fans questions so they can generate colorful commentary . For example , Marvel asks its fans for thoughts on movie releases and games . And across the company ' s Twitter accounts , hashtags are sprinkled in . The handy little # symbol categorizes tweets by topic and can make a huge difference . Case in point : When the NBA held its slam-dunk contest this year , viewers were asked to vote for favorite dunks using # spriteslam as the hashtag . Likewise , # spriteslam was tweeted 50,000 times in the first two minutes it appeared onscreen . But be sure to check your hashtags ahead of time . The pithy phrase may already be in use , and it may not be in line with your branding . Likewise , have a fresh pair of eyes look over the hashtag . Susan Boyle ' s # Susanalbumparty was a PR disaster .
5 . Listen to your fans . When Tasti D-Lite ' s technology and digital marketing exec noticed a fan tweeting about potentially buying from the dessert company later in the day , he offered her a Tasti D-Lite coupon and she continued to tweet about how pleased she was with this interaction . This took less than a few minutes to do , but think of how effective it was . Along the same lines , when a Phoenix Suns fan sent out a tweet and photo complaining about a bad seat at a Suns game , the Suns social media team offered the unhappy fan a special seat in a suite . His resulting tweets were positive and influenced his huge audience .
6 . Publish killer content . What makes content good ? It has to be engaging enough that people want to share it . Ask yourself is this relevant to my audience ? Does it answer a question ? Does it provide entertainment ? Do you have share buttons next to your content to make it easy for your readers to share it with their friends ?
And remember , you don ' t have to generate all the content . Ask your audience members to guest blog , which will enable you to reach their audiences , too .
7 . Develop a social media strategy . Of course , none of this makes sense if you don ' t have goals and longterm thinking in mind . Just like anything else , you don ' t want to throw your brand out into the social mediasphere all willy-nilly . Having a strategy will help you plan ahead for contests and such , and it helps you to shape your message . Keep in mind : Any good social media strategy should address the good ( contests and coupons ) and the bad and the ugly ( customer complaints ).
PR TIMES AFRICA
VOL 1 . JULY 2015 1ST EDITION
33