Tales of a PR Enthusiast

As a public relations enthusiast and an avid Twitterer, I tend to follow a lot of PR agencies on Twitter. Something I have observed from following these agencies is that their Twitter pages do not show as much potential as they could and should have. I keep looking at their pages and wonder if they are ever going to “get it.” I’m no Chris Brogan or Scott Stratten, but don’t you think if these PR agencies are using social media strategies to enhance their client’s business development that they should understand social media and how to utilize it themselves first?

Social media is becoming a necessity for businesses, small, medium and large, and a PR agency is where businesses turn to for social media training and implementation. If these businesses, who are already clients or are potential clients, look at a PR agency’s Twitter page and other social media sites and see a less than mediocre site, my guess is that they are not going to be running at the chance to work with that agency.

With this in mind, I came up with a few strategies and tactics for PR agencies to improve their Twitter page. A lot of these strategies can be used for their Facebook page and other social media sites as well.


1. Know the goals and objectives for the Twitter page
First and foremost, agencies need to plan out a Twitter strategy and what their goals and objectives are for their Twitter page. It would be a horrible decision for an agency to get on Twitter and have no clue why or how it is going to utilize it. Agencies need to know why they want to use Twitter and how it will benefit their company and clients. They need to know who their target audience is, how to brand themselves, what goals/objectives they want to set and how to measure their success. Setting goals, reaching them and measuring how successful those goals were met is key when using Twitter, as well as any other social media site.

Some goals could include: how many followers do we want to gain in a certain amount of time, how many media pitches do we want to send out through Twitter, how many media impressions do we want from pitching through Twitter, how many replies/retweets do we want to send and/or gain, how many Twitter lists do we want to create or be on, etc.

When measuring success on Twitter, agencies need to see results. To do this, they must monitor things like who is engaging and commenting on their Twitter page and measure brand awareness. PR agency Waggener Edstrom even created its own Twitter brand awareness measuring application called the WE Twendz Pro. According to its Web site, The WE twendz pro “provides you with impact metrics and key performance indicators such as your overall reach and influence within Twitter along with an audience emotion gauge to measure the impact of your messages within key audiences.” I think it is a great idea for agencies to create their own social media measuring application because every agency’s goals/objectives may be different and they need a measuring system that works for those specific goals/objectives.

2. The point of social media is to be social
When looking at some of the PR agencies Twitter pages, they are not social in any way, shape or form. To put it rather bluntly, they are lifeless with no personality showing and they are boring. Who wants to follow a Twitter page like that? Probably not too many people. So, here are a few tips for agencies to create and maintain an interesting and social Twitter page:
-Interact: One of the worst Twitter sins is to lack interaction with followers. If agencies continue to post the same formatted tweets every single time without replying, retweeting or hashtagging, followers will lose interest and unfollow, and potential followers will not even start to follow. PR agencies need to take advantage of the reply, retweet and hashtag functions. They are there for a reason, so use them. Agencies should be replying, rewteeting or hashtagging anything they deem relevant from their followers and the people they follow so they can begin conversations and a more personal relationship. Which leads to my next point…
-Be personal: The best part about Twitter is that it allows businesses to reach out to their target audience and potential clients on a more personal level. Agencies need to show through their Twitter page that they care about their audience and want to get to know them personally. Agencies don’t want to get too personal, but they should be able to show through their tweets who they are as a company, their mission and philosophies and any exciting or interesting projects they are working on. If people can see an agency’s personality through Twitter, they are more likely to follow and become aware of that agency.
-Post interesting tweets: Something I see a lot on PR agencies Twitter pages is the same formatted tweets with a headline and a link. The tweets never explain anything about the company or what they are working on, and I wonder what the relevance of their tweets is. As a follower, I want to see what type of company it is, I want to see their views and opinions on trending topics, I want to see what cool and exciting projects they are working on and I want to see how they incorporate their employees into their tweets. Agencies that connect and interact with their employees on Twitter show a lot about that agency’s culture and work atmosphere. Also, agencies should always, always, always continue to update their tweets on a daily basis. Without current or updated tweets followers will definitely lose interest. By incorporating interaction and personality, PR agencies should be able to create more interesting tweets that followers will be drawn to reading and responding to. Some examples of interesting tweets I have seen PR agencies post in the past have been tweeting Twitter contests for a client, posting interesting case studies, starting their own hashtag(s) or having Twitter awards for their company.

3. Package the Twitter page as a brand
When PR agencies use their Twitter page to create brand awareness, they should always consider every aspect of their page. For example, the Twitter background, font colors, the avatar picture and the profile section (name, location, Web site and bio). A good example would be digital agency 360i. 360i has a creative, colorful background that represents its company by including the company e-mail, blog URL, Web site URL and other social media sites it belongs to. Incorporating the company’s other social media sites on its Twitter page is a great idea because it will bring attention to all of those different sites and it’s easy for people to find them. Along with other creative settings, 360i’s font colors are the company colors and the avatar picture is the company logo. 360i’s profile section is short, sweet and to the point. In my opinion, Ogilivy PR’s digital Twitter page has a much better bio section because it is creative and more detailed. Agencies need to have an overall inviting Twitter page for their followers and potential followers.

4. Conclusion
PR agencies seem to be having a difficult time being their own client when it comes to social media, especially with Twitter. They need to treat themselves like their own client by forming a strategic social media plan with their goals and objectives thought out. Social media is still new to the business world and a lot of companies are using social media on a trial basis. I think it is good for a company to explore what works and what doesn’t when it comes to social media. If you don’t try it, how will you ever know if it works? Social media is changing the way our society communicates with one another and PR agencies need to start taking more advantage of all the social media opportunities that are out there.