The New Comms Tool You Need To Engage Your Audience

SocialBoost™, a new social media widget from PR Newswire, powered by SoSha, provides the cost-effective, high-impact organic toolkit communications pros are looking for.

In today’s noisy and oversaturated media environment, your job as a communicator to reach audiences is only getting more demanding. However, relying on the same messaging strategies used before won’t work to alleviate the escalating challenges you’ll face for a few critical reasons:

1. A Shrinking Traditional Media Sector: As traditional media has contracted, and with social media becoming a common news source for many people, communications professionals compete over the attention of a shrinking pool of journalists who can get their news to the public. While pitching journalists your news is still a valid strategy, it’s not the “end all, be all” of a successful messaging strategy.
2. Lack of Diverse Press Release Distribution Plans: Press releases have been and continue to be highly effective tools for communicating an organization’s news. But with an average of 53% of journalists receiving more than 50 pitches per week, not having a broader distribution plan across media outlets to reach target audiences may result in a barely-read release with little to no impact.
3. Inefficient Use of Owned Media: Many organizations use owned media, such as websites or official brand social media accounts, to post critical news and announcements. Yet they often fail to follow through with paid advertising or a comprehensive marketing plan to get those messages in front of audiences, hoping audiences will automatically consume and promote the content. These “post-and-pray” messaging strategies often give the illusion of productivity but ultimately don’t generate many online shares — attracting a fraction of the engagement a message should receive.

These are just a few critical challenges communicators face today in successfully reaching their target audiences. But how does a communicator overcome these obstacles? The answer lies in diversifying your use of strategies and communications outreach tools through the power of social media to maximize the range and scope of your message’s reach.

Thankfully, SoSha has recently teamed up with PR Newswire, the most recognizable and trusted source for news distribution and marketing solutions, to produce a powerful new solution to add to your toolbox.

SocialBoost is a social media widget that innovates on the ubiquitous social media share buttons companies have used for years in news releases and digital content to get audiences to share content with their online networks.

SocialBoost provides easily customizable, shareable social media posts that can be embedded in email newsletters, websites, blog posts, and more.

Here’s how SocialBoost works:

1. Goodbye, Writer’s Block: SocialBoost allows companies to draft customizable, pre-written posts with accompanying images and links for multiple social media platforms, virtually eliminating the writer’s block their audiences face when crafting a social post from scratch. These draft posts show up seamlessly as readers read a press release so they can be shared easily to readers’ preferred social networks without having to sign into third-party sites or share their social media credentials.
2. Balancing Brand Messaging with User Customizability: Pre-drafted posts increase the likelihood that sharers will ultimately post key elements of drafted messaging — enabling companies and organizations using PR Newswire to drive the conversation around their brand and presenting one of the most effective ways of utilizing owned media to influence your earned media strategies.
   SocialBoost utilizes the high levels of trust in personal connections online to amplify messaging by providing extensive post customizability your audiences can use to amplify their unique voices and thoughts on your content.
3. Data-Driven: Unlike many other earned media methods, SocialBoost provides a comprehensive analytics report with the critical social media post performance insights necessary to modify and improve your messaging to maximize engagement.

SocialBoost is a natural tool for communications professionals, as it follows the core principles of earned media strategies: an emphasis on trust and authenticity through “word-of-mouth” publicity, absence of payment to the content publisher, and decentralized brand messaging.

Already SocialBoost produced significant boosts in content visibility for users. One Fortune 50 company experienced a staggering 1,900% share increase over their releases without SocialBoost. PR Newswire even used SocialBoost to promote its press release announcing the tool’s launch, generating a 5,320% increase in online shares.

SocialBoost is a cost-effective, high-impact addition to a well-surrounded communications outreach toolbox. Today’s media landscape provides several obstacles that no tool can overcome alone. But by developing an omnichannel communications strategy and including a cutting-edge organic social media tool like Socialboost into your overall communications approach, your comms strategy will have the leg up it needs to reach larger audiences more efficiently.

To learn more, visit https://www.prnewswire.com/socialboost/.

Written by: Michael Roach, Content & Communications Lead, SoSha