JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – The development of information technology has influenced the work of PR, especially in terms of developing strategies to build communication on social media. According to Cecilia Gandes, the Social Media Assistant of Harian Kompas, the first step is to first determine the purpose of using social media. “When we know the purpose of using social media, the character of social media and the targeted audience, then it will be easier for us to package content,” she said.

Cecilia mentioned that there are two types of social media audiences, the first is rational and the second is emotional. Audiences with the rational type prefer content in the form of data exposure, infographic, and chronological story. Meanwhile, the audiences with the emotional types prefer content that uses storytelling and analogy. “For this type of audience, we must be able to translate the data into a simpler language,” she said.

Cecilia invited the audience to identify several ideas sources that can make content attracts the attention of netizens. The first is important days. “The content that we create will then be adjusted to the company’s products or campaigns,” she said.

The second is trend. A trend can be responded spontaneously, depending on the readiness. Based on her experience, Cecilia usually refers to the conversations on Twitter. Another method is to ask directly to the audience, it is simple and only needs minimal budget. “Invite them to chat via social media. Netizens are happy when we respond,” she said. The conversation is not only useful for increasing engagement and strategy for mapping the audience but also can provide insight for us when we are creating content.

According to the Needs

The keys to creating content on social media are creative, contextual, relevant, collaboration, and consistent. When all of that has been applied, then the strategy is to package the conversation. According to Cecilia, the conversation should be built naturally. The communication style that is used is the everyday language.

Storytelling can be the answer. “Storytelling began to trend because the writing style is like storytelling. When telling stories, the audience doesn’t feel like they are being patronized,” Cecilia said. She continued, the important skill to create good storytelling is copywriting and flow selection.

The power of storytelling feels even more powerful when it’s applied in the form of video. The common thread is the flow. Then, start from the problem, its journey, and to the closing. When creating a story, conduct research, especially a research related to history and plot. “When we know the plot of the story based on data, the story will get stronger,” she said and added that another important thing is the look of the content.

According to Cecilia, the advantage of managing relations on social media is that PR can see the level of audience loyalty. To increase loyalty to PR campaigns, it can be done through idea exploration, creating an editorial plan, and archiving campaigns. If it works, the strategy can be continued. Cecilia summarized five stages of a campaign on social media, namely awareness (introduce the problem to the audience), a feel (visual interest and the story that is presented), ask (invite the audience to actively ask), actions (start ad move with the audience). At this stage, the audience begins to invite their friends to follow the content created. (mai)