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A practical guide to help organisations communicate effectively. 1
Fortune Public Relations www.fortunepr.co.uk
INDEX Page Title 4
What is PR?
5
Aligning your Business and PR Strategies
6
PR Planning
8
What type of PR do you Need?
10
Hiring a PR Consultancy
11
PR in the Digital Age
12
Boosting Awareness with Social Media and Blogging
13
Being Savvy on Social Media
14
Using Social Media to Engage with Customers
15
Creating News
16
Effective Storytelling
17
Newsjacking
18
Social Press Room
19
Thought Leadership Content
20 Share this Ebook
2
Build your Reputation as an Expert
Page Title 21
Get into the Spotlight with Public Speaking
22
Building Trust Online
23
Earned and Paid Media
24
Prepare for the Crisis that May Never Happen
25
How to Handle Negative PR
26
Snapchat as a PR Tool
27
Instagram as a PR Tool
28
Pinterest as a PR Tool
29
Periscope as a PR Tool
30
Twitter as a PR Tool
31
How to Handle Trolls
32
Infographics – Saying it in Pictures
33
Using Video in PR Campaigns
34
Getting Started
35
Ode to PR Share this Ebook
3
What is PR?
Public relations is the communications discipline that builds brand reputation. We either embrace or ignore a brand depending on how an organisation behaves – so PR is more than what’s on the surface. It’s about living up to the values you set for the company and staff, as well as promotion of products, services and initiatives. Developing a sound PR strategy with carefully orchestrated campaigns will shape positive thoughts and feelings about your brand and contribute towards achieving your business goals. Great PR is like a first rate play – there are many players and parts to be coordinated and directed to bring about an awardwinning performance. One of the most commonly known parts is media relations, but that’s not the whole script. PR involves a diversity of communications techniques steered by an experienced PR professional. These techniques are increasing all the time with the growth of social media platforms. PR is an ongoing process that builds brand reputation. Even if you’re running a one-off campaign such as a product launch, you need to have already built good relations with the people you want to engage with to ensure your product receives a great reception and, hopefully, a rave review! This e-Book gives you hints and tips on everything from hiring a PR agency to using different social media platforms as part of your PR campaign. We do not pretend the book is an exhaustive guide, but there’s plenty to get you started. And you can always Get in touch to learn more.
www.fortunepr.co.uk althea@fortunepr.co.uk 01992 551 335 Share this Ebook
4
Aligning Your Business and PR Strategies
PR is not just about media exposure; it’s about the behaviour of the brand at all levels of the business and at all times. By keeping in line with your brand promise, your business will enjoy positive public relations and growth. Acting against your promise will harm your reputation and your bottom line. A good business that prides itself on ‘customer care’ must ensure that it follows this ethos at all times. For example, an establishment that is quick to contact customers about membership renewals or payments must be equally prompt in dealing with customer complaints and issues, otherwise a negative response is a surety. All it takes is for one person to write a disparaging comment about your business on social media or a review site, and prospective customers will go elsewhere. To avoid a disparity between your business and your PR strategy, communications must be perspicuous at all times, especially before commencing any external PR activity. All staff must have a clear understanding of your message, vision and values, and must know how to respond proactively if products or services fall short of customer expectation, regardless of where the fault lies. Once your business functions and PR disciplines are aligned, you are ready to attract publicity to your business. Generating coverage in targeted news, online and social media is the cornerstone of good external public relations. That is only the tip of the iceberg though, as a successful PR campaign will extend to communicating with customers at the point-of-sale, experiential events, literature, audio-visual material, sponsorship and even endorsements from experts and celebrities.
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Getting people to ‘talk-up’ your brand is priceless, especially when you consider the popularity of online customer review sites and social media chatter. When others are able to reinforce your brand values, it is worth so much more than when you say it yourself. As long as you live up to your brand promise, you will earn advocacy and customer loyalty.
5
PR Planning
Define the Aim This is the over arching reason for your campaign. This depends on the nature of your campaign, but could be along the lines of ‘to increase public awareness of xyz.’
Objectives Specify what the aim should deliver eg, in the case of a product recall, an objective might be to ensure that a helpline is promoted to consumers to advise them to return products.
Analysing data Most PR campaigns start with research that is relevant to the sector/market of the organisation. You should get a good understanding of your sector, so you will need to analyse how your product(s) fit in to the wider market picture, what the competition is doing and how you can make an impact through PR. You should also evaluate customer data to get an insight into the buying patterns of customers.
Know your Audience Identify your audiences and their favourite media – print, broadcast and online - so you can target and tailor activity. Think beyond media; where do your audiences congregate? At events for example?
Message development Share this Ebook
6
Once you have a full understanding of the competitor environment, and your aims and objectives, you are set to create distinctive messages that resonate with the target audiences.
Define meaningful messages - identify up to three short, pertinent messages about your brand or campaign. Everything you do should be in line with those messages and will ensure your are consistent and true to your brand.
Integration If there is already existing marketing communications activity in place, be sure to integrate the message across all programmes. If you’re working with external agencies, ensure they collaborate so that all activity is synergistic.
Journalist/blogger relationships You will need to build relationships with journalists and bloggers by assessing their interests in your sector, service and products. This will involve looking at their past work as well as talking with them to pitch great stories.
Appealing Spokesperson Ideally a voice of authority, but also someone that your audiences will empathise with, someone who will inspire confidence and action.
Partnerships Campaigns can be strengthened with the involvement of celebrities and/or exerts. Research the right partners and agree roles, responsibilities and budget.
Sponsorship Corporate sponsorship can also heighten brand awareness and visibility among target customers – the trick is to find a strong brand association. Specialist sponsorship agencies may be helpful. Once the ideal partner is found, the work begins on negotiating the terms of the sponsorship so that both parties benefit.
Evaluation You need to know what works and what doesn’t. Tracking and measuring your campaign will help with future plans and budget decisions. Look at inputs, outputs and outcomes – test these against the original objective(s). Ask yourself with whom did you engage and what does this mean for your business? What’s your next step?
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7
What Type of PR do You Need?
Before you embark on your PR campaign, research what types of consultancies match your needs. For example, generalist consultancies have teams that can handle campaigns for different sectors, while specialist agencies focus exclusively on a particular industry niche or type of PR (eg financial), and integrated agencies can provide teams of mixed communications disciplines (eg PR, advertising, direct marketing) to run integrated campaigns. Here is a quick overview of different types of PR services to help you decide what’s best for your business:
Business to business Business to business (B2B) PR promotes one business to another, using a diversity of techniques, including business editorials, exhibitions, tailored events, opinion forming publications, articles and videos as well as social media content and email marketing.
Community relations Community relations PR focuses on specific groups of people. Organisations that conduct most of their business in a certain area (geographic or interest specific) can build a strong presence within that community, thus encouraging interaction and collaboration with groups and individuals.
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Consumer Consumer PR uses simple, powerful messages to educate and inform consumers, build brand awareness and create a relationship with customers. This type of PR usually works in tandem with other marketing activity such as advertising, experiential, online and social media activity.
Corporate Corporate communications PR is used to help organisations deliver strategic messages about their operations. Media relations, sponsorship, and reporting on various aspects of corporate performance are just some of the techniques used to promote the organisation.
Crisis management When a major incident has taken place that may tarnish the reputation of an organisation, crisis management is used to instil effective communication amongst staff and external audiences. Ideally, an organisation should have a well-rehearsed crisis management contingency plan in place. Scenario playing and simulation exercises are used to ensure mistakes are not repeated, and policies are fully understood.
Internal communications Internal communications PR is used between employers and staff to disseminate/share information, highlight issues, learn about opportunities and to build team spirit within the organisation.
Public affairs Public affairs, or lobbying, involves presenting complex information in an easy-to-digest format to government officials and committees.
Investor relations Investor relations provides stakeholders with an accurate account of the company’s affairs, helping investors to make informed decisions on buying and selling shares.
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9
Hiring a PR Consultancy
Finding the right PR consultancy is essential. The consultancy must not only have the experience and expertise you need, but the two parties must gel to ensure a good working relationship. If you don’t have a list of agencies, you can research companies online, or better still, ask business contacts for referrals. You can also try ‘match-maker’ services such as those offered by the Public Relations Consultants Association to create a short-list of consultancies.
The brief You need to assess whether the consultancies have the creative and management talent you require to represent your brand. You then need to define the scope of your requirements and be very clear about the goals, objectives and expected outcomes. Allocate a budget (don’t leave the consultancies guessing or you won’t get what you want) and state if your campaign needs a local, national or international approach. Writing a brief before you speak to consultancies allows you to clarify the criteria of your campaign, and allows the short-listed consultancies to determine if they can fulfil your brief.
The process A pitch proposal usually involves a great deal of research, strategy development, and preparation, so you should allow between two to four weeks for a high quality response. You should also expect a lot of engagement between yourself and the consultancy teams as they will have questions, and may request background information and to meet key people within your organisation.
Other key pointers • Invite up to six consultancies to submit credentials – many more can make the selection process onerous. • Hold credentials/chemistry meetings – shortlist the three most impressive firms. • Ask about the team’s experience, modus operandi and consultancy rates during the credentials meetings. • Hold the pitch presentations – have detailed discussions. • Select your chosen consultancy. • Set-up the account properly with a contract.
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Your PR team will then translate the pitch proposal into working plans with goals, objectives, activities, timescales, budget and evaluation criteria.
PR in the Digital Age
With the internet changing the landscape of nearly every industry, the PR sector is certainly one of those that has changed significantly. In recent times, mobile internet has been made available to the masses, delivering an unimaginable wealth of content in the process. Businesses and their PR agencies have had to adapt to this new digital landscape by building and maintaining an online presence, as well as using social media to boost interactivity. With these sweeping changes, one might think that traditional media has had its day.
Digital PR Media campaigns used to be the primary tool for generating good PR, but now businesses have cottoned-on to the fact that visual content is also key to attracting audiences and keeping in the public eye. Our attention span has dwindled as a response to the vast amount of content we are subjected to, so alternative methods are required to get your story heard. This includes blogging, infographics, animated videos, SlideShares, and images. It is still worth noting, however, that the basic principles of storytelling that are so prevalent in traditional PR, are also essential in this digital era.
Quantifiable results Evaluation was, and is, a knotty issue for non-digital PR, but it has always been possible to monitor campaigns based on predetermined objectives and targets. However, unlike traditional media (TV, radio, print, events, etc.), digital media allows you to use precise metrics to quantify how successful your PR campaign is through conversions, bounce rates and social media audience/outreach statistics. Not only can this determine the effectiveness of your PR, it can provide you with an insight into what needs to be improved for future endeavours. While the digital age does not spell the end of traditional campaigns, it is essential for a successful business to evolve by utilising carefully selected digital platforms alongside wellestablished media. The popularity of print may be on the decline, but it is still an important way of engaging with the people you want to reach and should work in tandem with a digital strategy.
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11
Boosting Awareness with Social Media and Blogging
Increasing brand awareness has numerous advantages, including instant brand recognition, building customer loyalty, greater interaction with your client base, gaining feedback on products and services, easier introduction of new products, and more.
Social media One of the primary ways to propagate your company’s news stories and blog posts online is through social media. Your website should be fully integrated with social media buttons, allowing visitors to share, tweet and like your content, which helps to raise awareness of your brand. When using social media, you should avoid spamming with constant selfpromotion; use human methods to communicate and make the content valuable to target audiences. Responding to enquiries about your products/services, and retweeting good posts made by followers, are excellent ways to show that your company is attentive. As with traditional forms of written communication, spelling and grammar must be accurate when posting on social media, otherwise little mistakes will tarnish your reputation. Remember to align the aesthetics of your social media accounts with the company branding. Using the company name for the social media account is advisable (consistent brand building), along with the company logo. Where allowed (eg Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+), be sure to display branded company banners.
Blogs Your company blog is a representation of your brand online, so it’s wise to publish the blog on your own website as it allows you to drive traffic to your business where people can learn more, and of course, you can customise the design of the blog to reflect your brand. Your blog must be updated regularly as this allows your site to be indexed through SEO (search engine optimisation), which can boost your listing in Google search. In terms of brand integrity, it looks sloppy to have a blog that is not maintained. People may ask themselves: if you can’t update your blog regularly, do you have time to handle their projects?
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12
Being Savvy on Social Media
Social media offers increased brand opportunities, for example, companies can find out how they are perceived by consumers, gain feedback on new products and services, invite customers to get involved with promotions, keep an eye on their competitors, and display any media coverage. And that’s all as well as running proactive promotional campaigns. There are many social networks from which to choose and some may be suited to your company more than others. But let’s take a closer look at the two biggest – Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter Twitter offers a continual stream of posts of up to 140 characters and boasts over 320 million active users each month*. Assuming you have built the right following, it is an excellent platform to find out what they think about your brand, product or campaign. You can use hashtags to great effect within posts to allow people to track your activity and, hopefully, retweet them, showing your messages to their own network of followers. Remember that a bad or embarrassing tweet may be deleted, but that doesn’t stop it from being all over the internet before you do so. Think carefully when composing your post and before hitting the tweet button. A bad post can harm your brand reputation. Always write with generosity even when replying to negative comments! Hootsuite and TweetDeck are useful monitoring systems that can help you track the hashtags and keywords relating to your brand so that you can see the context in which they’re being mentioned.
Facebook Facebook has over a billion users, making it the number one social media channel. It is so easy to share image and video content, as well as text, and there are many opportunities to inspire potential customers to interact with your brand. The content you upload has the potential to become viral, and this requires people liking, commenting and sharing your posts. Encouraging interaction by asking questions, using strong images and running creative promotions contributes to more engagement with your audience. Customers tend to give a lot of feedback through Facebook, and sometimes this can be critical or offensive. Just like Twitter, it is imperative you think before you reply or delete comments, as a wellmanaged page means you will have plenty of advocates who will support you and counter-balance the naysayers!
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It is essential to make a realistic judgement as to whether you will find your audiences on any particular social media. Do your research before investing time and money on your campaign. For instance, if you are in professional services, or are a B2B company, are you sure your customers are on social media? Research will tell you which are the best channels to target – don’t just follow the crowd. * https://www.wired.com/2016/01/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-hints-its-140-character-limit-could-end/
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Using Social Media to Engage with Customers
Facebook and Twitter cover images When people land on your Facebook page, the first thing they will see is your cover image, so make sure it is attractive, engaging and reflects your business – the text should say exactly who you are and what you do. Likewise, on Twitter, your cover image should instantly convey your business messages. This should be accompanied by an interesting profile explaining your offering. You can update your profile to reflect changes in your business or to promote a specific initiative. Now, there is also the ability to pin your most important tweet at the very top of your stream, which enables viewers to see this regardless of when it was tweeted.
Behind the scenes videos Having a ‘behind the scenes’ video can show what your company is all about and creates authenticity. Take advantage of platforms such as Vine, YouTube or Instagram and upload quick, real-life videos, and don’t be afraid to include a little humour. Periscope can also be used to live-stream any footage you may want to share with your audience.
Instagram If you are selling highly visual consumer products, Instagram can be used to engage with customers. Fashion companies such as SuperLoveTees sell clothing on Etsy but drive a lot of traffic and sales through the image-sharing platform.
Pictures of inspirational and motivational quotes Inspirational quotes and images are popular, so get your creative team to conjure up captivating ideas that align with your brand, and build them into your promotional campaigns. Get them right and they could go viral.
Q&A on Twitter Question and answer sessions on Twitter are a brilliant way to speak with followers and customers in real time. Set a date and time for the Q&A and pre-promote it to let people know when you will be taking questions. Be sure to promote the event across all your social media platforms to attract more participants.
Featured customers Share this Ebook
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Customers like to feel valued, and social media is a great way to thank them and associate your company with top brands. Having something like ‘customer of the week’ is a great incentive for new clients to check in with your brand regularly, and interact more by liking, sharing and commenting on your posts.
Creating News
Generating editorial coverage is about telling great stories that resonate with audiences, rather than self-promotion. Follow these tips when developing your news stories:
Media targeting You must understand the media you’re targeting, and the best way to do this is to study the publications (print and online) and familiarise yourself with the different styles, the stories they cover and the journalists’ areas of interest. This way you can assess if/how your article will fit into each publication and, if needed, adapt the story to fit the publication’s needs.
Relevance When you have established that your story is relevant, and will be of significance to external audiences, write the article focusing on one theme. The key information should be at the start, followed by the rest of the story. Remember the KISS rule-keep it short and simple!
Originality A key discipline of PR is creating fresh news angles, even for topics that may at first seem dry. This may involve developing something new to support the story, such as original research, a promotional tool that offers useful information to the audience, creating a striking stunt, or an event that will appeal to the target audience. A quirky or creative approach to a story is one way to promote the brand and capture attention. Your article should aim to surprise your audience.
Controversy Consider whether your story has the potential to stimulate debate around an event, issue or cause. If your business has any relation to this particular event, it may gain a lot of traction and increase interactivity.
Human interest If you examine media stories, you will see that most are about people – even the most business-oriented article tends to be shaped by an individual’s experience, so incorporate the human interest element into your story, for example, explain how a new product can change people’s lives.
Timeliness Share this Ebook
Give your business the greatest chance of gaining coverage by pitching the story when it’s fresh and happening. It is important to stay current, so make sure you publish your article when it is relevant and newsworthy. Never re-hash an old story – the point about news is that it is new!
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Effective Storytelling
Most companies believe that PR is all about ‘selling’ their business, and this is true to a certain extent. For potential customers to truly understand the positive attributes of a brand, it helps to trigger emotional, as well as rational senses. This is where storytelling comes into play. An excellently structured, emotive story allows people to understand how the brand can benefit them; and benefits are infinitely more powerful than facts when you’re looking to make a sale!
The fundamentals A good story involves an intriguing opening, a climactic finale and a relatable protagonist – so should your company stories. The rollercoaster of emotions on this journey makes it even more compelling for an audience. A typical narrative opens with a conflict of some sort, followed by a path to resolution and an impactful climax.
The elements of greatness The best stories are emotive but not manipulative. As long as the story is well written and covers the fundamentals, the narrative should be powerful enough to make the audience come to their own positive conclusions. If people get any sense that you are embellishing the truth or that your tale is disingenuous, the story will not be received well.
Securing media coverage For a reporter to want to cover your brand, your story must stand out, impart something new, impact peoples’ emotions and convey what’s unique. The media are not going to give your company free coverage without good reason, but if your story is original, it can attract significant attention. Irrespective of what industry you’re in, it is always possible to craft a unique story about your brand that can impact an audience emotionally. Remember to keep the story authentic and credible.
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Newsjacking
Newsjacking is the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for your business. This means quickly coming up with a relevant and innovative way to capture the attention of the media, and pitching your story to them. Here are some classic newsjacking initiatives that captured the imagination and gave the brands a big boost.
Virgin When the British Airways-sponsored London Eye was experiencing a technical problem that prevented it being erected, Virgin Airways CEO Richard Branson ordered a blimp to fly directly above the London Eye displaying a sign which read “BA can’t get it up.” This was very effective as the world’s media covered Virgin’s stunt.
Oakley Sunglasses manufacturer Oakley gained publicity with its gift to a group of miners who were trapped in darkness for months. Upon their rescue, they were each given a pair of sunglasses, which resulted in an advertising value of roughly £28 billion.
Tide Tide, a manufacturer of stain-removal products posted a witty tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout which stated; “We can’t get your blackout, but we can get your stains out.” The popularity of the tweet encouraged them to post more witty remarks during the next Super Bowl, instead of using conventional advertising.
KitKat Felix Baumgartner’s extraordinary skydive from space was an iconic moment in 2012. KitKat decided to get in on the act by flying one of its chocolates up to space in a balloon. Social media went crazy over it, with 10 million Twitter impressions, 6.5 million Facebook posts and media features galore. While newsjacking can boost a brand, examine all possible outcomes if you plan to use it – it can backfire if not managed well. Many brands tried to newsjack the Hurricane Sandy disaster, and this received a lot of backlash as it seemed as though companies were attempting to gain exposure off the back of a tragedy. Pick the subject carefully, and make your idea witty and light-hearted to preserve your good reputation.
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17
Social Press Room
Fifty percent of journalists turn to Twitter these days to track the latest breaking stories. An impressive 89% search through blogs for research, while Google is the number one tool for journalists when working on stories.* Having a press room gives journalists access to your press materials 24/7 in one centralised location, and if they like what they find there, they’ll keep coming back.
A successful press room Your press room should contain assets that are relevant to your media interaction and messaging – even things that are present in other areas of your website. For example, your company logo and brand guidelines, a company précis, fact sheets, photos, overviews of key people, and of course, news stories and videos. The press room should be updated regularly, and each press item should feature buttons for easy sharing – Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and other social media channels that are relevant to your business. You can also link to campaigns that are being run by your organisation.
Raise awareness of your press room Although your press room is the hub, don’t be afraid to disseminate the content through the rest of the website. For instance, video often works well on the home page, just make sure to link back to the press room. Distribute your content across company social media platforms. Use catchy, concise headlines, strong images and quotable statistics, while keeping the tone of voice in mind for each network. Using relevant and well-placed keywords, especially in headlines, is important so that Google can pick up your stories. Don’t go overboard with the keywords, they should flow naturally within your copy.
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* www.cision.com
18
Thought Leadership Content
Thought leaders drive conversations, shape perceptions and engage people. Creating thought leadership content establishes you as the go-to source for expertise in your field. Established thought leaders are behind the brands that people trust, the brands that people buy, and the first voices that are sought out for comment.
Originality is key Finding compelling story angles and bringing a new perspective to consumers, all contributes to the notion of originality. Even if the story originated elsewhere, digging even deeper into it and revealing the unanswered questions is what marks a successful thought leader.
Credibility is a vital component Your credibility is vital when it comes to your role as a thought leader. Readers must trust that the information and opinions you share are well-considered and thoroughly researched. People may not necessarily agree with you, but they should be confident that your commentary comes from a place of knowledge and experience.
You’re only selling ideas Thought leadership content is not the place for a sales pitch, so don’t write about your products or services. Instead you could, for example, write about issues that impact your sector and customers. Focus on developing readers’ faith in your expertise.
Focus on the audience Tailor the content to the audience – it should help people gain insight and develop understanding about a topic or issue.
Not knowing is not a problem Not knowing the future of your industry is not a problem – you are not trying to be an oracle, but sharing your expertise, thoughts and opinions. You can explore the potential for the future, consider the impact of a new innovation and be enthusiastic about the possibilities.
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You do not qualify as a thought leader if you are not being heard, so promoting the content once it’s written is essential. Social media, editorial and email marketing can all be used to push out and promote thought leadership content.
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Build Your Reputation as an Expert
When doing anything online – whether it’s building a brand, promoting a product or service or trying to gain a following – people interact with people they trust. Establishing your authority as a leader is important for building a community and the key to getting noticed is to be recognised as an expert in your field.
Deliver original content To be seen as an expert in your field, it is vital to publish original and valuable content that benefits people in your community. Using all the tools at your disposal such as blog posts, videos, podcasts or infographics, you can share insights and expert knowledge in a way that makes people take notice. Presenting well crafted content in your own original style will set you apart and get your voice heard and respected.
Building reputation as a thought leader Giving informative and entertaining speeches at events and conferences demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and will help to build your reputation as a thought leader. Also, webinars, podcasts, Google Hangouts and Livestreams are great ways to enhance your reputation online, while LinkedIn and Google+ are excellent ways to build networks. Social media promotion should also be used in tandem with anything you do to bolster the business profile.
Interact with your audience Interacting with existing online audiences will help to maintain visibility and reputation, so it’s important to reply to comments and queries with useful responses/solutions. As the brand becomes more prominent, this may become more time intensive, so you may want to look at tools that allow you to address questions to multiple audiences at the same time, for example, webinars or a Twitter Q&A session.
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Get in the SpotLight with Public Speaking
Public Speaking is a great way to help establish yourself as a thought leader and boost the profile of the business. You can establish credibility through blogging and content marketing, but it really makes a statement if you are prepared to speak in public and handle live questions and answers sessions. Not only does this demonstrate your expertise, it makes you instantly accessible to people.
Networking After delivering a speech, you have the opportunity to circulate around the venue and make new business acquaintances. As your speech will have resonated with many people at the event, they are likely to start a conversation with you – you can speak in a non pressure environment with no sales pitches and start to build new relationships that can lead to new ventures and business opportunities.
Promote your products and services Although speeches must provide as much value to your audience as possible (not self-promote), a good speech also results in good promotion for your brand. If people enjoy your speech, they are likely to look you up online if they feel your services could benefit them – just make sure that your website is as good as your public speaking skills! While it’s unlikely that you will receive business as a direct result of every speech, the more public speaking you do and the higher profile gigs you get, the more your business will benefit.
Provide value to people In terms of providing genuine value to people, it’s hard to beat a well researched, effectively executed speech. Not everyone has the time to read a blog post or white paper, but when you’re standing in front of someone talking passionately about a topic you understand in depth, this creates a highly visceral medium of communication. Many senses are involved when you watch someone give a speech, and if they do a good job, it will stay in your mind for years after the event. If you are not an experienced public speaker and want to improve, the way to get better is to practice – a lot! You can get excellent help from Toastmasters where you can learn to deliver high quality, engaging speeches in a supportive environment. The more speeches you deliver, the better you will become at delivering and enjoying them.
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21
Building Trust Online
Being helpful on social media, or generating free content should be done because you actually care about providing value. Digital consumers have learned to be perceptive, and if there are incongruities between your branding and behaviour, they are likely to take their custom elsewhere. Trust-building will always be an essential factor for businesses, and digital communications can be used to help interact and build trust with customers and prospects.
Leverage content marketing Content marketing not only boosts your brand exposure, but it’s also a great trust builder. People don’t like being sold to, instead, they make purchases based on the information provided. Creating regular high-quality content that demonstrates your value will go a long way. Utilising different types of content such as blog posts, infographics, presentations and videos is an effective way to get people returning to your site regularly.
Inject humanity into your brand Although digital interfaces pervade much of our lives, we still yearn to connect with other humans. That’s why including human elements in your storytelling is important to tap into the psyche of your audience. Using social media is also an excellent way for your brand to behave and respond to customers, just like a regular person would. This type of online behaviour is more likely to gain you trust, rather than being a spam-bot or a shameless advertiser.
Harness social proof Another way to get people to trust your products and services is to display evidence of your good work. This can range from testimonials and case studies from happy customers, screen captures of reviews from external forums and even video endorsements. Also, having a montage of logos of prominent clients helps to establish your credibility.
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22
Earned and Paid Media
In the digital era, we have more communication channels available to us than ever before, enabling us to formulate PR programmes in a variety of ways in order to make the maximum impact and reach our target audience.
Know your audience Website analytics, customer surveys and general market research will help you figure out how customers are arriving at your site and how they are hearing about your products and services. For example, if you are receiving a lot of traffic because of positive mentions by niche bloggers and the subsequent Twitter discussions which occur, you can use this intelligence to tailor your PR programme accordingly.
Earned media Offering to write a guest post for bloggers in your sector, or giving away a free product to review are useful strategies. Or create a visually compelling, masterfully constructed infographic based on customer insights – this gives bloggers something valuable to share and they can gain a lot of traction on social media. While your market research should steer the communication channels, try not to limit yourself to just triedand-tested methods. By putting out excellent visual content on channels such as YouTube, Vine and Instagram, in combination with text-based blog posts and engaging updates/questions on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you are creating more paths for PR success – provided you don’t waste precious resources and employee hours putting out sub-par content.
Paid media Earned media refers to the methods used to get people to your site. This includes content marketing, recommendations and social media shares. Optimising your SEO is crucial as it impacts how your site is listed on Google. While the focus should always be on earned media, you can boost your success with paid media through social network advertising, pay-per-click, and paid distribution of content through niche bloggers and industry specialists. Before leaping into this, explore the advertising medium carefully, set specific objectives and targets, and fix a budget.
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Prepare for the Crisis that May Never Happen
Preparing for a crisis is a vital part of running an organisation. Poor crisis management can harm a company’s reputation, or even spell the end of it, so it is important to build trust within the company. A crisis can come from anywhere, so being prepared for it is like a communications insurance policy – it enables an organisation to be decisive and proactive, and to communicate effectively with key audiences, protecting the business in the long term.
Formulate a game plan While it is impossible to anticipate every potential risk, organisations should have a business continuity plan which dovetails with a crisis communications plan. To get started on a crisis communications plan, review the risks detailed in the business continuity plan and make sure a broad range of probable risks are identified. Develop a plan that covers key tasks, roles and responsibilities, the stakeholders who will need to be kept informed, and an effective communications strategy for communicating with the media. Regularly test the plan by conducting simulation exercises and make refinements as necessary.
Honesty is the best policy If you are hit by a crisis, don’t be tempted to cover your tracks or weave a web of deception to try and uphold your company’s integrity – such behaviour will usually have the adverse effect. Invariably, it’s best to be frank and acknowledge the severity of the situation at hand. And do make sure that if key people from the organisation are not around at the time of the crisis, they get back to base as soon as physically possible, and in the meantime they receive up-to-the-minute briefings.
Notify shareholders If you fail to disclose any damaging situations to shareholders, you risk destroying your relationship with your business partners and customers, as well as with the shareholders themselves. Be transparent with them, and they may come to your aid.
Apologise with actions Your first response to a crisis or mistake should always be to rectify the situation as fast as possible. An apology is an effective damage-control technique, but nothing suggests true repentance more than going out of your way to compensate those who were affected or disadvantaged by the incident.
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Make yourself visible In the midst of a PR nightmare, the natural inclination is to keep yourself hidden from the public eye, but this implies guilt and contrivance. Instead, it’s best to be accessible and to be open about the incident. You can use social media to keep people bang up to date.
How to Handle Negative PR
Any crisis situation needs to be managed quickly and effectively to ensure the safety and security of anyone affected, and the future of the business. Having a good crisis communications programme in place is even more important today given the speed at which stories spread across the internet and social media. Even with the best response in the world, the crisis may still generate negative feelings about the brand. The better the response, the less damage to the business.
Avoid overreacting No matter what the crisis situation, do not overreact, or take the criticism personally. It is essential to be strategic. You should be aiming to establish the facts of the situation, communicating with all interested parties and developing solutions to the problem – quickly.
Establish and maintain open dialogue During any difficult situation, it’s advisable to open channels of communication and continue talking with and updating target audiences – even detractors. You could, for example, direct people to your website for information and guidance, and if the crisis is one that affects many consumers, a very efficient call centre should be set up to deal with enquiries (in fact, this system should already be established in advance so it can respond immediately). You should also have a media strategy in place, which could include editorial, and even advertising, if the problem involves a product recall.
Monitor online activity In tandem with tackling the crisis you should also monitor what is being said about your company online, so that you can deal with any misinformation. Online media and monitoring services (eg Mention) can help monitor the perception of the business and help deal with criticisms before they become a significant issue. Keep an eye on forums where your product/business is being discussed – do not jump into the conversation, especially with defensive commentary, before understanding the nature of each forum and the commentators. Listen carefully, and if you can contribute constructively, start engaging with members. Be factual and helpful; that way you can provide further information and updates to reassure people that you are working hard to resolve the problem.
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Once the crisis has abated, take measures to ensure the problem does not occur again and communicate this to the target audiences – this will help to rebuild trust. Go the extra mile to rectify any mistakes, even if it incurs a financial cost. Good corporate practice and a positive brand image are essential for the longevity for your business, especially in the digital age.
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Snapchat as a PR Tool
Snapchat is a messaging application that allows users to send photos, videos and text messages to a private list of recipients, or as a Snapchat story viewable to all. The major demographic for Snapchat is young adults, with 45% of users being in the 1824 age range.* The youthful appeal and privacy features make Snapchat an appealing tool for PR purposes.
Special deals and discounts As Snapchat’s videos and photos can only be viewed for a short window of time, this creates a sense of urgency – unlike Facebook adverts which may appear in the timeline, but do not obligate people to view them. Snapchat’s audience is highly receptive, considering the time constraints, and offering special deals to a younger demographic is a brilliant idea, as they are very conscious about making their money stretch.
24-hour stories Ever since Snapchat updated the app to include the 24-hour story feature, brands have been taking advantage of it by churning out stories on a consistent basis. This creates huge engagement with viewers, encouraging people to check back regularly for new stories. Ouija is a supernatural horror film released in 2014, which was promoted through 10-second teasers via the Snapchat story feature. It was able to give an atmospheric glimpse into what viewers could expect upon its release, although the film was not as well received as the Snapchat story!
Exclusive content Building a sense of exclusivity around your brand is one of the best ways to drive demand. Because Snapchat is exclusive by nature, this enables brands to make their followers feel like insiders. Sending your viewers special deals, behind-the-scenes footage and customer testimonials all adds to this exclusivity, and creates a sense of community. As Snaps are short and concise, this encourages advertising to be more impactful than on other platforms.
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* uk.businessinsder.com
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Instagram as a PR Tool
Instagram has emerged as one of the leading platforms to raise brand awareness through photo and video-sharing. While many people use it for recreational purposes, it is also a highly effective PR tool. Here are a few ways you can use Instagram to engage with your audiences and increase brand awareness:
Post infographics Some may think that Instagram’s image size restrictions would make it an unsuitable platform to post infographics, but there are a number of ways of formatting them. Chopping up a long infographic into slides and then creating a brief video is one useful method, or you could just create a short form version designed specifically for Instagram. As long as you can showcase an interesting fact or statistic in an aesthetically pleasing way, you are likely to get traction.
Showcase products The fixed video lengths on Instagram are not suitable for demonstrating the technical attributes of a product, but you can hone in on the product benefits, which gets the message across immediately. If you contact owners of popular Instagram accounts and offer them free products in exchange for them posting a picture with your product, you can benefit greatly, as their popularity on Instagram will ensure your product gets seen by a wider audience.
Convey company culture With Instagram, you can offer your audience a behind-thescenes look into the culture and workings of your organisation. This can include pictures of staff at work, both serious and fun stuff, company news, achievements and awards. Charity Water is a non-profit organisation that has used Instagram to show how donations have helped change lives for the better, showcasing pictures of children who are now healthy and happy.
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Pinterest as a PR Tool
As Instagram and Pinterest are both photo-sharing platforms, many consider them to be fundamentally similar, and this is not the case. While Instagram is an excellent tool for building a personal connection with your audience through promotion, Pinterest is more about curating visual content that you have found online. Here are some of the ways in which Pinterest can be used as a PR tool:
Storytelling Effective storytelling has always been an integral part of professional PR. With Pinterest, you can use themed boards and practice visual storytelling to an audience which is already receptive. A good idea would be to select insightful quotes from customer testimonials and turn them into exciting images for impact. You can then pin these quotes on a board that is dedicated to the product in question.
Influencer intel Pinterest is a useful tool to learn about the interests of key influencers. By seeing what they pin, you will gain a deeper insight into what makes them tick, which will enable you to make an excellent first impression on them and their contemporaries. Kotex launched an ingenious campaign known as “Women’s Inspirational Day.� The company targeted 50 influential Pinterest users and sent them a bespoke virtual gift based on their personal preferences. In return for the users pinning the gift, Kotex sent them a real gift box, from which they generated a staggering 694,853 impressions!
Build a community around your brand Pinning images from the events that you attend is an excellent way to build a sense of community around your brand. It is important to note that aggressive self-promotion is frowned upon on Pinterest. So if you want to build a community around your brand, you must give before you receive. If your business is involved with any social causes, you might want to use Pinterest to promote them.
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Periscope as a PR Tool
Periscope is a new live-streaming video application that is owned by Twitter, and is currently the world’s fastest-growing social media platform. It allows users to live-stream direct from a phone and enables businesses to create a direct channel of communication with their audiences like never before. Here are some ways in which Periscope can be used in PR activity:
Humanise a brand Periscope allows you to convey yourself as you actually are – live and unedited. Consumers have become wary of glossy, over-produced sales videos, and Periscope allows you to exhibit a more personal side of your company. Periscope lets you create an intimate connection with your audience by communicating without any pretences, helping to build trust.
Impart knowledge Periscope can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, as you can stream news updates, providing your audience with cutting-edge knowledge. Delivering urgent news to your audience is far more suited to live-streaming than a blog post for instance, as you are providing the information instantaneously. It can also be used to host Q&A sessions – another way to deliver value to your audience and showcase your expertise.
Demonstrate a product Unlike a sales video which is rehearsed and edited, demonstrating a product on Periscope is seen as more credible because you are backing up your claims in real-time. Showcasing the features of your product has never been easier, and it can also boost interactivity with the audience, as Taco Bell showed when it broadcast a new Biscuit Taco promotion. Those who attended the session were invited to a bricks and mortar store to receive a free Biscuit Taco!
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Twitter as a PR Tool
Currently there are over 320 million active users each month on Twitter*, 80% of which are using their mobile phones** to access the site – meaning they will be receiving the latest updates whenever and wherever they are. Here are some of the ways in which it is useful to integrate Twitter for PR purposes:
Establish relationships with journalists and bloggers Follow journalists and bloggers to learn more about their interests. Retweeting relevant posts and conversing with them in an appropriate way can help to establish a good relationship which can make them more responsive when you have a great story to pitch.
Promote blog content and infographics Twitter is a great way to promote digital content, driving people to your landing page, creating inbound links and boosting your site’s search engine optimisation. All blog posts should allow readers to retweet your content, while infographics should include a thumbnail in the tweet, due to the size restrictions of Twitter.
Special offers and competitions Using Twitter to promote special offers that are only available to online followers will encourage others to follow your account – thus creating more exposure for your brand. Competitions are excellent in the same way, as you can use hashtags to promote the competition and your company. Active participation from consumers like this can create a great sense of community.
Updates from the CEO/MD While most CEOs/MDs have more pressing duties than managing social media, one of the reasons Twitter is so ideal for company leaders is the short character limit. Having the CEO/MD of the company personally post a tweet will give it a very high level of credibility.
Crisis communications During times of crisis, people will have a lot of questions that need immediate answers. Failure to be responsive can make you seem unprofessional and uncaring, so it’s important to maintain transparency and communication. Twitter is ideal for this, as you can respond quickly and briefly, and continue to update people easily as the situation changes.
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With Twitter Ads, you can build your community of followers, drive more visitors to your website, and capture more leads. Your budget will determine how much scope your campaign has, but it is a sure-fire way to increase engagement, traffic and conversions. * www.adweek.com
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**www.business.twitter.com
How to Handle Trolls
One disadvantage of social media is that you can’t control what negative feedback you might receive. The common name for people who post such comments on social media is ‘trolls’. How you react to trolls should definitely be something you take into consideration when planning out your social media strategy.
Avoid attracting trolls from the onset It is important to be genuine. Making over-the-top claims about your brand and assuming everyone else thinks it’s amazing can be a tough lesson to learn. Don’t open up yourself to unwarranted criticism. Waitrose received a heavy dose of trolling with its Twitter campaign; “Finish the sentence: ‘I shop at Waitrose because... #waitrosereasons’”. This type of campaign will always draw both good and bad comments. Play devil’s advocate and think about the implications your posts may have.
Walk in the trolls’ footsteps Try to envisage your brand through the eyes of the troll, and their reasoning behind negative comments. This will help you to see why people might have a negative perception, and allow you to be better prepared.
Differentiate troll comments from the genuine ones There may be times when someone leaves you a negative comment that is justifiable and can be resolved politely and professionally from a customer service perspective. Make sure you don’t confuse genuine feedback with trolling. Trolls tend to leave comments that are unfounded and sometimes unpleasant. Rise above troll behaviour – how you handle a troll will affect your audiences’ opinion of your brand.
Have a response policy in place In most cases, it’s best not to respond to troll comments – often it just encourages further unwarranted and unwelcome feedback. There are a few rare cases where a response may be needed, so take your time and decide the best policy and make your response bespoke so that your communication is relevant, professional and helpful.
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Infographics – Saying it in Pictures
Infographics allow companies to communicate complex concepts in a simple and effective manner to a wide audience. Creatively designed infographics allow viewers to understand the essentials of large data and offer the following benefits:
Shareability Getting your content to go viral on social media is a key objective of an infographic so integrating social media buttons alongside an infographic is a must. A well-crafted and eye-catching infographic has a far greater chance of being shared online than a block of text or blog post, so it is well worth having this in your marketing armoury.
Aesthetically appealing We tend to grasp information far easier if it is visual. When we combine textual information with illustrations, it creates a more visceral experience for the audience, ensuring what is learnt is retained to a higher degree.
Easily digestible People are quick to value-scan a page for information, and may click away in a matter of seconds. However, with a beautifully designed infographic, this is unlikely, as the aesthetics and essential information will lure the attention of the reader. It also communicates data in a more effective and less time consuming way.
Improves brand awareness An infographic will promote your brand as you can incorporate the logo and colour scheme of your company into the finished piece, so everyone who views it will know from where it originates. By doing this, you can position your company as a source of value, and people are likely to infer positive things about your brand.
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Using Video in PR Campaigns
The popularity of online video has surged in recent years, largely due to the sharing culture of social media. Integrating video into your PR campaign is a fantastic way to bring your brand or story to life and create social engagement. When creating a video, think about what your audiences want to see, what they will enjoy and how you can use it to bring them closer to your brand.
A great video sells stories better than words and pictures People are more receptive to content that is snappy and easy to digest. A 60-second video will be more appealing and engaging than reading a blog post. Recent statistics show that the average web browser will stay on a page with video for up to five minutes and 50 seconds, compared to just 43 seconds without video.* This highlights the fact that video has emerged as the most popular form of visual content on the web.
Video helps to tell your story and gives it impact Having a YouTube channel to publish a range of company updates could be a game changer for your organisation. There are a variety of ways to creatively showcase your operation and/ or products. Here is a taster: • Tell an emotive or funny story – weaving in your brand very subtly • Provide expert advice • Share new discoveries such as research and technological advances • Demonstrate your product or service • Pull off an amazing stunt/feat • Pre-publicise an event or launch • Showcase a successful event Video should, of course, be used as part of an integrated campaign, which means you can use it to drive people to the company website and social media.
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Having a video on the landing page of your website makes it 53% more likely to be on the first page of a Google search. Any videos you publish on YouTube, Vimeo or other video platforms can also be embedded into the appropriate page on the website. * http://www.virtuets.com/45-video-marketing-statistics/
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Getting Started You have reached the end of Getting to the Root of PR, but this is just the beginning of your PR journey. With careful planning, you can write your own script and pull off a brilliant performance. There are just a few key steps to take to ensure that your PR plays out the way you want it to:
1.
Define the business mission and goals
2. Develop a coherent business strategy to achieve the mission 3. Developing the business strategy means gathering/analysing intelligence on the following areas: •
The organisation’s position in the market
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Objectives and targets
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Commercial pressures (eg competition)
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Internal challenges (eg products, personnel etc)
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External challenges (eg political, social, environmental)
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Management issues
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Predictions for the future ie the “what if?” scenarios and contingency planning
4. Once you have a sound business strategy, create a PR & communications strategy that supports the business goals - some key areas to focus on are: •
What are the PR goals and objectives?
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Who are you trying to reach?
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Where do these audiences ‘hang out’?
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What is the current level of knowledge/engagement with the audiences?
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What are the messages for the audiences?
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What are the best ways to get your messages to your audiences and encourage them to engage with you?
•
How will you measure your campaign?
5. Create PR & communications campaigns and plans with ideas, targets, timescales, budgets, and measurement criteria. 6. Now you’re ready to go – implement… review…. adapt/new ideas .… implement… review…
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Ode to PR There are people who know you and like you There are those who know you and don’t like you There are others who neither know you nor care The job of PR is to go get those who know and like you to stay that way To get those who don’t like you to change their minds And to get those who don’t know you or care, to want to do business with you
Anonymous
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www.fortunepr.co.uk althea@fortunepr.co.uk 01992 551 335 @FortunePRUK Facebook.com/FortunePR.UK Share this Ebook
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