by Chris Bretschger, Managing Partner at Bastion Agency
When it comes to building a successful brand, it’s important to have various strategies in place to help get the word out about your products and services. While there are multiple formats for achieving this, they can often be broken down into two main categories – Public Relations (PR) and social media marketing.
Both PR and social media marketing focus on the same overall goals, but the way they achieve them can be quite different. While focusing on each format individually may be beneficial, increasing brand visibility online and gaining a new following, when combined, they can actually help you create a highly effective, holistic marketing approach for your business.
Below, we’ll help to break down the differences between the approaches and where and how they can work together.
Using Public Relations to Build Credibility and Trust.
Your reputation is everything as a business. Public relations gives you the ability to help set the narrative when it comes to what your business offers and the reasons it’s in business. This also includes showcasing your core business values and highlighting what makes your brand different than others.
Some of the key PR-related activities businesses plan and execute include:
- Media Relations – This involves working with various media outlets or digital journalists who help to write and publish information about your business online. Most PR teams are connected with a wide range of bloggers or well-known media publicists they can go to when they have important updates to share with their audience.
- Crisis Management – In the event of a significant disruption to business operations, such as a cyber attack or a natural disaster, crisis management helps keep customers and employees informed of ongoing developments that impact the business. The primary goal of this effort is to ensure the company responds quickly and efficiently while also meeting any regulatory requirements specific to their industry.
- Thought Leadership – Another key element of PR is establishing thought leadership. This is what helps to position a business as a leader in their industry, using linkable assets like white papers, case studies, or even podcasts to help build more credibility and influence within different sectors.
Leveraging Social Media Marketing to Amplify Brand Messaging.
While PR efforts focus on building more trust and credibility, social media marketing puts more effort into amplifying that message across various channels. This includes everything from marketing your business on Instagram or YouTube, as well as adding a voice to your brand on public forums or other social platforms.
Some common elements of social media marketing include:
- Content Creation and Distribution – Social media provides a number of opportunities for you to build and share your content across multiple channels. Social media marketing involves leveraging different brand stories, videos, or helpful blog posts and making them more visible in multiple places online.
- Community Engagement – The great thing about social media is that it provides a format where your brand can engage with current or potential customers directly. This means actively listening to and responding to user comments and creating an environment where customers can share their opinions or post reviews about the business.
- Paid Advertising – Social media marketing can also leverage a variety of different paid advertising levers to gain even more visibility across different demographics. Most social media platforms have different formats for creating an advertising campaign that helps them to get their brand in front of a more targeted audience than traditional marketing can provide.
How PR and Social Media Marketing Work Together.
While PR and social media marketing on their own can be helpful to your brand, there are a lot of benefits that come from combining your efforts.
Increases PR Reach.
Getting PR releases in front of as many people as possible is important when launching new products, sharing exciting business news, or introducing company expansions. Social media can be one of the fastest and most efficient ways to share these messages across a wide follower base.
The nice thing about referencing important PR announcements on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or X is that these social signals stick around for a long time. This makes it easier for Google to rank associated blog posts or press releases so they’re easy to find on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Adds Brand Credibility.
There are numerous brands posting a wide range of content on the internet, and social media is a common platform for sharing. Unfortunately, however, much of this content is rarely helpful and is often used as a spammy tactic to increase clicks.
When you share more credible PR pieces on your social media feeds, it helps add professionalism and credibility to your brand. This makes it more likely that your current or potential customers will follow your brand across different platforms or share the information within their own networks.
Establishes Two-Way Communication Channels.
Creating PR messaging for your business may be helpful for keeping your customers informed, but on its own, it really doesn’t help to generate the buzz that forums or ongoing community discussions can bring.
Leveraging social media channels to amplify your messaging allows you to create two-way communication channels that your business can use to create active discussions about the information you’re delivering.
Create a Holistic Marketing Strategy for Your Business.
Both PR initiatives and social media marketing can be impactful ways to connect with your audience. By using them together to create a holistic marketing approach for your business, you’ll be able to build the visibility and credibility your business needs to scale effectively.
Chris Bretschger, Managing Partner at Bastion Agency, is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years of experience in integrated marketing. He has developed brand strategies, managed media campaigns, and built analytics tools for clients like Mazda, Adidas, Jenny Craig, and Kia. When not leading Bastion, Chris enjoys superyacht regatta racing on the open seas.