The factor that causes the most buzz, and attracts the most attention in the online PR arena is the social networking. PR is all about networking, and due to online social networking, the importance of it has increased exponentially.
Social networks are traditional like, Facebook, and in the form of microblogging service like Twitter. An internet marketing agency can help you in selection of either of them for your campaign. The lines below give a detail of advantages and disadvantages of social networks, along with which network to choose according to your needs.
Advantages of Social Networking:
Although there is a debate among webmasters for using social media for every online marketing purpose, however, when it comes to online PR, social media does carry advantages.
- Microblogging services and social networks can serve as a great tool for taking double advantage. One in the form of networking colleagues, or potential prospects, and secondly promoting the offering to all of them on a single platform.
- The second advantage comes in the form of cost effectiveness of the social networking platforms. Most of the platforms are free to join, thus the chance of promotion without any investment.
- The third advantage of social networks and microblogging platform is their ability to get the message spread across all the target audience in the swiftest manner.
Cons of Social Networking:
Nobody wants to hear it, but like any other process, social networking also has its cons. A few major of them are given below:
- Productivity killer is another connotation associated with social networking. Managing all the platforms that have different audiences, can lead to waste of time and resources. On the other hand, if the business, selected a single platform, a single audience, and sent a single message to them, it would be more productive.
- The other problem with social media is that its thin line between private and public. The line could be crossed with ease, and most of the times you even don’t have the idea that you have crossed it. Once a thing is on social networks, you cant take it back, and it my end by doing you harm rather than the expected good.
Selection of Social Network:
The cons of the social networks don’t make them useless, rather they have utility. However, the selection of a social network for the PR campaign needs to be made very carefully. The following tips can help in selection of right platform for social media marketing.
- The most important thing is to find your target audience. A network that has a large database does not mean that you should blindly go on targeting it. Rather, you should specify the platforms that have audience related to your niche. Like, if you want to target businesses, then LinkedIn would be a better platform then Twitter or Facebook.
- In selection of a social platform, the thing you need to consider is the number of active members, and not the total number of members of the platform. Chances are that a platform with higher number might have lowest active members.
- The most important thing you need to know about a social network is its promotion policies. Check whether the platform provides the leverage and facilities that your campaign requires for successful promotion.
Conclusion:
In a nutshell, social media is a great tool that can be utilized for online promotion. However, the above given instructions need to be followed in selection, and weighing of a platform.