10 Must Have Social Media PR Tips
Boost your social media presence with these handy lessons inspired by hit Netflix show Orange is the New Black
Ever since the show began on Netflix in July 2013, it has become an internet sensation around the world and has gathered a huge social media following and in the meantime gaining Netflix a huge following and boosting its reputation as the hottest film and TV streaming service on the block.Orange is the New Black has gained a huge fan base due to their savvy use of social media. With over 500,000 followers on Twitter, over 2 million likes on Facebook and another 600,000 followers on Instagram, it is clear they are definitely doing something right.
So what is the secret to business and social media success? Here are 10 lessons that should be learnt from OITNB's success:
2.Curate visuals that tell your story across all channels: Where possible, use a distinctive image or graphic that encapsulates your business or your message quickly and is simple for the audience to comprehend. Orange is the New Black use this technique by creating a sort of cover image for the promotion of the new season (2). The picture shows all of the characters from the show displaying their own individual characteristics. This cover image is used with the hashtag to give it more promotion power.
3. Empower brand advocates to be part of your news reporting team: Get the whole office involved in your business plans- well your online ones anyway! Get everyone in your business logged on and in to social media reporting for you from business news updates on new ventures or products, or just simply what's happening in the office from their own social media profiles. Individual employee's can reach audiences 10 times larger than the audience for the brand and can also gather 8 times the amount of engagement also. OITNB cast members often do this using their own accounts to promote their character alter-egos as well as sharing news and show exclusives.
4. Social promos and social talk shows in real time: A new way to connect with customers and fans now is through online web chats. This can easily translate to anything interactive that can get you in touch with the customer. It's a good and easy and potentially fun way for you and the customer to interact, and it also creates a buzz around your company. Orange is the New Black does this cleverly by using another related hashtag, #askorange and advertising the opportunity to ask the cast questions through their other various online platforms.
5. Power up engagement with the audience in mind: Start conversations with customers and fans over all of your social media profiles to raise interest and traffic. Why not set them a challenge that is relevant to your company and its message? This could produce user generated content from fans that will promote your brand. This worked for OITNB when they set up the hashtag #OnWednesdaysWeWearOrange and asked fans to wear orange on wednesdays to help promote the show and the characters. This hashtag has been used thousands of times across social media, particularly Instagram.
7. Create highly visual, entertaining and shareable content: OITNB has their own memes and gif sets that promote the characters and the show. These also have the shows main hashtag attached to it which also boosts its advertising power further. You don't have to create lots of flashy memes and gifs to be popular, but always having some creative content available for fans/customers will boost interest in your business further.
8. Be relevant to fans in all of the social media languages they speak: Emoticons have completely changed the way some of the web communicates now and being on top of all of the ways people prefer to communicate now will be a huge help for your business. OITNB have emoticons of some of the characters that have proved a huge hit and shows that they are fast grasping the way their young fan base communicates. Know your market and aim your campaigns at them specifically.
9. Give you fans/customers something worth following you for: Whether it be exclusive offers or deals, the inside peek at the everyday office scene or news of insights into the market for your customers' benefit, your customers will want to see something from you that is worthy of their attention. Exclusive content is more likely to create and boost the most interest. OITNB does this with regular updates from the set, backstage pictures of the cast and plenty more exclusives to keep fans on their toes.
10. Keep collaborated! It may seem like you'd need to be an octopus to keep up with the constant flow of the social media world and all its different variants on offer out there but with a strong team behind you, a clear message and some collaboration you should be able to see the difference in no time!
Hi my name is Julie! Fresh out of university studying journalism, I love to have a good laugh and I believe in always keeping an open mind. In my spare time, if you don't catch me between two pages of a book, you'll most likely find me in front of the computer or the TV! I also like to make cakes if I have the time (and the ingredients!)... or as my friends like to call them, Bundy Buns. Make sure you follow me @JulieAtSMF.
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10 Must Have Social Media PR Tips
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
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