5 Ways to Use Facebook as a PR Tool to Change Public Perception

Public relations has changed a lot in recent years. While there are many digital tools and channels available, one that has emerged as a leader for brand management might come as a surprise to some business owners. The social media giant that is constantly innovating to help connect friends and serve advertisers in new, fun ways is also an undeniable PR tool. We’re talking about Facebook, of course.

Facebook is extremely useful for sharing your brand message in a targeted and personalized way, and that in turn makes it a powerful avenue to manage your company’s reputation. It’s a great place to make first impressions, but it can be just as effective for helping to improve and strengthen public perception. Some people may have been dissatisfied with previous experiences or actively dislike your brand for other reasons. Some may not know you exist, or have misconceptions about your industry or brand that could be addressed.

In today’s post, we’ll discuss five ways to use Facebook as a PR tool to position (or reposition) your brand in a positive light.

5 Ways to Use Facebook for PR

When Facebook debuted in 2004, it was a platform for college students to connect. Facebook’s audience was narrow and its capabilities were limited—for a brief period. As Facebook expanded beyond college campuses, marketers quickly capitalized on the new communication reality. But many PR professionals were hesitant, following a conservative “control the message” mantra. Traditional press releases were static statements, aimed at minimizing reputation damage after a negative situation, or promoting events, product releases or other news to present the best points. Public relations was a strategic and sometimes delicate process—and social media was unknown territory where anyone’s message could go viral or spin out of control.

Fast forward to today, social media is so ubiquitous that public relations tactics must accommodate its role. However, social media presents new challenges that continue to make managing PR a tightrope walk. Users run the show, and a poorly written post can cause a storm of public reaction, or a hashtag can be hijacked to undermine its original purpose. However, using social media for public relations outreach also provides the opportunity to reach audiences that can be targeted and personalized based on solid data. This tactic allows you to put the best message in front of the right people, be it customers, partners or journalists.

1. Utilize Social Listening

The easiest way to seem out of touch is to not listen. It’s critical to pay attention to not only to your customers and followers, but also your target audience and other brands, especially your competitors. Social listening allows you to tune in to how and where your own brand is being discussed, and much more. Tools like Hootsuite, Talkwaker, and Simply Measured (to name a few) can help you keep an ear to the topics that are important in your industry and customer conversations (via keywords and hashtags). You can also learn what activity leads to more engagement. Having this information can help you tailor your content and tone. Importantly, social listening can also help identify potential problems in real time and catch negative reviews to which you may be able to respond and resolve.

2. Find and Connect with Influencers

Social listening will help you identify the influencers that are important to both your industry and your audience. Establishing a relationship with these influencers can help make your brand more credible and approachable. You cannot and should not control influencer reactions—consumers can see through a company shill—but enabling authentic reactions and reviews of your products and services helps build your reputation in powerful ways.

3. Promote Informative Content

Whether it’s content posted straight to your Facebook page (e.g., videos, infographics or other helpful content) or blog articles you’re promoting through Facebook, sharing content that educates consumers about your industry, products and services goes a long way to help establish your company as a go-to source for trustworthy information. Consider the fact that half of all internet users will search for product and service videos before they ever set foot in a store. In today’s social world, consumers not only expect you to be on social media; they also expect you to provide helpful content. Being a visible, easy-to-find brand with content that answers their questions and provides ideas and inspiration can be what makes you top-of-mind for solutions and purchases.

4. Strategically Start and Join Conversations

Direct engagement with your audience can make a memorable impression. This engagement personalizes your business and allows you to show your human side. Be sure to leverage social listening to understand which topics deserve attention and present opportunities to showcase your shared values. Trying to start a conversation about a topic of little interest to your customers is sure to fall flat and could potentially hurt your reputation.

Facebook now offers a potent tool for even more engagement: Facebook Live. Videos are already one of the top drivers for engagement, and live viewers comment 10x as often as viewers of normal video. Perception lifts dramatically by having a conversation in real time when your audience can interact with a real person in your company.

5. Engage Your Audience and Facilitate Communication

PR today encompasses everything your company does in communication with your audience. That means that in your everyday Facebook activity, authenticity and transparency are critical. Every post, share and comment is an opportunity to humanize your company and make it easier to relate to and trust. Encourage engagement such as sharing, likes and reactions. Actively engage your customers whenever you can.

Facebook Messenger has recently come to the forefront as a facilitator of brand-audience communication, making it helpful for improving customer service. Messenger is private and secure, which means that certain kinds of sensitive information can be shared, and it can be used from the Facebook website or a mobile app, adding to customer convenience. Since most Facebook users already use this method of communication, it reduces the number of steps they have to take to interact with your customer service team. These factors build goodwill and trust.

Ultimately, Facebook can serve as an exceptional and cost-effective way for businesses to stay on top of potential problems while creating more positive customer interactions. By utilizing social listening, identifying influencers, providing relevant, valuable content and practicing easy, transparent communication, you’ll find that Facebook is indispensable as a PR tool.