How our clients use Twitter to grow their press release exposure
Posted: Monday, April 2nd, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Categories: Industry news & opinion.
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Social media is on everyone’s minds these days. More than just a method to communicate, Twitter and Facebook can be used to boost the publicity and attention you get for announcements, contests, and promotions. ‘Sharing’ is a huge buzzword in public relations lately, and for good reason. Gone are the days of sending off your hard copy ‘For Immediate Release’ press release, or even mass emailing every applicable industry contact you can think of.
Today? Click. Distribute. Share.
Why such a big change? The internet, and Twitter especially, is real-time. The world now learns of news within seconds of it happening, and your press release is no different. So why should you use Twitter to promote your press release, and how do you do it? Read on…
The “Why” of Using Twitter for Press Releases…
Over 200 Million Users — Including Journalists and Influential Bloggers
Twitter reports over 140 million tweets per day, on average. With over 200 million users, Twitter offers you access to real, engaged consumers.. for FREE. Growing your social media following can work like a completely legal pyramid scheme. For instance, if you tweet your newest press release, and five people ‘retweet’ it to their followers, and of those people, ten other people retweet it to their followers.. the result can mean that your news goes viral.
You may be thinking… with 200 million users talking in real time, isn’t there a lot noise to sort through? Who will even notice if I tweet my press release title? That’s a great question. Though Twitter provides a streaming feed of content in real time, it’s also cataloged and sortable. This allows people to search for tweets based on keyword searches — exactly like a search engine like Google or Yahoo. Twitter is a search engine — a very powerful and far reaching one. Why wouldn’t you want to publish your content on one of the most popular search engines in use today?
Twitter is an instrumental tool for journalists and bloggers who are looking for FAST comments and information on the topics they are writing about right now. Imagine you’re a journalist looking for a sources to quote about ways to lower your electric bill. Search “lower electric bill” in Twitter and you’ll discover experts to quote with information on that very topic. Imagine you were a blogger and were to compiling a round up list a list of Halloween promotions. It’s unlikely that Google will net you the utmost most current promotions happening now. Twitter will.
Create Brand Awareness
If you’re trying to get a leg up in your industry, but no one recognizes you or your brand, what better way than to amass your own dedicated following? Providing content that people see as relevant and of value, combined with acting as effective networker, gives people a compelling reason to follow you. Followers have given you the permission to engage and connect with them — and the more followers you have, the more you establish your brand. If they love what you do and tweet about it to their social network, that creates buzz. It’s an amazing thing to see.
Position Yourself As An Industry Expert
Twitter allows you to regularly communicate to people who have shown they are already interested in what you have to say. What you use this platform for, however, is completely up to you. You can tell the universe what you had for breakfast, or you can share meaningful tips, tricks, articles and blog posts. It’s about finding what your target audience craves. Once the world sees you as an industry expert, anything you have to say immediately carries more credibility.
The “How” of Using Twitter for Press Releases…
Still Be YOU
Research shows that consumers connect better with brands who have a ‘person’ communicating their social media, instead of trying to communicate as a company figurehead. Give out tips. Comment on others’ tweets that you can add value to. Encourage people when they make strong efforts on a task. Form connections with people while giving them information they can use. You can be you and be an ambassador for your brand’s message.
Use Compelling Titles
Sure, tweet out the actual title of your press release. But over time, change it up to give your followers a REASON to click. Within your press release, you have to be objective and factual. Your tweets, however, can be used to promote. Build excitement! Make me think that clicking that title is going to give me information I didn’t even know I needed! Because of the way that Twitter search works, make sure that you’re balancing interesting with keywords that you think your target audience may be searching for.
Keep It Short
To encourage retweeting, keep your tweets within 100 characters or less. When someone retweets your tweet, it adds ‘RT @Yourusername’ to it. You don’t want to meat of your tweet to be cut off, or worse, misinterpreted.
Use Relevant Hashtags (#)
Twitter has its own language. Using a hashtag in your tweet is a method to help others find content they’re looking for. For example, if you have a press release about your new plumbing business, you might put #plumbing within your tweet. When someone searches Twitter for ‘plumbing’.. your Tweet comes up. They can then look at your past tweets, and decide if they want to ‘follow’ what you have to say. Ideally, you can also use your SEO keywords as hashtag words.
This story originally appeared on Online PR Media