Communicating in the Digital Age: Enhance Your Strategy for Social Media and Public Relations
By: Kae Holloway
For as long as I can remember, the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a writer. Starting in my adolescence, I worked tirelessly to hone my craft and improve my writing skills. Today, I use what I’ve learned to tell the stories of some of our many wonderful clients, bouncing between long-form newsletter writing, to press releases to a short and sweet social media caption. Being able to transition between platforms is key to maintaining an effective communication strategy. I’ve provided a few tips of the trade to make your captions sing, and your longer-form content catch the eyes of future guests.
Stay Savvy on Social Media
The key to effective social media writing is finding your voice and remaining authentic. Your voice, or the personality you infuse into your social media branding, is what dictates how you write captions. Different voices work for different brands. If you compare the language of social media captions written by tech companies, they will greatly differ from ones written by beauty brands. If your destination could speak for itself, what would it say, and how would it be phrased?
You can also determine your voice by researching more about the audiences and markets you want to tap into. Are you hoping to expand the presence of families? Take the approach of a more family-friendly persona, shaping your content and captions around activities for all ages. Above all, though, make sure your social media voice is authentic. People are savvy and quick to distrust brands they don’t feel have genuine interests in mind. Encourage visitation and travel through positive messaging, and by showcasing what makes your destination unique.
At the end of the day, you should also remember that destination social media is supposed to be fun! If you’re stumped coming up with a caption, try thinking of some of your favorite songs or pop culture quotes. Can’t think of something witty to say for a photo of salty sea waves? Play some Beach Boys and wait for inspiration to strike.
Pump Up Your PR Content
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a former journalism professor was, “write like you talk.” This doesn’t mean infuse your blog posts, press releases, newsletters and other long-form content with slang. It means, simply, that you should think about how you would explain something, out loud, to another person.
Let’s use the following example. You work for a brand that is hosting an event. Describe it to me as if I were your friend and you wanted me to go with you. Note what you said and how you prioritized it verbally. You will naturally put the most important information to convince me to attend at the top, filling in your description with details of other exciting offerings throughout. While you may have to alter some language to fit the tone of your brand and event, this is an easy way to get out of your head and get an idea on paper.
Let’s use the same scenario for a different exercise. This time, you’ve hosted the event and your brand wants a recap written for a newsletter or blog post. Take time to remember your experience from that occasion. What was your favorite food that was served? What did you hear? Recalling and writing your sensory memories as part of your brainstorming process can help your content have a sense of place. Put your future reader in the room where it happened. It’s a simple way to elevate your content. Oh, and never forget, the thesaurus is your best friend.
There are a plethora of ways to elevate your writing, regardless of platform. Practice always makes perfect, but the few tips I listed above should help enhance your writing strategies. If you’re interested in learning more about how our powerhouse of writers can help your brand, set up a meeting with one of our Pineapple PR representatives! We can’t wait to hear from you and hear all about what makes you unique.
https://pineapple-pr.com/contact-us/