I’m obsessed with social media. I downloaded TikTok as a joke, but now I find myself quoting popular sounds and singing TikTok tunes throughout the day. Naturally, since entering the world of Digital PR, I’ve enjoyed watching how socially led PR campaigns can deliver incredible results.

Most link-building strategies operate separately from social media, with digital PR and social media teams rarely even coordinating. Yet, there’s so much to gain by combining the two to achieve more than just a link KPI. Social-led campaigns can drive impactful engagement, conversions, and, yes, even links. Here’s how it’s done.

What Makes a Socially-Led PR Campaign Successful?

Make it Resonate

When launching a socially-led digital PR campaign, start with research. Tools like Buzzsumo help you identify the most engaging content around specific keywords, giving insight into what resonates on social platforms. Think about what performs well and how you can make it even better. Content that looks good might attract journalists, but how do you reach “Karen on Facebook” and get her to love it enough to share?

Make it Linkable

Create a dedicated landing page on your site that journalists can link back to. Even if it’s as simple as outlining competition terms and conditions, having a linkable asset adds credibility and helps with SEO. Remember to include internal links on this page to pass link value within your site.

Make it Shareable

A strong socially-led digital PR campaign should encourage followers to share. Using high-quality visuals or inviting user-generated content, like asking people to share their own photos, can go a long way. When people want to shout about your campaign, it’s on the path to success.

Strategies for Launching a Socially-Led PR Campaign

Let’s dive into three socially-led PR campaign examples, exploring the strategies behind them and the results they achieved.

The Job of a Lifetime

We’ve all seen “dream job” campaigns—they’re a natural fit for social media due to their shareability. One such campaign involved a company looking for a “spa tester”—a perfect summer job. Here’s how they made it work:

1. They posted a job ad on their website for someone to test infinity pools and hot tubs, creating a linkable asset.
2. Knowing that journalists often need video content, they created a short video with stock footage to add flair to the press release and provide eye-catching visuals for social sharing.
3. They added a competition component, asking people to post a holiday photo, tag the brand, and use a campaign hashtag.

The results were impressive: 170 links from top publications, over 8,000 site visits, a social reach of more than 690,000, and nearly 4,000 applications. Publications and influencers alike shared the campaign widely, with influencers amplifying the brand’s reach to audiences in the hundreds of thousands.

The secret to its success? The concept sold itself. A well-executed campaign with stunning visuals will only go so far if the idea doesn’t resonate with both the audience and the press.

Leveraging Influencers

Another powerful strategy is to collaborate with influencers. Consider this example involving a popular UK drag performer to promote a new product line. Here’s how it worked:

1. The campaign partnered with the drag star to host a Zoom quiz with lucky competition winners, bringing together a much-loved personality with a wide social reach.
2. A landing page was set up to house competition details, terms and conditions, and campaign imagery. This page provided journalists with a credible resource to link to, complete with internal links to other key areas of the site.
3. Once the influencer posted about the competition on Instagram, outreach began, securing exclusive interviews with national, lifestyle, and LGBTQ publications.

The campaign achieved notable results, including links to the campaign page, over 1,000 entries, 35,000 likes on the Instagram post, and a 50% boost in sales for a featured product. This strategy broadened the brand’s audience, drove social engagement, and resulted in valuable press coverage.

Using Social Data for Campaigns

Social media is a treasure trove of data, and it can be especially powerful for reactive content. For instance, one Valentine’s Day campaign dug into the worst chat-up lines people had received, gathering data from platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and dating apps. This collection of cringe-worthy chat-up lines was then turned into on-site content designed to attract links.

The result? Eight new backlinks, including one from a national news outlet, all from a simple, quickly produced piece. This approach harnessed the natural humour and relatability of social interactions to generate press coverage and drive engagement, proving that data from social channels can make for highly shareable and linkable content.

Why Combine Social and PR Strategies?

Socially-led digital PR campaigns bring together multiple channels, enhancing the reach and impact of each. Social media is a valuable platform for amplifying PR campaigns, making them more engaging, memorable, and shareable. Whether through clever influencer collaborations, leveraging social data, or creating interactive campaigns, the possibilities are endless.

So, if you’re planning your next digital PR campaign, consider leading with a social idea. Explore how social engagement can drive traffic, attract links, and generate buzz across multiple channels—social and digital PR really can be a perfect match.