Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, whatever you or your clients subscribe to or depend upon, there is an increasing use of social networks for successful PR campaigns. The PR team at Propellernet, manage social media campaigns to build relationships with the media and strengthen the overall communication strategy for clients. They recommend that your target market is identified first and channel to communicate with them is second.

“Over the past 18 months we noticed the media were oftenwriting about tweets they had seen and even having real-time debates on social networks that would appear in the press the next day. Also a whole new concept of writing was born when travel writer, Benji Lanyado, piloted the first TwiTrip – a travel adventure powered simply by twitter users recommendations.

We already have clients with pages on facebook and we use the likes of twitter for our own PR, but some clients have been fearful of joining social communities. They had seen bad examples (think of Habitat’s recent tweets) but were still keen to explore how the growing trend of mini-blogs could communicate their special offers and product news effectively. Without extra budget or a concrete brief we decided to experiment to see how often travel writers use twitter as a news feed and if this could benefit our clients and ultimately maximise coverage. Propellernet Travel was born and its intention is not to amass thousands of twitter followers, but to simply reach those who will find our ‘tweets’ relevant.

“We followed travel writers known to us and key target publications.We also distributed a news alert promoting Propellernet Travel’s launch and within 24 hours we had key national newspaper journalists, freelancers and bloggers as followers. By keeping it as a private feed we control not only who sees our tweets, but also ensure the content is relevant to our followers. We can interact with the travel writers, suggest topical feature ideas and alert them if we have availability on a press trip. We were also able to help with the Guardian’s recent TwiTrip of Brighton by sending our tips of where to find hidden gems in the City, top spots for lunch and the best places to go for a drink! The result is a feed followed by national travel journalists, freelance writers, trade press and bloggers. Within a short-space of time we have naturally developed awareness of the feed and continue to build on our followers who will benefit from our tweets and social network interaction."

Twitter can be important communication tool for PRs. Controlled and managed well it can drive business to your site and communicate your brands values to potential customers on a social level. Propellernet see the importance of social networks in aiding the wider online strategy and SEO tactics, while understanding the importance of managing the feed sensitively to avoid any possible social-media crisis.

• http://www.propellernet.co.uk/