publics so they anticipate and keep track with the updates as well.

Thanks!; October 28, 2014 at 11:59 PM
Unknown said...: Hi Sara,

Great blog post and topic!

Throughout my placement one of my responsibilities was to be in charge of the content that would be posted on the company's Instagram and twitter.

Upon starting I was asked to make sure I posted a minimum of 1 article/tweet/photo a day.

I also had to prepare in advance the posts that would follow on to the next day and so on. So i completely agree your top three social media tips.

Thanks!
Stefani Ferrante
16160343; November 3, 2014 at 1:23 AM