Week 3: Twitter Promoted Tweets

The Twitter world is HUGE right now! Twitter is being used to inform, communicate and even influence other users. A platform where everyone is welcome, has access to everyone's profile, and follow whatever users they like. 

Public relations can use twitter to their advantage in three ways; promoted tweets, promoted trends, and promoted accounts. 

Promoted Tweets

To set up promoted tweets, you have to establish a daily budget and pay for every click on your tweet. You can promote tweets to similar users who have mutual followers, or you can promote a tweet using specific keywords that searchers on twitter can find. Using promoted tweets can benefit public relations because it can reach past your current followers and attract a larger audience. You can not only attract new clients, but also get your message across a lot faster.

Promoted account

By using "promoted accounts" twitter features you in search results and places you under the who to follow section. This will give similar followers opportunity to access your organization. 

Promoted Trends: 

Similar to promoted tweets, promoted trends will allow users to see time, context and event sensitive trends promoted by advertising partners. The same way a trending topic works on twitter, a promoted trend can be viewed containing a hashtag or trend terms.  Promoted trends however, do cost a lot of money.

Twitter is a very important social tool and using the above three tools on twitter can do wonders when marketing your business. It can both promote your company and open a forum of communication with your audience. However, a pr practitioner should consider the price tag associated with these tools and weigh the benefits against it.

Week 2: The Value of QR Codes

Having never hearing of foursquare before, signing up and becoming a member is very exciting! The whole process was very user friendly and the benefits of using the App are clear. It has great potential for a PR company and great benefits for users. By checking in to a location, it provides information and available deals for the client. It also gives an opportunity for the business to win the client over by maintaining a relationship and showing how being faithful to the organization is in their best interest. What's even more strategic- if a business you have previously checked in notices your check in somewhere nearby, they can offer an incentive to change your mind and visit them instead! SERIOUSLY!? can you say competition? My overall take on foursquare: brilliant. Something I definitely look forward to using.

Moving on to another interesting tool: QR Codes. Now you are probably thinking I must be living under a rock, but truthfully, I have never understood what these funky codes meant. I recognize the codes from products and now on posters and websites, but never grasped the full understanding of what these QR codes are and what they can do for me.

In a nutshell, QR codes are codes that have embedded information within them.  They are good for app downloads, directions to businesses, mobile contests, location based opportunities, personal contact information, additional product information and even as a place to interact socially.

This is how a PR code looks like:

As mentioned above, these QR codes have many advantages. For  a public relations firm, they can be used to give more information about the product or company, promote buzz by creating mobile contests for the organization with QR codes, as well as location based opportunities. When used right, QR codes can do great things. Scanning a QR code can bring you to the company website where you can get detailed information (for example if you see an advertisement somewhere) It can also be used with company contests to get you to scan and fill out a ballot to be part of a contest. It can also be used for company events to RSVP.  

Most importantly QR codes will change the way people will react with your brand. 

Week 1: The Evolution of Social Media

The life of a public relations practitioner has transformed drastically. A pr practitioner is now faced with developing and evolving platforms used in the field. But why should a pr practitioner be concerned with the changing and new forms of social media?

The answer is quite simple. It's whats trending. Social media is being used worldwide as a source of receiving information and communication amongst people and organizations. Part of pr is to communicate and create a relationship between an organization and its audience. The online world is the best way to maintain and create these relationships. 

Social web strategies are the best way for an organization to meet their business objectives. This is because they can use the social web to their advantage by promoting their business, as well as finding out what their customers are most interested in. 

What started off as social networking sites for friendship and dating, has now changed to a fast pace world of new platforms offering new ways of communication for people, businesses and even social activism. 

Blog Roll

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Blogging me blogging you 
Benefits of Corporate Blogging
How to make an internal social network successful 
 Media First
The Future Buzz
High Road Communications
Strategic PR
Social Fresh Social Media Thoughts
What is Social Media and Why Should I Care