What is the Worth of a PR Specialist?
Do you Really Need a PR Specialist? In today’s world publicity is everything. Not always positive, but still everything. Sometimes an outside person, with a new perspective, is needed to come in and channel your company’s image in the right direction. And with the fierce competition existing in just about every sector control of your public image is a dream to some but attainable with a PR Specialist.
you sit back and run the productivity section of your business and your PR Specialist will take care of the rest. Chartered with cultivating and maintaining close and productive relationships with press/media representatives, the PR Specialist will, through these close ties, ensure positive publicity and enhance “If the the company’s reputation. The PR story of Specialist will also be expected your brand to control the direction and flavor isn’t being of any communication materials told then sent out. In most industries, companies thrive on consumers’ you’re not trust; the result is a reliance on the doing justice role of the PR Specialist to mold to the the company’s image in ways that brand.” evokes dependability and reliability into the minds of consumers...leaving their worth (the specialist) in some cases immeasurable.
Who is a PR Specialist? As the name suggests a public relations specialist is brought on board to generate or build on an existing public image, and promote it in such a way that is to the betterment of the company’s reputation. These specialists are experts in communication and have a wide portfolio of media connections. Their job description surrounds developing and maintaining communication strategies which may include writing press releases, placing adverts and building a general public relations profile. PR specialists are known for their vast knowledge of Attributes of your PR Specialist principles and methods for promoting and selling • Excellent communication skills • Business savvy but creative. products or services and their on the ball ability to • Good initiative with better adaptability. formulate unique and effective marketing tactics • News junkies. to build brand awareness. • Great storyteller and writer. • Good judgment and the confidence to go What’s their Worth along with it. If the story of your brand isn’t being told then you’re not doing justice to the brand. The PR Specialist • Connection cultivator - Enthusiastic with an outgoing personality. will step in as your image shaper. Essentially
REEL PRODUCTIVITY or Complete
Waste of Time
It seems we are edging closer and closer to safely saying there are no boundaries to tech capabilities. If your marketing department hasn’t recognized this, now is the time. While marketing has countless branches, choosing the right path and strategy for your business may be tricky. We turn the spotlight on Video Marketing, its benefits and why it’s perfect for businesses from all sectors to start tapping into this marketing platform. Currently the most popular avenue for your videos is a YouTube channel. Of the many platforms to advertise in today’s world YouTube doesn’t fall short by way of its reach and capabilities. Interestingly enough YouTube may be described as a search engine, a hosting service, an advertising platform, a social network and as a community site.
And the best part is the majority of persons using the site don’t view it in this regard, to most it is purely a website to find and watch videos on the internet, but this being achieved makes it marketing’s best kept secret. Investing in your YouTube channel and videos will take consistent attention, resources and creative thinking, after all you are trying to build and sustain an audience. The reward is there for the taking of course, once you develop a dedicated audience from your first few videos, these repeat viewers will become subscribers to your channel, and getting them to watch future videos will be a lot easier. At this point, your goals then include retaining your existing subscribers while continuously seeking out new subscribers. continued on page 4
The Transition
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productivity
The Changing Face of Public Relations
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It gets tricky here now tasked with informing your audience and promoting your brand both while entertaining your subscribers. With this in mind, in order to get benefits from having a presence on YouTube, as a marketer your strategy needs to harness the nature of user’s intent, rather than work against it. This translates to making videos pertaining to your company that either inform, instructs or entertains the viewers. Tracking your results: Through statistical applications like YouTube Analytics, which is a free online toolset which comes with your YouTube channel. Through these tools you can track, in real time, info about who’s watching your videos. And to a marketing team, this information is priceless. So what’s next? We can agree video marketing is the way to go. Creating a video everyone will be talking about is up on the agenda. Let’s make it go viral. Well we want it to go global and receive its deserved ‘shares’ and ‘likes’. But how are we going about this? Unfortunately there is no surefire formula. So let’s focus on the more important elements here. The reason we are here is to market your business. Viral won’t necessarily
By Robert Fogarty mean you’ve reached your target market. So let’s not be trapped by what is deemed a successful video. Here are a few tips for your Marketing Video Content: 1. Focus on your story – before getting started you should have already decided on your target market, your goals of the campaign and the message to be delivered to your potential customers. 2. Keep it tight – think short and spunky. Not too long, but not too short either. This depends heavily on your story. Some will go for funny, hot topics or simply to inform. Whatever you choose just keep it short. 3. Go for unexpected – Get that creativity going and find unique ways to deliver your message hidden under an entertaining disguise. 4. When all else fails, stick to what you know – a constructive video has a few must have elements. # 1 a descriptive headline, a call to action (what you want people who view your video to do next); a promotion plan and in 2014 please add your relevant social networks. And finally, this goes without saying, always refer traffic from YouTube back to your website.
Before the Internet, PR was all about press releases, fancy cocktail launches, and access to journalists. A new company would usually take about six months to gain traction in a market, as the PR process was a lot slower. In the “Age of Twitter”, however, a start-up company can become an overnight success - or failure - based on how many fans or followers it has. This has dramatically changed the role of PR, although any well-rounded PR company will know which mainstream companies or media to approach. They will know how to integrate ‘traditional PR’ with ‘digital PR’. Media contacts are still incredibly useful, and a balance between trust and technology is needed. Good communication between the PR company and the media is vital. A PR company needs to have a credible track record, quick response times, and a respect for deadlines. If this is the case, a journalist will usually slip in a well-angled PR story, or even an influential tweet. Good, old-fashioned media contacts are still essential for digital PR, as various media releases and coverage can now be peppered with SEO keywords. News content can be optimized with appropriate keywords or popular phrases, as can clients’ “digital assets”, such as photos or
YouTube videos. Digital PR enables an expansion of audience reach and influence. It can also increase visibility and the client’s online reputation. The use of social media can engage the audience, and build relationships with them. It can be used to improve customer service, or recruit fans and followers for focus groups. However, detailed research - about both the audience and the client’s online presence - needs to be undertaken for effective digital PR. Before diving head-first into the rocky waters of social media, PR companies need to glean certain information: how the public perceives the client or brand, who the key competitors are, and what the client’s objectives are. Most importantly, a successful digital PR launch is not possible without a well-planned strategy. If a clear PR strategy is in place, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool - and the client can go from zero to hero at lightning speed. Bill Gates once said, “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.” Effective public relations especially in the digital age - are essential for any business success. Take a page out of Bill’s book, and spend your last dollar on PR. The rewards will be exponential.
The Tale of the Town Cryer A benefit to you that is immeasurable. Furthermore it provides a direct connection with your target market and has the capacity to engage them and return feedback. The blog will not only increase traffic to your site and consequently your brand but it’s also a means to gain popularity and establish the credibility of your company. A blog can similarly be instrumental in building customer relationships by answering questions or tackling issues of your customers that may have been overlooked by the information provided by your website.
and promotional tools, due to their costs, are limited with the information you can produce and sometimes a lot gets lost in translation. Blogs are just another way to clear it up and flesh out all the company has to offer. And in keeping with the wonderful world of tech, this is free! Monumental has launched their very own blog as a personal aspect of their website. As an extension of its website the blog has created an opportunity for the writers at Monumental to be creative with their delivery to customers and move away from the standard ways to inform. It also allows the Every marketing and public relations department “bigger heads” to share their thoughts and give should recognize, the impressions individuals form their personal insight. of your business surrounds branding, networking, Studies have shown that with the abundant gadgets web presence and its repute. These are achieved and smartphones flooding the market, more and simply by exposure. Unfortunately many adverts more persons go directly to companies’ websites
“Telling the Tale Through Your Blog”
The tale must be told ...it is quite surprising when many businesses question if they even need a blog. Staying relevant in the market is a necessity for any company to stay alive. It is vital for any growing company to utilize all available channels that maximize on brand exposure. The ultimate platform for sharing your thoughts insights and clearing the air about the direction of your company lies in your very own blog.
“more and more persons go directly to companies’ websites before dialing to inquire about their services”
“A blog can be instrumental in building customer relationships” before dialing to inquire about their services. It stands with good reason then that websites should be as well rounded as possible, providing all necessary information and aimed to capture its audience in one go. This way, when that phone call is made it is simply to book your services. Tips for having a professional look to your blog: 1. Have a Clean Design 2. Always Proofread for grammatical errors 3. Personal Touch – Have a professional bio a click away 4. Allow sharing on other social media domains 5. Have fresh ideas ready and waiting to be published 6. Finally, the content must be good, true, accurate and reliable. So why rob yourself of a priceless opportunity to market your company and build your own brand’s image and reputation via a new marketing platform? Start a blog you won’t regret it.
True Spin Doctors? OR
180 Degree TURNS
By Lance Winslow
Public Relations is a pretty unforgiving field to participate in. Even those who are often called the king of spin have problems with it occasionally, as it is hard to be right all the time in an ever changing world of public perception and mass media incited hysteria. So what do you do when something goes terribly wrong and you are in crisis mode? How can you back out of a public relations campaign, community goodwill program or direction of spin gracefully and do a 180-degree turn? It is not easy and often it involves some very creative thinking on the part of the main members of the team. When a public relations campaign is not working right it needs to be shut down and terminated before it does any more damage. Sometimes, it pays to play up the controversy and then report that our customers have made up their minds and we are listening and therefore we are dumping this public relations campaign for something that our customers want and we are doing it now. Another thing to do is to have a vote and let the customers decide what they like, this allows them to have by in and have a say in the public relations campaign. Then you can say as a company you trust your customers and you intend to give them what they want because you do it all for them. This is one of the easiest strategies for 180° turnaround’s in a public relations campaign midstream.
Marketing Phasing Out …Back to Newsletters? The Facebook camp, have reached in their pockets noticeably around the same time as recent reports which have surfaced over concerns of falling interests from their members.
ads/marketing campaigns to be viewed, liking one’s page and venturing deeper into the site. Facebook’s recent acquistion of Instagram gives life to reports that their move to hold a formidable mobile player responds to an area seen as a The result was Instagram, then it was Whatsapp, weakness for them; falling short as a mobile app then it was Oculus Virtual-Reality - which no favorite for a social network. one knew anything about or even saw coming. And somewhere along the way their very own Of course with email blasts and newsletters there revamping of their website. It stands with good are concerns about being marked as spam thus reason then, to question the current effectiveness preventing emails from the opportunity to even of Facebook as a social media platform or more reach the eyes of prospective clients. And on the importantly as a marketing tool. A dip in the other hand with Facebook, once a user is online it number of Facebook users will have marketers is almost guaranteed for them to see the ads. But questioning whether their efforts are better spent if less and less prime targets are logging on, is it going back to basics. really better in the long run? Back to basics refers to ‘the original’, mass mailer techniques, email blasts and newsletters. The concept though maybe old fashion but what’s inside, it’s content, is keeping up with the times. Emails have the capacity to hold motion images, delivery links to your site, host pictures appearing right upon opening and of course simply by making its way to your phone or laptop half the message has been delivered and the job done. Whether the email is opened or not, a prospective end user sees the subject and half the marketing strategy is accomplished right then and there. Unlike with Facebook though a major requirement involves users to be on the site and for some
From a marketing standpoint you will hear that when it comes to social media, there’s no reason all avenues shouldn’t be explored. And as it stands, millions still log on to Facebook and despite being viewed as having dropped in rankings of effective internet marketing approaches, doesn’t make it any less pertinent to the all round marketing portfolio. Facebook still holds its place in marketing techniques, right up there with email blasts and e-newsletters. Both are considered ‘free marketing’ and by free I mean without calculating the man power costs to be online promoting. So really all ‘free marketing’ avenues should be explored.
On the Brink Credits Publisher:
Monumental Partners Limited
9 McKenzie Close
Kingston 8
St. Andrew
Tel: 876-969-2646
info@monumentalpartners.com www.monumentalpartners.com Managing Editors:
Kahlil Harris
Christopher Goulbourne
Brand Manager:
Jheanelle Maturah
Graphic Designer:
Kristopher Kerr
Contributors:
Lance Winslow
Robert Fogarty
Jheanelle Maturah
Subscription: info@monumentalpartners.com Sources: ezine.com