New Year’s resolutions for PR and marketing professionals

As we prepare to ring in the new year, let’s take a few minutes to reflect on what’s most important as a social media marketing strategy template or PR practitioner, particularly as the media landscape continues to evolve. Below are some reminders and/or resolutions related to our practice. These are simple rules. And the best part: they’re fairly easy to incorporate into working life, yet as guiding principals can make a big difference. Resolve to be a better writer—in 140 characters or less. In an age of tweeting, being succinct is key and helps in making your content viral. Resolve to think outside the confines of “traditional” PR. Instead of relying on an age-old press release, ask if a topic is better suited to a blog or social media post. Resolve to know your audience. “Beats” are fluid in these days of the continuous news cycle. Know your audience and their of-the-moment interests. Resolve to check your contacts’ latest posts and tweets before reaching out with an idea or topic. Resolve to be a storyteller. Some media deal in straight facts and figures; others paint with a different brush. Don’t bore with market potential for a new widget if that’s not their bag; instead tell them what they want to hear, which typically boils down to how it will impact their reader’s life. Resolve to speak measurement upfront, not when asked by the client. What does the program, strategy or tactic you're suggesting really do to impact the bottom line? If you can't answer that question, both qualitatively and quantitatively, then perhaps it's not the great idea you thought it was. Resolve to be SEO friendly. Why make it hard social media marketing resume to find the product or messages you’re trying to convey? Think of keywords that matter and use them in your blog, release and outreach so they can get crawled and drive traffic. Resolve to be more visual. If a picture is worth 1,000 words then why not? Multimedia is the new text; incorporating photos and video makes a story more impactful.

I will reach out to the Media in time for them to run my story:

The media work/schedule well ahead of ‘now’, especially Print media like magazines, so allowing them enough lead time social media marketing campaigns to look at running your story. Some outlets are working 120 days ahead of time.When working on PR Campaigns I like to have releases heading out at 90, 60, 30, 7 and sometimes 3 days before an event.Message consistency is the key; it is important to make sure that your advertising, PR, social media and marketing messages all say the same thing and planning really helps with this. By planning out your messages, you can make sure the message gets out via all the channels available and says what you want it to say. So start off the year by identifying the key messages you want to share and then follow up from there by planning how and where you will promote them. Marketing and PR is a fast-changing industry with new tools and tricks popping up all the time. It is an exciting world to explore, so look at including something new in your marketing. It could be as easy as trying a new social platform, or more detailed like creating a video series for your business.What you try is up to you – just try something new. You will learn a new skill and you just never know, it could be the key to your success in 2016. Good luck with social media marketing serviceyour 2016 Marketing plans for your business. Keep sharing your story and message as new audiences and journalists will appear throughout the year. If you are looking to kick-start 2016, I would love for you to join me at the Media and Marketing Think Tank on Jan 30th with Larissa Hill and Natasha McArdle.

Coordinate your Collaborations better

If you rely on freelancers and telecommuters for a large portion of your work processes, then sometimes social media marketing conference it only takes a small bit of miscommunication for your whole network to collapse. To prevent any misunderstandings, resolve to get everyone involved working off the same page. You can do this by implementing a CRM system where your remote workers and freelancers have access, and you can allocate jobs to the calendar with clear instructions and clarification notes outlining the job in hand, who it is allocated to, and the expected delivery date. You can also set up a simple project collaboration platform through Trello or Wrike to keep everyone onboard, and communication flowing between your team. By using document sharing and real-time workspace for your collaborations, everyone will know what each other is doing, and no one will be left in the dark, or unable to get instant clarification of a job or project to enable them to continue working. By utilising programmes such as these, you can get a birds-eye-view of the progress of your project, and identify any delays or issues before they snowball out of control. Keeping everyone informed and on target will make for a happier team, and a more productive work environment for you. So, your task for today is to ‘resolve your effective social media marketing resolutions’! Take steps towards relieving yourself of unnecessary stresses that can either be automated or outsourced by using free or cheap apps and cost-effective services. Make 2016 a year for positive change!