Notes

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

That are "your publics" anyway? Well, it's not just the public. A small business benefits from good relationships with board and workers, distributors, service providers, potential prospects, present and past customers, businesses near your office, businesses in an allied field, other business folks who can steer customers to 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 clean up and plant shrubs in a pocket park in a blighted urban neighborhood - ought to be an integral part of your overall, ongoing online marketing strategy.

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

With today's diverse and fragmented media venues, it's difficult to learn where to send your news - or, frankly, what about you could be newsworthy. More often than not, it's hard to convince busy media of the news worthiness of your story.

Haven't any real news at this time? 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 didn't have any particular news, but upon learning from her that many folks get engaged at Valentine's Day, I called area newspapers using that nugget and offering her up as an area expert. The effort led to an interview of her by her area newspaper!

Writing and submitting articles for publication is really a strategy that elevates your reputation and could enable you to get business. For my clients who have written articles, I've placed these in national and regional magazines. Being published, furthermore, gave the author additional online presence as the articles are "found" by Web search engines.

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

You cannot physically appear everywhere. Nevertheless, you can virtually "be" everyw here . The advent of Blogging platforms 2.0 has presented marketing and PR folks with new challenges along with opportunities to reach a wider audience and receive comments and opinions. PR and marketing professionals alike obtain 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, along with other tactics.

10 Tactics

There are lots of avenues a possible client may travel before contacting you, so consider integrating these 10 tactics in to the PR/Marketing mix:

1. actively network in person,
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 your presentation on your web site and YouTube,
9. produce a "give away" item carrying your logo and telephone number.
10. Keep in contact periodically together 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, it's not hard to find talent to activate for projects. Ask your business network or check with the neighborhood chapter of PR Society of America (www.prsa-ncc.org) or the Independent PR Alliance (www.ipra.org [http://www.ipra.org]).

Suzanne T. Fulton can be an independent pr consultant located in Northern Virginia. Contact [email protected]
Read More: https://youclerks.com/tips-for-safe-travel-keeping-yourself-and-your-belongings-protected-abroad/