7 Helpful Public Relations Tips.

Ensuring your business success means getting your name out there and becoming well-known and respected. Whilst word of mouth and recommendations are a valuable and free resource, it may take some time to get those factors to come into play, and then, it can be fleeting. For your company to operate at optimum capacity and to become note-worthy and long-lasting, you need a beneficial and ongoing PR strategy.

Here are some tips on how to make the general public get to know, trust and use your business.

Get involved in community projects.

Family and community are matters that are close to people’s hearts and investing time, money, and energy in local community groups can gain you some respect and positive social standing within the community. Allow your business to be seen as supporters of local community groups, such as children’s sporting teams, or special interest groups, such as being an advocate for mental health.

Work those social media platforms.

Social media is everywhere and any reputable business utlises these facilities. An estimated 82.5% of people use some form of social media in an active manner. It helps people to be able to find you easily and to be able to search for contact details and information regarding your company via several avenues. If you don’t have social media accounts linked to your business, there may be some that will doubt your creditability as there is limited information available about your brand and existence.

Having social media accounts means being visible and interacting with your audience. You need to create a presence, rather than an account that merely exists. Interact with your audience by posting regular updates and keeping the audience updated on specials, new products and services, and other valuable information.

Share content, post updates join in discussions and take charge of tricky situations as they arise. Be gracious to your audience and work with several social media platforms to reach a wider and more diverse social demographic audience.

Speaking of social media, there are people called influencers now.

An influencer is exactly what their title suggests. These individuals usually have a large number of followers, who are often very engaged and loyal followers, and their opinion carries a lot of weight in some circles. Whilst you don’t want your whole campaign to be linked with influencers, it can help get your name out there quicker if you have an influencer put a positive spin or review on your services and company.

Invest in the services of bloggers, influencers, social media pages, and other avenues whose values and core beliefs are similar to yours. It is important to be linked with people of a shared interest and value system to avoid clashes or unnecessary discomfort.

Consider a press release.

The press can be very leading and persuasive with their tactics. Most people trust what the media delivers to them and they have a great ability to reach a larger number of people within a short space of time. They are experts at crafting specialist pieces to draw in select clientele from various demographics.

A press release noting a special milestone, anniversary or event can be an exciting and beneficial occurrence for your company and draw in more potential customers to your web page and establishment.

Speaking of press, contemplate local radio and television stations.

Getting air time on a national station might be near impossible, but you may elect to have a local television station do a small story on your business or pay for some air time on local community radio. It might be your company supporting a local sporting club or charity, or funding a special event, or providing a much-needed donation to a worthy cause.

You may give a percentage of their profits to a charity for a particular month or host an event with an entry fee, where part of the charge goes to a chosen charity or local group which needs the support. If you are known to support locals and people recognise that part of the money they spend with you, helps others, especially those they are likely to know, they may be more inclined to bring their business to you.

Working with your local community and advertising locally, especially over television or radio will allow you to reach more people and become more recognised and linked with the local area, which means more clients and potential profits.

What about a little controversy?

We’re not talking about anything that could get you arrested, audited, or cast you in a bad light where people might be more inclined to avoid you, rather than come to you. But, creating something unique and unexpected can drum up enough interest to get people talking and talking about you.

But a new spin on something old, improve an outdated product or system and advertise it in a way that gets people having a debate or discussion, without you needing to put out a media release and apology.

You can push boundaries without knocking them totally out of the ballpark, having a little shock value to get you noticed and turn heads.

Ideally, you want this to be creative and quip the interest of local media (see above, there’s an idea for a media release statement and a segment for local TV and radio).

Facilitate events.

Depending on the nature of your business, you may elect to host events to get your brand and products out there. This might be a demonstration or pop-up shop in a local shopping centre or a sausage sizzle in a local community hall. On a larger scale, consider a local fete where other local businesses also get to showcase their wares.

Holistic fairs with natural products and remedies might be your style or something more corporate. DIY workshops can bring the community together, as can brunches and on a larger scale formal events such as balls, dinners and high teas.

Author: Therese Vickers.

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