Social Media & PR: Twitter Chat with Alicia Lawrence @Alicia_Lw #VCBuzz

Post on by VC Bee

alicia-vcbuzzWe’ve talked about social PR previously with @lisabuyer and today we have another great expert to teach us public relations! Please meet Alicia Lawrence @Alicia_Lw

**To join us please sign in here -> Twchat.com/hashtag/vcbuzz

About Alicia

.@Alicia_Lw is writer for @PRDaily and @MuckRack, content coordinator at @WebpageFX and … a Disney Princess (wow!)

Please circle Alicia on Google Plus and connect to her on LinkedIn

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a PR professional? What brought you into online marketing and writing?

In college, I originally went into video but also chose #PR as my double major because 2 aptitude tests suggested it. I also decided to add a journalism degree because I loved writing and thought it would bring a unique perspective to PR. During and after college, I interned at both an agency and a non-profit doing PR, particularly social media and blogging. During my last internship, I heard of an agency looking for someone to do online PR. That’s how I joined @webpageFX

What started as mostly link building for @webpageFX has morphed into social PR & content marketing. The writing aspect came from guest posting for links. I saw so much value in it that I started blogging on my own.

Q2 How has PR changed thanks to social media?

Social Media opens the door for better listening, engaging, helping and communicating with consumers. PR is now a 2-way street thanks to social media and it gives us a unique perspective into what consumers really want. It also opens doors in media pitching/ link building / reaching out to influencers easily and sparking WOM.

Social media will continue to transform how we do public relations and communicate to all publics.

Q3 How can one use social media to build connections with journalists?

Social Media provides great avenues to

  1. Find influencers/journalists talking about your subject using tools like @buzzsumo
  2. Interact with journalists to build up a trusting relationship and 3) Get valuable shoutouts by influencers

Start by creating a list on Twitter, circle on Google+ (or any other platform) to keep track of core journalists/bloggers. Interact with them at least a few times a week through RTs, shares, replies. Don’t hound them with pitches!! Just be helpful!

Yes I use Hootsuite and @buzzsumo to interact and keep up with the right influencers.

I also use buzzstream to organize my contacts (including their socials) since I have to many

Q4 Very special questions! Last month you won #MBUstorm challenge? How did you do it? Did you like participating? Do you plan entering the New Year’s #MBUstorm challenge?

I loved participating in #MBUstorm! I found it very useful to get ideas/inputs for my articles and even for client campaigns.  Since I blog a lot, I have quite a few friends who were willing to vote for me when I sent out the link. Many of them now plan to compete in the New Year’s #myblogu challenge.

I do plan on participating in New Year’s #MBUstorm but I don’t plan to compete ?  I still use #myblogu at least once a week so I’m sure you’ll see me giving my 2 cents in interviews and brainstorms ?

Q5 You seem to write a lot! What’s your writing productivity secret?

It took a long time to build up my ability to write quickly. My first posts took at least 8 hour each!! Now I knock one out in 2 hours. Read about my writing process here.

In order write well you just have to write often! I also have a core group of writers I follow and try to emulate in my own style.

For starters read @copybloggers and get the snackable course onenchantingmarketing.com

When I get stuck or in a jam I do use a ghostwriter for clients ? I heavily edit and send a detailed outline. Especially for niche clients, it’s always better to find an expert writer and then you edit for SEO and great copy. I also have a list of around 100 sentences that I love and pull from for inspiration ?

I also follow @neilpatel‘s posts and a few others. I’ll gather a list and publish a post about it on MarCom Land ?

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