How to Maximize Your Social Media Press Releases
Social media press releases are the new normal for press releases. With the purpose of a traditional press release, they leverage the power of social media to increase awareness for your company press releases.
Let’s face it; the members of your audience aren’t the only ones on social media anymore. The media uses social channels to find story ideas, gather information, and to connect with their audience. Everything is integrated now, and your press releases need to reflect that.
However, it’s not enough to simply share your press release on social media. You want to take a few extra steps to maximize your social media press releases.
The Basics
With a social media press release there are a few understood features that will be included in your release. These features include:
Social Share Buttons – Make sure that your readers are able to share your press release, and elements of your press release like quotes and images, on social media. Facts might be made tweetable and videos sharable on Facebook.
Social Follow Buttons – Also be sure to include your social follow buttons so that readers can find and follow you on your chosen social channels. That means if you’re on Facebook you should make sure they can find and follow you on Facebook. Include all the channels you’re active on.
Visual Content – The majority of social content is visual. It’s the type of content that people prefer to engage with, share, and view. Make sure your press release contains some degree of visual content. Consider infographics, photos, and video.
The Next Steps
In addition to the basics that you’ll include in your social media press release, you may also want to consider the next few tactics.
Hashtags – Hashtags help your audience find you. Media representatives use social media to find information, so by including hashtags in your press release content, you make your release more visible and easier for them to find. You can find popular hashtags and trending tags using trend and search tools on social sites.
Hashtags can be included in your headline, in the body of your content, and in the description when you share a link to your release.
@name – In the body of your press release, why not cite quotes and content by the source’s Twitter handle? You can give credit to them using their @username. This way it directly connects to them and to Twitter.
Finally, consider leveraging technology to distribute and track your social media press release results. Distribution services may offer you the ability to create and share social media press releases and to analyze the data.
Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278
