By Karli Hartwig, Public Relations Intern
Social media is here to stay and professional social networks like LinkedIn are great tools for creating brand awareness. After all, according to LinkedIn, the site is home to more than 300 million professionals from across the globe. The ability to network with professionals from all around the world can take your business’ public relations campaign and brand awareness to the next level.
Networking, networking, networking. The ability to connect with journalists and bloggers directly has transformed PR—especially with today’s 24/7 news cycle. LinkedIn profiles can give you the upper hand when determining whom to pitch and when. What are they looking for? What are they talking about? Gaining background knowledge to these outlets through LinkedIn will keep you one step ahead of the game.
Knowing the industry in which your representing is key. For example, the group feature on LinkedIn allows you to join content specific groups. This will allow you to grasp what is going on in that market and see what others are up to.
Here are some other tips for PR success utilizing LinkedIn:
• Create well-organized profiles for yourself and your company. Make sure both pages are professional, clear and up to date. Have your contact information listed, as well as all employees linked to your company’s page. Not only will you be looking at profiles to gain insight but also others could be looking at yours when searching for someone to interview in the industry. Does your profile make a good impression? Does your company’s profile stay up to date? ‘Yes’ should be the answer to both of these questions.
• Add links to your social networks. Add links to blogs, websites, and Twitter/Facebook profiles for better circulation of content.
• Recommendations. Credibility is the backbone of any successful business. In order to improve your online presences get your skills endorsed and successful stories written for recommendations.
• Get connected. Try to find connections. If you find a mutual connection with someone, ask to be introduced! It will pay off in the long run. Do not connect to people you haven’t worked with on at least some level or haven’t been introduced to though—that can be considered unprofessional.
• Get talking. Whether you are answering questions or asking them. The ability to post updates and share content is a great way to get your name out there. Position yourself as an expert in the field.
Like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and others, LinkedIn should be just one tool in your social media outreach arsenal. All of these tools combine for a great online presence and, in turn, PR success.