If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my time working in PR, it’s that Social Media is PR’s best friend.

By Leigh Buglass

So as PR professionals we would be crazy not to leverage that relationship in any way we can – what’s what friends are for right?

Social Media is our friend, we can’t deny it, it helps us provide sharable content to the masses, what’s not to love? But it’s all about how you use that friendship! Yes, it allows you to share articles about your brand, but it’s all about taking it a step further than that.

You need to give people a reason to read what your writing, they’ve come over to your account for a reason, perhaps they have used your services or purchased your product, or maybe they are in the market for your product or service, whatever the reason you need to grab their attention with your content! This is where PR reveals how good a friend it can be; PR professionals can write amazing content, and Social Media is going to let you show off this skill – and what kind of friend would they be if it didn’t let you show off your skills?

Now if you’ve nailed the content game and you’re increasing followers all over the place, then you’ve got to have great engagement to back it up. We need to ENGAGE! Liking, commenting, sharing, actively participating in the social media community is what is going to get you noticed. You can post your amazing content until the cows come home, but if you’re not engaging with Social Media, then you’re not being a very good friend!

Having five Instagram accounts linked to my phone can often be overwhelming, but at the same time it’s wonderful getting to know the people who engage with these accounts. I have the ability to make connections with these people and make them feel like the brand they are engaging with cares about their story. PR helps tenfold with this! As a PR professional, I am in the game of creating relationships, I know what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and I can translate these skills into Social Media to help with my engagement – just as friends share their clothes, PR and Social Media share their skills!

But what kind of friend would Social Media be if it wasn’t honest with you? This is my favourite thing about Social Media, the results are so clear! Just hop into the back end and see everything you need to know about what’s working for you and what’s not, who likes you, who doesn’t and every other measurement you could possibly want – how could you not love a friend like that!