What are the 5 top public relations strategies that can give your business a competitive edge against the giants and upstarts? It starts with understanding that good public relations is a lot more than media relations. Read more below.
Top 5 PR strategies your business can win against competition large and small
Whether in the Americas, Europe, or the Asia Pacific, public relations is entrenched in every successful business. For the more enlightened businesses, public relations has converged with the C-suite to ensure that communication starts successful with the top brass.
So, what are the 5 top field-proven public relations strategies that work?
1. PR is NOT just media relations.
The enlightened businesses and agencies know that media relations is a fraction of public relations. Long gone are the days of measuring quantity of news coverage and using antiquated “advertising equivalence”. The likes of AMEC’s Barcelona is a good modern yardstick for public relations measurement, which extends to social platforms (even dark social). Explore all stakeholders and relations, such as communities, academia, trade organizations, government agencies, etc. These communities and the communication outreach all make up part of public relations. In a world where truth is demanded, it is important to reach out as far and wide a community as possible through communication to all stakeholders.
2. Read widely and from all sources.
Some practitioners and businesses see the world from only their perspective, and have the illusion of thinking that all public discourse and narratives should revolve around their interests, technologies and offerings. That is plainly impractical. So, the best way to know what is going on out there in the world, is to read widely from as many news and other information sources as possible, and not just narrow down to your own offerings, or even your nation state’s. The world is diverse, and to be truly inclusive and enlightened, and therefore successful, is to study the news and information from all locales, to understand the nuances and interests of all locales, and then distill them into inclusive and functional tactical communication and other business outreach. Don’t get trapped and prejudiced by limiting yourself to just a narrow “world view”.
3. Take every media request seriously.
Yes, every executive is busy these days especially with so many global and local turbulences encapsulating our every day. However, whenever a journalist or an influencer comes forward with an interest in our business, it is important we honor such requests with an equitable energy and fulfillment to completion. Stick to the media’s deadlines. Furnish all details as much as you can. Offer a wider perspective from complementary partners and allies if possible.
4. Explore all media channels and platforms.
There seems to be a new digital platform or channel every other quarter, competing or supplementing one another in one way or another. Not all platforms will survive, and some will fade away with time as the fads subside. However, as leaders and practitioners, we need to at least explore these platforms first hand, to see exactly how and why they work, or won’t. We should not simply dismiss an emerging or foreign platform just because we are unfamiliar with them. Study them. Use them. Test them. And then decide. Some of these platforms may well supersede what we believe to be the status quo.
5. Go deep and wide.
We may be a cybersecurity vendor, or a medical clinic. We may therefore have our practice areas and commercial interests. However, while we tend to go deep with our communication outreach with highly technical content, do remember it is important to tailor our communication to suit a wide variety of audiences as well. In those audiences we may not see an immediate business fit, do remember those audiences tend to also be a superset of the very important decision makers as well, and these decision makers do also digest such media. Also, sometimes, media opportunities of a regional or international tier media may arise, that demand executive and leadership perspectives rather than narrow technical discourse, and may become highly sought after “proof points” even, for our business development colleagues.
So, as the field of public relations evolves, we must as practitioners, keep ahead by having open minds and agile actions, to study and explore the vast unknown, and use such knowledge and experience to grow.
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Dr Seamus Phan – Global C-suite Publicist & Strategist (Biochemist, Cybersecurity & Webdev pioneer, Author, Journalist) with 37 years of professional field experience.
