"Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics." - CIPR
Public relations is about building and maintaining reputations, reputations that are built on fact and maintained by trust.
We see what happens when brands and businesses do not the importance of Public Relations and communications with their "publics"; anyone they need to communicate effectively with including stakeholders, employees, customers and the media into consideration. One of the most obvious and urgent impacts being PR disasters and cristes. By understanding PR you can understand how it can be used to improve your business credibility, raise visibility and enhance communications. Whether you choose to hire a PR Agency, publicist, PR consultant to help you with your public relations or you choose to do it yourself it is important to understand the fundamentals.
In this video Ariatu PR Founder, Ronke Lawal, provides a simple yet hopefully effective definition of Public Relations (PR) and it's overall impact on society at large. Whilst we work primarily with business clients it is still important to understand the influence that PR has on our communities and society as a whole.
Social media is a powerful way of developing relationships with consumers and audiences. There are a number of social media platforms which give businesses and business owners a way to actively engage and communicate with their audiences. Businesses can make money by using social media effectively as well as manage their reputations and build lasting relationships based on trust. Trust building is often overlooked when considering social media use, many customers are using social media to send feedback to businesses and how a business responds or deals with feedback can leave a lasting impression. The 6 social media platforms that I discuss in this video are; Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and periscope (which is now part of twitter). In this video I talk you through 6 social media platforms which are very popularly (many of which are currently evolving and changing) that can be added to your PR and marketing mix and help you raise your business brand's visibility. Social media is not something to be dismissed when it comes to promoting your business. You have to learn how social media can make an impact on your business brand and not overlook it's immense power.
Here are 6 more social media platforms that will improve a business profile.
The following quote is attributed to M. Booth and Associates, Inc. as taken from a Reader’s Digest story called, Promoting Issues and Ideas. It does a great job of illustrating the differences between Marketing, PR and Sales and also how they are all so important to create an overall business strategy for a business. What do you think?
“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying ‘Circus coming to the Fairground Saturday’, that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If you did all of this on purpose, that’s marketing. If the towns citizens go to the circus, you show them the entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.
It is so important in my business to be clear that PR is a sustained range of activities which can create increased coverage and builds brand credibility but it is NOT sales. Of course that is not to say that it will not lead to increased sales but in and of itself it is not the solution to sales.
It’s so important for entrepreneurs to remember that they are brand ambassadors for their business, all too often many forget how influential their brand profiles can be and the impact it can have on their overall PR & Media image.
Here are just a few simple tips that every entrepreneur should keep in mind when representing their business and implementing PR as part of their core marketing strategy.
- Invest in good visuals for your business or yourself. The power of a good quality image is under estimated. As an individual get some good studio images and head shots (not selfies). For products get good quality product shots, they really do help sales particularly for online impact and social media sharing.
- Be your own biggest cheerleader. Be your own most adoring fan. If you’re doing something amazing SHARE IT! Don’t wait for people to celebrate you. Start sharing your greatness from wherever you are and the recognition will come. Don’t let anyone else’s limitations keep you from seeing what you’re capable of. Release any notions that you cannot be great in your life. Be bold, brave and dare to be different. Not only will it make you stand out from other entrepreneurs but you will encourage and inspire others to be great too.
- Think before you tweet! Your social media presence should be a reflection of your business/personal brand. Whether you are the owner of a business or an employee everything you share online can easily be traced back to your brand so be wise. If you’re using social media be confident that you’re happy with what you share and always assess your intentions before sharing. Screenshots and re-posts mean that nothing on social media can ever really be erased.
- Be who you want to see! Represent your personal/business brand authentically and confidently both offline and online. Carry yourself in the manner in which you want to be identified as. Don’t try to replicate or impersonate anyone else, be true to yourself.
- Be mindful of who you share personal & private information with, as idle gossip can turn into a PR disaster too quickly. As your personal/business brand grows the number of people you can trust falls. Sad but true so be careful when sharing personal info. You will find that the more successful you become the more ‘friends’ you suddenly have, be wise and pay attention.
Leave a comment and let me know your experiences of growing your personal/business brand. You may also enjoy watching this video which offers more PR Tips for business growth:
In this video I discuss the 3 traditional media platforms that business owners and entrepreneurs still love to receive coverage on/in. Despite the rise of new media and technology it seems that traditional media still makes an impact in PR for most business owners. Traditional media covers media communications channels that existed before the rise of tech and social media so Television, Newspapers, Radio and Magazines. When it comes to media relations traditional media outlets are no longer enough and co-exist with new media platforms.
I would love to hear your thoughts in terms of the changing media environment and what the future holds for these media platforms.
Don't forget to tweet in touch! https://twitter.com/ronkelawal
