Notes

PR Primer
Public relations is about reputation management - obtaining a good reputation and keeping it so customers will see you and use your services or products. PR really does mean relationships together with your publics.

That are "your publics" anyway? Well, it's not just the public. A small business advantages from good relationships with board and workers, distributors, service providers, potential customers, present and past customers, businesses near your office, businesses within an allied field, other business folks who can steer customers for you, sources of capital perhaps, and the media.

Strategies and Tactics

Pr strategies and tactics - like commemorating your company's 25th anniversary or donating your staff members' time to tidy up and plant shrubs in a pocket park in a blighted urban neighborhood - should be an integral part of your overall, ongoing marketing strategy.

Garnering good coverage by the media conveys credibility or endorsement. Therefore, an article about your business is remembered by readers a lot more than an ad.

With today's diverse and fragmented media venues, it's difficult to learn where to send your news - or, frankly, think about you may well be newsworthy. Generally, it's hard to convince busy media of the news worthiness of one's story.

Don't have any real news right now? Consider informing reporters and editors about your expertise in your field - position yourself as a resource to be quoted - best timed in connection with hot national news or a new trend. For example, my wedding planner client did not have any particular news, but upon learning from her that lots of folks get engaged at ROMANTIC DAYS CELEBRATION, I called area newspapers using that nugget and offering her up as a local expert. The effort resulted in an interview of her by her area newspaper!

Writing articles for publication is a strategy that elevates your reputation and may bring you business. For my clients who've written articles, I have placed these in national and regional magazines. Being published, furthermore, gave the writer additional online presence because the articles are "picked up" by Web search engines.

Face-to-face networking is an important pr strategy widely employed but not necessarily effectively by way of a lot of people. In fact, many folks are uncomfortable meeting new people. One way to overcome the anxiety and maximize the business enterprise networking opportunity is to plan to employ listening skills and consider how to be of value to each person with whom you shake hands and exchange business cards. Giving gets!

more info cannot physically appear everywhere. But you can virtually "be" everywhere. The advent of Blogging platforms 2.0 has presented marketing and PR folks with new challenges and opportunities to attain a wider audience and receive comments and opinions. PR and marketing professionals alike get their company's or client's messages across via online resources such as ezines, presentations on YouTube or the firm's intranet, social and business networking sites, podcasts, webinars, RSS feeds, and other tactics.

10 Tactics

There are numerous avenues a potential customer may travel before contacting you, so consider integrating these 10 tactics into the PR/Marketing mix:

1. actively network face to face,
2. have a specialist online presence
3. use examples and testimonials to illustrate your worth;
4. help a charity and share that news,
5. host or sponsor a special event,
6. optimize your web site for search,
7. make presentations about your industry,
8. post a video of one's presentation on your internet site and YouTube,
9. produce a "give away" item carrying your logo and telephone number.
10. Keep in contact periodically with your customers past and present as well as your business allies

Get Professional Help

If you don't have the methods to employ a public relations professional, you can find talent to engage for projects. Ask your organization network or talk with the local chapter of Public Relations Society of America (www.prsa-ncc.org) or the Independent PR Alliance (www.ipra.org [http://www.ipra.org]).

Suzanne T. Fulton is an independent public relations consultant situated in Northern Virginia. Contact [email protected]
Homepage: https://writeablog.net/ashley72skinner/pr-primer-w9wf