Tips for keeping the buzz going all summer long

Most businesses experience a slower pace during the summer months, while employees and customers take vacations. But just because summer is here doesn’t mean companies should stop their PR efforts.

Here are some tips to keep customers and prospects engaged with your business during the vacation months:

  • Take advantage of holiday weeks. Many businesses are loathe to make any big announcements during the weeks leading up to and following a holiday. However, reporters are itching for good stories. Use the slow work week to your benefit by offering content or setting up an interview, but first make sure your execs will be available for comment. Be sure to build in more time for the story than usual, since reporters are likely to be short-handed.
  • Give your news a summer theme. What does the birth of our nation teach us about software development? How would your product be used by our Founding Fathers? Giving your content a festive edge grabs your customers’ attention and keeps them engaged.
  • Predict midyear trends. The summer is the halfway mark for the business year, which provides companies an opportunity to comment on the industry and predict where your industry is moving next. Give your prospects something to look forward to with thoughtful trends for the remainder of the year.
  • Go on vacation with your audiences. Well, not with them. Stay connected with audiences by making your news available on the channels they are likely to keep up with, even on the beach. Instead of sending an email newsletter, push your news out to Facebook or Twitter.
  • Reach your audiences on the best time and day. Make your communications efficient by reaching out to your audiences when they are likely to be looking for content. A study conducted by Compendium of its 300+ clients reveals that Twitter is most active between 10 am and 2 pm, Facebook is checked around noon and again late in the afternoon, and LinkedIn is read most often in the early morning and again right after lunch. The same study shows that people are most likely to click on Twitter posts on Wednesday, and on LinkedIn posts on Monday. A study by Shareaholic shows that blogging on Monday results in more page views than any other day of the week, accounting for 43 percent of all weekly traffic.
  • Get hashtag happy. Drive click traffic by using hashtags on Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest. According to the Compendium study, hashtags can boost your content to “trending” status. Also, on social networks such as Twitter, one to five words is the golden range to attract clicks; for LinkedIn, the number is somewhat higher.
This entry was posted in Brand Awareness, Clarus Communications, Content marketing, Media Relations, Online Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media. Bookmark the permalink.

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