Social Networking and Online PR

If you have any experience working with PR in the offline world, you won’t be surprised to see that the rules are very different!

Key Online PR issues to consider

It takes time to build relationships and reputation in the online space. Online PR and social networking both benefit from a slow-burning, drip-feed approach. For example, a powerful benefit of online networking is the improvement in your website's search engine ranking as your network produces “back-links” from other sites. People will only do this if your content is seen as value and you have something to offer their site visitors.

Online networking only works if you are a regular contributor and add to other people’s community instead of simply pushing your own agenda. Similarly, an online PR campaign to publicise a new product launch is more likely to succeed if you have built relationships with online publications and news outlets already. They will then be likely to feature your product when you need them to.

There are many places online that you can start to build your online PR community. Social networking sites such as Twitter/Facebook/MySpace are a good start and allow you to create your own space as well as contribute to others. Depending on your industry, you can also use a little market research to find relevant websites such as forums and blogs that you can become part of the community with to push your agenda as part of a long term strategy.

The online network you choose depends what you want to get out of your social networking. For many businesses, the main goal is to generate sales leads and some online networks are focused on referrals. Others may use this technique of marketing as a tool to improve their website’s SEO potential by building backlinks from other popular websites.

Potential customers are very likely to gather on sites related to your product or service: if you sell widgets, for example, you'll find them in the forums of widget websites.

The other great advantage of using social networking is that people who like your product or service can share it with others which then increases the amount of people who see what you have to offer. This effect can build large online communities with less effort from you than you would think.

Find out more about what SO Marketing can do to help you grow your social networks - call us today on 01538 750 538!

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