Social Media & SEO

If you’re thinking about abandoning Twitter to refocus your efforts on Snapchat or Instagram, you may want to reconsider: A whopping 40% of journalists source their stories on Twitter, according to a Cision report. What’s more, Medium reports that almost a quarter of the platform’s verified user base are journalists. And if the 2016 election cycle taught us anything, it’s that Twitter is the center of the online national conversation at any given moment.

As a PR pro, you’ve heard the advice often: Stick to the basics that you learned in Communications 101. It applies in so many situations, including thinking about paid social, according to PR pros we spoke with about the subject. And, yes, all of them have modest budgets for social media.

It’s official: Snapchat has reached phenomenon status. Dunkin’ Donuts, in particular, was one of the earliest brands to start snapping. Melanie Cohn, social media marketing manager at Dunkin’ Brands, will be speaking on Snapchat content strategy at The Social Shake-Up, May 22-24, 2017 in Atlanta. She shares a few of Dunkin’s go-to Snapchat tactics.

Have you ever wondered why some social media posts get tons of engagement, and some get so little? As part of her article in the PR News Writer’s Guidebook, Stephanie Wight, account executive at GYMR Public Relations, analyzed one specific post by the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative.

The PR News Snapchat Boot Camp, Dec. 7 in Washington, D.C., has been programmed to unlock the possibilities and features of the platform. One of the presenters, Katie Keating, program manager for social brand strategy at IBM, has provided us with some of her favorite Snapchat tips in advance.

Donald Trump will be the first leader of the United States who is truly a creature of social media, and this is now being borne out by his YouTube channel Transition 2017. Having so far avoided a post-election news conference longer than anyone elected to the presidency in decades, Trump took his message direct to the people in a video posted to the channel Nov. 21

While Snapchat’s game-like, whimsical interface may not seem to be the obvious go-to for communicators at b2b companies, the platform has plenty to offer any brand looking to explore a new channel for audience growth. Larissa von Lockner, a social media lead and member of PwC’s creative team—who will be speaking at PR News’ The Social Shake-Up on May 23, 2017, in Atlanta—shares some best practices.

Earlier in the month we were surprised when consumer engagement with B2C brands on Facebook during the 3rd quarter (July 1-Sept. 30) was down year over year ( PRN, Nov. 7). The trend continued with nonprofits, this week’s focus. Consumer engagement with nonprofits’ posts on Facebook declined 42% year over year (B2C brands were off just 20%), according to data provided exclusively to PR News Pro by Shareablee. On the upside, video engagement rose 61% vs. the same quarter in 2015. Engagement, or actions, is defined here as the total of likes, comments and shares.

Creative Solution: A tip of the cap for creativity to MyTravelResearch.com (MTR), a firm in Australia that’s taken on the task of publicizing what many in the developed world take for granted: toilets. Nov. 19 was U.N. International Toilet Day, an effort to publicize the need for more toilets, in the developing world especially, and encourage people to use them. The U.N. says 1 in 10 people still defecate without a toilet daily. This, the U.N. says, results in disease, environmental health challenges, increased mortality and lack of productivity at work. It’s also a security issue as sometimes wild animals mistake squatting humans, especially children, for food. The U.N. wants to create adequate toilet provisions globally by 2030. To raise awareness MTR created the Toilet Tourism Awards, whose proceeds will be donated to the U.N.’s effort in the winner’s name.

The Trends: In this age of immediacy, consumers are going digital to find inspiration, tips and answers to all sorts of questions, including preparation of the Thanksgiving turkey. This desire for information to be “on demand” seems paramount in all industries. We’ve observed consumers walking through grocery store aisles not looking at shelves as they consider what to purchase to prepare the perfect meal, but peering down at their phone as their go-to resource. This year, we anticipate a cadre of new holiday chefs—my demographic of older millennials—will be preparing the Thanksgiving turkey for the first time.