PR agencies tend to get caught up in client work, failing to realize that they need a solid marketing strategy like any other company, to keep attracting new clients.
As Forbes Agency Council expert Chelimar Miranda rightly puts it, it's incredibly challenging to prioritize "unpaid" work over paid work. However, it's imperative to keep marketing yourself or there won't be any more paid work!
One of the best ways to get your PR agency noticed by potential clients is by coming up with a social media strategy focused on connecting with your audience, gaining trust, and strengthening brand reputation.
Let’s take a look at how PR agencies can leverage social media to win new clients and improve retention.
Creating a social media strategy for a PR agency
1. Share content that positions you as a leader
Imagine following a company on social media that blatantly promotes its services. It gets mundane after a while, doesn’t it?
As a PR agency, you’re expected to be an expert in the field of public relations so why not use social media content to demonstrate your expertise? Doing this will help you appeal to new clients while imparting value and maximizing social reach.
Here are some social media content ideas that can help you build authority:
- Post educational and thought leadership content
- Share unique insights on current issues and trends
- Publish original research or survey data
- Conduct live interviews
- Promote authoritative content pieces such as blog posts, webinars, eBooks, and whitepapers among others
Here’s an example from BCW Global that throws light on their original research (Twiplomacy study) and helps them build authority.
Instead of spamming timelines with promotional content, create social media posts that offer meaningful value, spark conversations, and engage your audience. This will give your potential clients a reason to follow you, helping you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
2. Create original and engaging visuals
Social media is a visual platform but it’s certainly not enough to publish stock photos, expecting them to do the trick.
A huge part of a winning social media content strategy lies in the effective use of visuals. The right visuals can help you grab attention and drive engagement.
It’s interesting to note that:
- Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images
- LinkedIn posts with images result in a 98% higher comment rate
Create original social media visuals to complement your posts and augment your communication. Here are some types of visuals you can create for social media:
- Illustrations
- Infographics
- Videos
- GIFs
- Graphs and charts
- Original photos
For instance, here’s a good example of an original social media graphic by Weber Shandwick. They created a chart to show their commitment to promoting diversity in their workplace.
As per Venngage’s latest graphic design trends infographic, social media slide decks have become very popular in recent times. Commonly seen on Instagram and LinkedIn, slide decks constitute a string of static images or videos. They are a great way to communicate a lot of information without overwhelming the reader.
Here’s an example of a social slide deck on Instagram by FleishmanHillard which talks about one of their initiatives, Remix in Action.
3. Highlight client testimonials and case studies
You can talk all you want about how good a PR agency you are but nothing beats third-party validation.
When potential clients get insight into the work you’ve done, brands you’ve worked with, or see your clients lauding your work—it increases your brand credibility and helps them trust your agency.
Make it a point to highlight client testimonials and showcase case studies through your social media posts. You can create visuals to share client testimonials and tag them in the caption.
On the other hand, as case studies are longer, it might not be a good idea to publish the entire case study on social media.
Instead, you can create mini-infographics or illustrations to highlight the success you achieved along with a link to the entire case study in the caption, enticing people to click on it.
Here’s an example of Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Facebook post that talks about the work they did for UNIQLO in Thailand.
4. Showcase your employees
Your team makes up your PR agency and they are undoubtedly your greatest asset. When clients choose to work with you, they are essentially trusting the people behind your brand.
So why not take to social media to give a peek into your company culture and showcase your employees? Not only does this humanize your PR firm but also promotes a positive company culture.
In an article by The Drum, Reflect Digital’s Becky Simms points out that when agency values coincide with potential clients, there is a positive impact on the business.
At Reflect Digital we do a four-day working week. When we brought that in last year we got a lot of press around it, and we won clients off the back of it because they loved the culture and they love that we put our staff first.
Here are some ways to showcase your employees on social media:
- Do an employee spotlight feature where you recognize and acknowledge an employee every month
- Publish short interviews with employees
- Share new hire updates
- Promote awards and recognition
- Go behind-the-scenes and do a virtual tour of the office
For instance, Edelman has an ‘Inside Edelman’ series where they feature an employee every week who shares their thoughts on a specific topic.
5. Monitor conversations
In addition to posting helpful content that engages your audience, it’s also important to make social media monitoring an integral part of your content strategy.
Social media monitoring involves listening to what people are saying about your brand, clients, competitors, and industry. The idea is to proactively monitor conversations and stay ahead of the game.
Here are a few uses of social media monitoring for PR agencies:
- Understand your client’s needs and add value
- Get insights into your client’s target market
- Find leads on LinkedIn
- Identify opportunities for prospective clients to tailor your pitch presentation
- Forge strategic partnerships with companies in a similar niche
- Keep track of competitors
You can also learn all about using social monitoring for PR from The Complete Social Media Listening Guide for Public Relations and get inspired by tips and examples to add to your strategy.
6. Analyze data and draw conclusions
To make sure that your marketing and PR activities drive results, you need to analyze the right metrics.
Here are two guides about metrics to follow, along with tips on how to efficiently use them:
👉🏼 Share of Voice in PR: How to Calculate Your Brand SOV
👉🏼 Media Mentions Guide: How to Track Media Mentions Effectively
We have also prepared special guides about PR metrics to leave behind (and what to use instead):
👉🏼 What is UVPM aka Domain Reach in PR? (UVPM metric alternatives)
👉🏼 What is Advertising Value Equivalency in PR? (+ AVE Alternatives)
The takeaway: win new PR clients with a strong social media strategy
With the number of social media platforms available, it’s easy to get inundated. You might think you need to be present on every platform but that’s not true. What’s important is focusing on the platform where your target audience is.
While PPC marketing and other advertising tactics help you expand reach, these organic social media content tactics can help you win new PR clients by providing value, engaging audiences, and gaining trust.
Ready to take your agency to the next level? Prowly has all you need to support your PR agency goals – be it more clients, improved retention, or higher retainers.
