How do you create an engaged audience?

        It is important to know who the audience that you are trying to engage is. You can truly gain access to anyone via social media but to truly grab the attention of those is to research your audience. What is the demographic of your current audience? Is that demographic the same for the target audience that you want to attain? These are important measures to be aware of and make note of.

       Creating a plan and knowing the proper tools is imperative to know the important ways to know how to reach your audiences. Many local businesses claim their business page on Yelp and that can be a great way to get a local business the attention that they may need in the community. Having a strategic plan, for a social media campaign is imperative. "After you have determined this overarching set of goals, then it will be easier to determine [which] metrics make the most sense. "| (Breakenridge, 2012). For example, having a hashtag or promoting a account or company for a like or a follow could give an individual an entry into a contest.  This can create major productivity.

         The ice bucket challenge that was done a few years back that truly went viral was a huge success. “Using our media intelligence platform, we see that the ice bucket challenge was mentioned 170,000 times in news media in the second half of 2014. Slacktivism was mentioned in conjunction with it 3,000 times. Though this number represents a small portion of total mentions, it nonetheless reveals a trending association.” (Vance, 2017). It was a low touch but high engagement. It didn’t require much except water, ice, some clothes you didn’t mind getting wet in, water bucket and camera to capture it all. This contest stole the hearts of millions and even got many celebrities not only to participate but to donate. This social media video campaign brought awareness to ALS and brought in tons of money that has been contributing to finding a cure.  The organization had a clear goal and mission and it was accomplished!

References

Breakenridge, D. (2012). Social media and public relations: eight new practices for the PR

professional. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

Vance, J. (2017, February 22). Social Media and PR: Insights from the Ice Bucket 

        Challenge on Creating Lasting Impact — Meltwater. Retrieved from      

        https://www.meltwater.com/blog/social-media-and-pr-insights-from-the-ice-

        bucket-challenge-on-creating-lasting-impact/