So, I have been doing this for years and when people ask me this question I find it embarrassingly difficult to answer. I think it is because disciplines like marketing, communications, social media and PR have all merged to a certain extent – there is certainly overlap. In the age of social media why would you need PR and is it relevant today? I think it is and I’ve picked out a few reasons why PR could be useful for your business.
PR Maintains Your Reputation
I think this underpins what PR is all about. Your PR person will do all they can to maintain, or in the worst case scenario raise, your reputation. How the public feels about you will impact on how well your product or service fares. It can take years to build up a reputation and moments to lose it, as they say. Nothing quite so dramatic is likely to happen to your business but I think you’ll agree what would be ideal is for your business to get as much positive exposure to the public as is humanly possible in order to reach more potential customers. You could do this effectively with (extremely) expensive television or newspaper ads or you could be more subversive and improve your image and your brand through PR. Here’s the good bit, PR is exposure that you do not pay for, aside from the cost of hiring a good PR, of course.
Media Engagement
As a former journalist this has always been my speciality. I’ve been on the other side and I understand the type of stories broadcast and print journalists are looking for and what will appeal to their Editor. I also understand the practical side of it – time constraints, hitting deadlines and the type of content needed. I don’t mean to sound smug, but it’s not that easy if you haven’t done time in the newsroom yourself. A good PR person will have the experience to recognise elements of your business that would make a good story and appeal to journalists. They will know which journalists to contact and how to talk to them and they will know how to write an excellent press release for you with a stand-out top line. An experienced PR will also be able to deal efficiently with incoming press inquiries.
Events and Stunts
If there is nothing newsworthy going on in your business right now then your PR person can help you create an event which will attract the right kind of attention from the right people. This doesn’t have to involve a big outlay, it could be a social media based stunt or linked to something in the news or trending in popular culture. It could raise your profile enough for traditional and online media to be interested. Again it takes experience to gauge this and ensure it will draw attention. Doing an event or stunt can also be quite a lot of fun too!
So if this sounds like something for your business and you fancy making a stir then check out Lime’s PR Package.
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