Public Relations

Public Relations

Who is Responsible for Your Reputation?

Commercials, magazine articles, and billboards are all crafted for a single purpose – to present a company or product to the rest of the world. But, who and what are responsible for doing so? The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) may have some involvement but the grueling task falls solely on a company’s public relations department.

The main objective of the public relations department is to better develop a company’s reputation. They must display a message to consumers in the best light possible. Since the business world is so competitive, it is their duty to deliver information that is both interesting and appealing. Rather their marketing efforts are made through radio, TV, or magazine, every aspect should be developed to the best of its ability.

The staff that works within a public relations (also known as PR) department must be very skilled publicists. It is their duty to make sure a company keeps a praiseworthy reputation. Once a message has reached the public, they provide the necessary feedback to the business. Feedback is usually both negative and positive.

Publicists must possess certain talents in order to succeed in the marketing world. Keeping a high level of written, communication, and verbal skills is very important. Multi-tasking is also essential. To better understand the advertising work, many suggest having some type of media background or training.

What Twitter and the Brady Bunch Have in Common

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter! Twitter is like Marcia Brady. It gets a lot of attention from its popular friends, fans and followers, and a lot of complaining from its insecure counterparts (AKA: Jan). Whether you love it or hate it - you NEED to know how Twitter works, how it can improve your company’s communication AND bottom line.

So, what’s it all about? Classified as micro-blogging, Twitter is a site that allows users to post “Tweets” of 140 characters answering the question, “What are you doing?” Businesses are leveraging Twitter to inform clients, customers and other target audiences of important company news, discounts, special promotions and events. Businesses are also using Twitter to monitor conversations about themselves, competitors and industry trends, and to interact with current and potential clients.

On a scale of 1-10, the difficulty of creating a Twitter account is about a three. (Maybe that’s why 55 percent of people who create an account never Tweet?) Simply log on to www.twitter.com and click on “Get Started – Join!” Twitter will then prompt you to enter your organization’s name, username, password and e-mail. From there, Twitter will search the given e-mail to see who you already know on Twitter, allow you to invite friends to join and will provide suggestions on interesting people to follow. You can then click on the settings tab to provide your organization’s URL, description and location; and add a custom profile and background.

What is Your Message

What Is Your Message What Is Your Message?

Okay, here's a tough one, what is your message? What is the central idea behind your business? Two or three people can run the exact same business, whether it's a clothing line, a dry cleaners, a law practice, or a skin care company, and the message behind each of the businesses can be completely different for each one. It is vitally important to understand what your message is and what you are trying to communicate to your prospective clients.

Take a few minutes and write a description of what your message is and what you want to communicate to your audience. Think of it as a brief mission statement that helps define you and your business. Doing this brief exercise can help give you a clear vision of what it is you want to accomplish.

This isn't always as easy as it wounds and the answers aren't always obvious. It may take some time and some soul searching. But it’s important that your audience, clients, or patients realize that you are not just selling a product or a service, but that there is a message behind it.