I’m guessing that, like me, you’ve been hit up with requests on Facebook and other social media to post your “25 Random Things About Me.” So far I’ve resisted delving into my mental scrapbook for personal trivia about my fourth grade pursuits.
However I decided to use the format to see if I could come up with a list of 25 ways that PR can help small businesses. Once I got going, it was easy! I bet you can add your own to the list, and I’d love for you to do so. Here’s mine:
- It will make you more visible.
- It will make you more credible.
- It will shape your brand, or the way you are perceived in the minds of your target market.
- It will educate the public about your new company, product or service.
- You will win more friends and influence more people.
- PR is much less expensive than advertising.
- Current customers will pat themselves on the back that they have chosen to do business with you.
- Potential customers will seek you out.
- You’ll experience less resistance when asking prospects for appointments.
- Closing the sale will be easier because prospects trust you because of “third-party endorsement” (the media).
- Once you establish a presence in the media, reporters will begin to consider you an expert in your field and will call you to comment on other stories.
- Other businesses will want to partner with you due to the “halo effect.”
- Unlike advertising, PR multiples. Once you get publicity in a small venue, the bigger media often “find” you, presenting more opportunities for coverage.
- Your employees will take pride in working for a great company that others admire.
- You will nurture a service-oriented attitude among your customers, vendors and employees.
- You will seek ways to contribute to the community, not only for the publicity but because in giving, your business and your life will be made richer.
- You will work to eliminate complaints, and when they arise, you will take care to correct them immediately and compassionately, creating loyal customers for life.
- You will drive traffic to your Web site with low-cost online PR.
- Through incorporating PR strategies into social media, you will meet prospects that you would not otherwise meet, extending your reach and influence.
- You can change opinions, beliefs and behaviors through good PR. (Just consider the shift in attitude and behavior generated by the anti-smoking, anti-drunk driving and safe sex campaigns.)
- A well-constructed PR plan can help your business manage a crisis and reduce the likelihood of lawsuits, profit loss, employee turnover, ruined careers and lives, and even bankruptcy.
- By incorporating “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) into your PR plan (think “green,” for example), you reduce taxes, increase public goodwill and make it less likely that the government will want to regulate you.
- PR not only can help you create your reputation, but it can help you manage it.
- PR increases the long-term survivability of your business.
- PR energizes “word of mouth marketing” or “buzz.”
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