Public relations is not a new concept – it defines how an organization communicates with its audience and builds its reputation.
But how brands use PR has changed significantly.
For starters, new digital PR channels like blogs, podcasts, and social media overshadow the traditional PR channels of radio, newspaper, and television.
In fact, social media and public relations work together seamlessly. Not only do brands use social media as a PR channel, but they also use it to connect with journalists and then share the media articles that mention their name.
If you want to learn how to boost the reputation of your brand, then read on.
Inside, you’ll discover:
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Public relations (also referred to as PR) is the strategic management function that helps your organization manage its reputation and build a positive connection with the public.
PR functions by leveraging media platforms, initiating dialogues with the audience, and storytelling. In short, it aims to ensure that the public perception of your organization is aligned with your goals.
PR and marketing are complementary to each other as they are part of the same family of communications. They often deploy the same tactics but with starkly different goals.
The goal of marketing, in most cases, is to promote and drive sales. But the focus of PR is reputation and brand building, as well as increasing sales indirectly.
They also use the same channels differently. For example, a social media platform is not only used as a distribution channel for PR but also as a medium to establish positive relationships with journalists and customers.
Re-sharing media commentary on your brand builds authenticity and credibility. However, for marketing, a social media platform acts solely as the distribution channel.
Moreover, public relations helps the company retrieve its reputation in case of a PR crisis, whereas marketing strategy does not take backlash into account.
As digital media continues to disrupt traditional advertising, PR has become necessary for brands. PR helps you:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffet.
Your business reputation can either be built or harmed by PR, as it exposes your brand to:
Having an effective PR strategy can help your brand recover from a potential crisis and foster a positive relationship with your audience.
Let’s take a look at some successful PR campaigns:
Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign is one of the most successful PR campaigns of all time.
What they did: In 2011, Coca-Cola replaced its iconic logo with 150 popular names in Australia. The label read “Share a coke with…” followed by one of the 150 names.
They encouraged people to share a tweet using the hashtag #ShareaCoke with their experience. People were excited to find a bottle with their first names or a name with a personal meaning.
The campaign took off, and the company’s Facebook page grew by 39%.
Why it worked: The campaign worked primarily on user-generated content (UGC). The factors of its success are:
Proctor & Gamble’s #DistanceDance campaign is one of the best examples of a PR campaign taking off on social media.
What they did: Proctor & Gamble (P&G) collaborated with Charli D’Amelio, the TikTok star with the highest number of followers on the platform, to encourage people to stay home amidst the pandemic in March 2020.
P&G pledged to donate to Feeding America and Matthew25 for the first 3 million videos. The result was millions of videos, resulting in billions of views. The hashtag has garnered 16 billion views alone.
Why it worked: P&G leveraged influencer marketing strategically. The success can be credited to the combined use of a popular social media platform (of their target audience) and an entertainment form (dance).
DiGiorno turned to Twitter to capture customer attention.
What they did: In October 2019, during National Pizza Month, DiGiorno launched their #DeliverDiGiorno campaign. Delivering 1,100 free pizza in a month, they brought their slogan, “It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno,” to life.
They aimed to increase brand awareness and engagement. To achieve their goal, they used paid promotion on Twitter (promoted tweets and trends) to utilize the full potential of the opportunity and reach more people.
The campaign was a massive success with 55.3 million impressions, 1.75 million tweets, and 78% positive sentiment.
We're getting in the delivery game during National Pizza Month!
Tweet #DeliverDiGiorno + your city and you could have DiGiorno delivered! pic.twitter.com/BCyaNJfpaZ
— DiGiorno (@DiGiorno) September 23, 2019
Why it worked: DiGiorno understood the interest of their audience and centered their campaign around a topical subject (National Pizza Month). A mix of promoted tweets and organic content boosted their reach, and offering a reward (free pizza) for participation increased the overall engagement of the audience.
Follow this five-step framework to implement a winning public relations strategy:
Defining your goals and setting objectives will help you determine your target audience accurately and create relevant content for them.
It will also help you decide on the tools and tactics you can use to meet your objectives effectively. Your goal may include:
Although your goals can be qualitative, your objectives have to be quantitative. For example, if your goal is to increase customer engagement, set a target increase in website traffic and social media followers in a particular time frame (15% increase in 3 months).
Your objective should be SMART:
Without meeting the SMART criteria, it’s hard to build and track the success of a PR campaign. A PR goal is always hard to measure, but attaching it to clear, measurable objectives will help track the campaign’s overall success.
Public relations is primarily about building relationships with your audience. But the identification of your audience comes before relationship building.
The target audience varies based on your goals. Some examples include:
Your target audience will hugely impact the type of content you create and the PR tactics you use to reach them.
After determining your target audience, research their interests, habits, what they care about, and the type of media they like to consume. Tailor your content according to their likings.
A content strategy tailored according to your audience’s interests will not seem ‘interrupting’ to them. And you’re more likely to see a positive response.
Taking time to craft the buyer persona in detail will reap the rewards in the later stages.
A key message is the master narrative of your PR campaign. It is the gist of what you want to convey to the audience.
The features of a perfect key message are:
Your key message should ideally follow the structure of:
“[central message] [supporting statement] [proof point].”
Take the real-life example of 3M – they have skillfully highlighted the proof point and supporting statement along with their key message.
You can use the following method to deliver a key message that drives attention and action:
Tactics are the various methods you use to reach your audience to achieve the campaign goals.
You can divide your tactics into two parts:
The type of content you create depends on your goal and target audience. For example, if your goal is to position the brand as a thought leader and increase brand awareness, your content should be informative and educational.
Perform in-depth research of keywords to understand your audience and their search intent better.
You can reach your audience through various channels, but which one is the most effective?
The PESO model answers this question. You can broadly divide the media into four types:
Paid Media
As the name suggests, paid media is when you pay for your content to be visible. It includes:
Earned Media
Earned media is the content about your brand created by external sources. The brand has no direct control over this channel, which can also be the source of a PR crisis if not handled well. It includes:
Shared Media
Shared media is the content generated on third-party platforms. It’s one of the most important factors since it builds authenticity and trust, and includes:
Owned Media
Owned media is the channels your business can directly control. It forms the base of most PR campaigns and includes:
A combination of all these four channels works the best. But you can start with the place where your target audience spends the most time. For example:
As you’ve already set the KPI while setting your goals and objectives, tracking your progress shouldn’t be complex – it just has to be timely.
Tracking your progress allows you to review and modify your original plan. Here are some metrics you can monitor:
Loomly Tip: You can use the Advanced Analytics feature to track everything in one place and help you identify room for growth.
Public relations helps you reach your target audience and deliver your message strategically to enhance your reputation. It can help you:
Follow this five-step guide to implement a winning public relations strategy for your brand: