Public Relations for Influencers & Content Creators (preview copy)
Public Relations for Influencers and Content Creators
Published by Vanessa Abron and Agency Abron 330 N Wabash Ave, FL 23, Chicago, IL 60611
www agencyabron com
Copyright 2024 Vanessa Abron/Agency Abron
All rights reserved No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
For permissions contact.: vanessa@agencyabron.com
Introduction
I’ve been working in public relations for more than ten years now. I’ve worked in a number of different verticals—consumer, public affairs, corporate, media publishing, beauty, and tech to name a few—and I worked at agencies and in-house before venturing out on my own.
Early in my public relations career, while working in the agency atmosphere, I worked on a few consumer brands. During that time, we began to notice that blogs were a lucrative platform for potential earned media coverage. They had a dedicated and captive audience, and outreach to them at the time was more targeted than going to a magazine or TV program.
Reaching out to them for coverage was unique. Being that the role of a blogger was new, the relationship between us, the PR pros, and them was new and developing. And honestly, it still is. Initially, we conducted outreach to bloggers like we would any journalist, with our pitch letter, press release and media kit in tow.
However, as the role of blogger continued to evolve to “influencer,” the relationship between us and them also evolved from earned media to include paid partnerships However, I noticed there was a gap It seemed that bloggers/influencers didn’t really understand the role of the public relations professional, and I think influencers felt misunderstood as well With that in mind, I started an event called Digital Influencers Meet PR Pros.
Digital Influencers Meet PR Pros, formerly Social Media & Blogger Bees Meet PR Pros, was developed by my company, Agency Abron in 2017 to ignite a compelling conversation on the increasingly pertinent and necessary relationship between bloggers, social media influencers and PR professionals. Agency Abron noticed the mutual benefit both parties presented to one another and wanted to create an understanding regarding the collective growth between the two continually evolving professions.
As the landscape of media evolves, influencers are becoming an essential component to disseminate messaging to reach a specific target audience, and public relations professionals are a gateway to connecting these influencers to the brands they seek to partner with The company created this event as a springboard to help the two industries gain a clearer understanding of each other's roles, but more importantly, how their roles intersect and positively enhance each other’s profession
As a result of the events, naturally my interactions with influencers increased. From my new lens, I realized that an understanding of public relations wasn’t only necessary from a relationship standpoint for influencers, but because public relations initiatives is also a necessary strategy for influencers to build their brand and business.
So, with all this in mind, I present to you this book. May it help strengthen your relationship with PR professionals, and may it also serve as a tool to help you in building your overall visibility for your brand.
With love, honor, and respect, Vanessa Abron
Notes before you continue reading:
I will use the terms PR and public relations interchangeably throughout the text. Please note the PR in this text is used as an abbreviation of public relations.
This book will ask you several questions. Some of the questions may be difficult to answer right away and will require further thought. You can ponder the question a little before moving forward. However, you can also continue reading and come back to the questions.
What Is Public Relations and Why
Is It
Important?
Let’s start with one basic question: What is public relations? It seems like an easy enough question, right? Not necessarily. If you do not know the answer, then you are part of the majority. Throughout my career, I’ve noticed that a lot of people do not really have a firm grasp as to what public relations is. In 2011 and 2012, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) led an international effort to modernize the definition of public relations.
They described public relations as “a strategic communications process that deals with mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” When I read this definition, even as a public relations professional, it seemed a bit confusing. Therefore, I decided to dig a little deeper.
When I Googled the definition of public relations, the search engine defined the profession as ‘the professional maintenance of a public image by a company or other organizations or famous person.” This definition is a tad clearer. It gives a little bit more understanding.
However, I’m going to give you the Vanessa Abron definition of public relations. I define public relations as “the management of your brand’s overall public image, relationships and reputation.” The public can be the media, your followers, clients/customers, potential clients/customers, your community, other organizations, stockholders, stakeholders or anyone else who interacts with your brand on a regular basis.
One of my pet peeves as a public relations professional is that clients often look at our industry only from the publicity aspect. Publicity, or media relations, is the act of getting media exposure for your brand. However, publicity should only be part of your overall marketing and public relations campaign, and it should not be a standalone act.
Public relations is about relationships. Understanding the importance of relationships and incorporating relationship building and relationship maintenance in your strategy yields long-term results, and oftentimes it will allow the act of PR to work in your favor when you are not even trying.
We will explore this more, but it is imperative that we establish early on the value of RELATIONSHIPS before we dive deeper
Also, when pitching media, potential partners or anyone of the sort, being concise is golden. This isn’t the time to show how verbose you are. To help with this, answer the following:
WHAT - What are you doing, and why should anyone care?
WHY - Why are you doing what you are doing?
HOW - How are you doing what you are describing above? NOTEThis question may not need answering, depending on what you are doing. Only answer this question if it’s interesting and supports what you are doing.
WHO - Who are you? Keep this brief.
WHEN - When is what you are doing taking place? Provide the date and time.
WHERE - Where can people go to support, purchase, attend, etc.?
It is also recommended that you answer these questions in bullet form as listed above.
It makes it easier to read quickly, and it keeps you concise It is also okay to use the words WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, etc
Don't be afraid to be different
Prince was certainly one of the most unique public figures There is no other artist who can compare to him He is the prototype of an influencer, and he had his own style and his own sound He was flamboyant yet cool. When it comes to PR campaigns, or just brainstorming ideas, we as professionals can’t be afraid to be unique and different. After all, it’s the unique and different projects that get talked about the most.
Being unique can be scary and risky. Either people are going to love it or hate it. But if you never try, you’ll never know. I’ve learned to embrace the concept that no idea is too crazy. That crazy idea just may be a winner. So when it comes to brainstorming and putting together out-of the-box media approaches, embrace the wild ideas.
Possess confidence
No matter what people thought of Prince, he was confident, and he owned who he was. That confidence is what made others love and accept his quirks and interesting idiosyncrasies.
There’s no denying a confident individual. If you don’t believe in yourself and in what you’re doing (or presenting, pitching or selling), then no one else will. As I reflect on my accomplishments and setbacks, the times that I was the most confident are when I thrived, and the times I had doubt are when I suffered the most. Therefore, possessing confidence is a necessity in achieving anything. Whether you are talking to a media professional about a potential story, conducting an interview in front of the camera or presenting in front of a large audience, you can’t make an impact if you aren’t confident
Be authentic
The awesome thing about Prince was that he wasn’t a gimmick. He was always authentic. He gave us who he was and what he was feeling at any given moment, regardless of how we would potentially receive it.
When interacting with media and the public, a rule of thumb is to be honest and true to who you are. While we often have to cater to our audience and meet them where they are, that doesn’t mean you have to be phony or artificial. The world has seen enough cookie-cutter people. When you are authentic, you are relatable and more engaging. It allows you to draw in the audience that is most inherent to you. It’s very difficult to maintain a persona that isn’t authentically you. Trust me, I’ve tried it. However, when I interact with clients, media and the public in general, I achieve the most success by just being myself By doing this, I’ve been thanked by people telling me they appreciate that I am not robotic or a carbon copy of someone else
Gone are the days of having to put on a false guise. The person you already are is probably the distinctive quality that’s missing from that story, pitch, presentation, or your own platform.
Personal Note
While I apply these lessons to my career, they are valuable pointers for life overall. Life is evidently too short to walk around as mere drones conformed to other people’s labels, expectations and opinions. The truth is we all possess a certain je ne sais quoi that makes us just as special as Prince. We all have the power to be bold and to influence. It’s up to us to let down our guard and let it show, no matter what other people may think.
ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
Vanessa Abron, the founder of Agency Abron, is an artist who has several years of experience working in corporate environments. She spent a vast portion of her life studying dance, music, theater, visual, and media arts, possessing both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in arts management but also has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and public relations after working with companies and firms such as Burrell, Atlantic Records, Ch’rwed Marketing & Promotions, Weber Shandwick, Hill + Knowlton Strategies, Ebony/Jet magazine, Fashion Fair Cosmetics, and Nielsen to name a few
Consulting with Vanessa and Agency Abron is more than consulting. It’s a guided creative experience designed to invoke Vanessa’s motto: “no idea is too crazy or too big.” With the combined services of creative brainstorms, artistic concept direction, experiential marketing, and more, Agency Abron takes you down a path less traveled and gives you the means to bring your biggest, craziest ideas to life.
Vanessa prides Agency Abron on not following “industry standards.” She recognizes that every client is different, from their artistic vision to their background to their values, and rises to meet the client where they are. From there, she sets to guide them to their fullest potential as creative visionaries
The beauty of working with Vanessa is that she bridges the gap: you bring your big idea, and she will give you the extra boost you need to manifest it Some of Vanessa's past client work includes McDonald's, Netflix, National Geographic, Magnolia Pictures, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, ComEd, FX Network, and Paramount.
