The New Rules of PR

The New Rules of PR

Although Traditional PR and the third party ink will always remain highly important for any given business until the newspapers go out of print, yet adopting the newer form of PR approaches has become inevitable.  The online world has grown as never before and being invisible on the digital platform may make you invisible to opportunities.  
The concept of making other influencing channels talk about you to derive benefit for your brand image is core methodology of PR, but the tactics to achieve this have changed. The role of the journalists has been taken over by bloggers and influencers. Subject matter expects are the new luminaries. And this modern trend has been capitalized upon well by smart marketers. 
It is probably very wise to say that a lot of businesses have an online presence, but is that presence really worthwhile? Unless, the mediums are used well, and strategies are conceived properly, no benefits can be sought from this presence. The presence of you company on the web can be viewed from three angles; Owned Media, Earned Media and the Paid Media.  Out of these three, the Earned Media is what we are more interested in from the PR perspective. 
After you set up your digital destinations across channels, which forms your owned media, it is not of use unless people are directed to it. Search engines play an important role in getting traffic, but to really make an appeal to the consumer, something different is needed. The audience will not listen to you speak about yourself. People would need other bloggers, influencers and critics speak about you. Now to motivate them is the real deal!
Your Public Relations activities should revolve around strategizing communications that would interest bloggers and influencers who are not interested in cold e-mailed press releases pitching to cover your brands and products.   Bloggers often times do not write about what doesn’t interest them, so unless you are able to create that interest and sensation around your company or events, modern day PR might not be your cup of tea. In that case most of the marketers cover their inefficiency by asking influencers and bloggers to cover them by paying hefty amounts of money, and in such cases it is not PR despite getting a 3rd party endorser. 

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Why Businesses In Mexico Are Not Pro PR

Why Businesses In Mexico Are Not Pro PR

Public Relations (PR) is an interface between a marketer and the media, and the collaborative efforts of these three, viz. Marketer, PR Firm and Media help to make marketing more strong & impactful. Whereas advertising is a solo show business, the marketer directly promotes a brand through the media, but paid. Businesses in the present times understand the potential of PR – integrated, influencing and inexpensive. That’s why the newer weapon of Marketing means PR is considered more practical and powerful than its predecessor (Advertising) by a majority of smart and marketing savvy entrepreneurs for promoting a brand or concept in almost every developed and growing economy. But, exceptions are everywhere and Mexico, the North American state is one of the rare countries where enterprises are still sticking to traditional forms of marketing like advertising and direct mail to interact with the target audience.
Even I was not aware that in Mexico businesses are still reluctant to PR. In January this year, I wrote an article ‘Never Underestimate the Public Relations’ and posted it on LinkedIn. One of the readers who appreciated my post was Alfredo J. Enriquez, a gentleman from Mexico, in the comment box, he wrote,” Beautifully written. But most businesses in Mexico, I don’t wonder why yet, do not hire PR and they tend more to hire Marketing agencies, and it is more difficult to start a PR agency. We still have a lot to do and to learn in this area. What do you think?”
His question was very challenging, but I mustered up some courage and asked him to give two weeks time to investigate the causes. The busy work schedule did everything to embarrass me and after consuming 12 long weeks, today I feel a bit comfortable to answer –  why businesses do not hire PR agencies in Mexico?
Here, I would like to share the factors responsible for the low PR acceptance in the world’s 11th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity.
  • A majority of entrepreneurs in Mexico perceives that PR is just to rescue an organization from the crisis.
  • The Gulf oil spill tragedy in 2010 and the failure of PR in dodging the BP’s Crisis.
  • It is a common perception that newspapers are the harbingers of bad/negative news/stories.
  • Low penetration of digital and social media, people still prefer TV and radio for news and information acquisition.
  • Overly negative views of the outside world towards the Mexico due to drug trafficking and rivalry among narcotic traders. 
  • Not so good trade relations with the USA, the powerhouse of the world economy.
  • The Latinos are still less friendly with English, the trade language of world’s business community, they still prefer to communicate in Spanish.
These are the common barriers that discourage the growth and acceptance of the PR in Mexico. Identification of problems is worthless until and unless they are countered with some remedial measures. In the next write-up I will try to come with some feasible solutions.                                                                        
Please Keep Patience, Solutions Are Just 500 Words Away…

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Why Businesses In Mexico Are Not Pro PR

Public Relations (PR) is an interface between a marketer and the media, and the collaborative efforts of these three, viz. Marketer, PR Firm and Media help to make marketing more strong & impactful. Whereas advertising is a solo show business, the marketer directly promotes a brand through the media, but paid. Businesses in the present times understand the potential of PR – integrated, influencing and inexpensive. That’s why the newer weapon of Marketing means PR is considered more practical and powerful than its predecessor (Advertising) by a majority of smart and marketing savvy entrepreneurs for promoting a brand or concept in almost every developed and growing economy. But, exceptions are everywhere and Mexico, the North American state is one of the rare countries where enterprises are still sticking to traditional forms of marketing like advertising and direct mail to interact with the target audience.
Even I was not aware that in Mexico businesses are still reluctant to PR. In January this year, I wrote an article ‘Never Underestimate the Public Relations’ and posted it on LinkedIn. One of the readers who appreciated my post was Alfredo J. Enriquez, a gentleman from Mexico, in the comment box, he wrote,” Beautifully written. But most businesses in Mexico, I don’t wonder why yet, do not hire PR and they tend more to hire Marketing agencies, and it is more difficult to start a PR agency. We still have a lot to do and to learn in this area. What do you think?”
His question was very challenging, but I mustered up some courage and asked him to give two weeks time to investigate the causes. The busy work schedule did everything to embarrass me and after consuming 12 long weeks, today I feel a bit comfortable to answer –  why businesses do not hire PR agencies in Mexico?
Here, I would like to share the factors responsible for the low PR acceptance in the world’s 11th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity.
  • A majority of entrepreneurs in Mexico perceives that PR is just to rescue an organization from the crisis.
  • The Gulf oil spill tragedy in 2010 and the failure of PR in dodging the BP’s Crisis.
  • It is a common perception that newspapers are the harbingers of bad/negative news/stories.
  • Low penetration of digital and social media, people still prefer TV and radio for news and information acquisition.
  • Overly negative views of the outside world towards the Mexico due to drug trafficking and rivalry among narcotic traders. 
  • Not so good trade relations with the USA, the powerhouse of the world economy.
  • The Latinos are still less friendly with English, the trade language of world’s business community, they still prefer to communicate in Spanish.
These are the common barriers that discourage the growth and acceptance of the PR in Mexico. Identification of problems is worthless until and unless they are countered with some remedial measures. In the next write-up I will try to come with some feasible solutions.                                                                        
Please Keep Patience, Solutions Are Just 500 Words Away…

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Businesses Should Adopt PR to Adapt Changes and Adept Branding

People assess an individual’s worth with appearance, apparels, apartment, automobile not with account or unseen wealth that is accumulating in the bank or equity market. Same applies to businesses, branding attracts target audience more than the balance sheet of a company, that’s why smart businesses never overlook Public Relations (PR) in today’s highly competitive world for effective branding and image building. In fact, PR is even more crucial for the enterprises than fund raising in the current scenario.

Recently, at ASEAN PR Excellence in Kuala Lumpur, Dr. Salleh Said Keruak, Minister of Communications and Multimedia – Malaysia throws light on the importance of PR in the following words, “Public Relations today have more dynamic roles in shaping reputation and a catalyst for sustainability. Depending on their priority and creativity, PR professionals will choose certain methods and tools to fulfil their duties. Some tend to be most adept at using the media and PR to achieve their objectives, others may use campaigns.”

Businesses Want to Insure Sustainable Growth Must Adopt PR On Urgent Basis

Smart entrepreneurs and businesses hire PR agencies just not for promotion and marketing. PR for them is an investment which not only enhances brand image, but also creates massive business opportunities. Here, I will once again say that ‘Public Relations is a big need for today’s businesses, and it is the most effective way to leverage name, image and reputation of a brand.

Adapt Changing PR

Public Relations is no more restricted to coverage in the print media, it has experienced a paradigm shift after the advent of Digital Media. PR has changed dramatically after the birth of the internet or more precisely the advent of social media. A PR without Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube is considered useless in recent times. Therefore, equal focus should be given on traditional as well as digital media channels.

PR for Adept Branding

PR not only makes brand, but it also protects, saves and prevents a brand from various kinds of threats. Whether it is a communication failure or image crisis, PR saves a brand in all types of market contingencies. It connects marketers with the potential customers via effective use of integrated media and well planned branding strategies.  

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A Perfect Public Relations Campaign for Internal Audience

Public Relations Professionals spend immense time talking about how they should communicate externally. They generally talk about engaging outside consultants, disseminating news releases and pitching stories to the media or industry, and indulge too much so that they often overlook their most influential and most valuable asset constituents inside the company- their internal audience. 
Communication with internal audience, including employees, board members, directors or association members is an imperative consideration for a PR agency to become more successful. Every employee wants to be informed about the product developments, team success celebrations, and other changes in the organization. By paying equal attention to your staff members and valuing their opinions, you will actually motivate them, make them feel valued and become a trustworthy resource that will lead to more dedicated and productive members of staff.
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With the help of the following methods of communicating with internal audience, you can develop a sense of pride and instil a sense of belonging in employees.
Have an Open Communication
The best method to make your employees feel valued is simply by talking with them. Consistent and clear communication with the staff members helps set a company apart from its competitors as it is useful in creating a cohesive work environment. You can give them a better understanding of the organization’s goals and operations.
Communicating positive developments with employees boost their morale and encourage them to work harder, and contribute directly to an organization’s success. Moreover, you can empower employees to spread good news about the brand to their social networks. But make sure that the employees should not share the trade secrets outside the organization. For this, you can make them sign the non disclosure agreement.
Disseminate Information
Apart from direct communication, you can share information to everyone across an organization through various methods:
·         Information-Rich Intranet Sites: This is an ideal way to quickly inform employees about upcoming programs/releases, plans, PR successes, and even failures. Intranets make it easy to access details, forms and resources that are useful for them. Public Relations Services
·         Printed or E-Newsletters: Sending news update via e-mail or printed newsletter regularly keeps the members of the staff informed about what is happening in the wider organization and allows them to involve in the process. If possible, provide employees printed newsletter as many of them would like to hold and take it home.
Be a Good Listener
To encourage strong relationships between company managers and employees, it is vital to listen to them attentively along with communicate. Listening is the key to great communication. For a successful PR campaign, you should provide a forum that allows employees to ask candid questions- and receive candid answers, express their issues then have them addressed honestly, share innovative and creative ideas- then see them implemented. It is said that employees who have a voice serve as the most enthusiastic brand ambassadors, both externally and internally.
Conclusion:
An effective and honest internal communication allows employees to trust on the organization and encourage them to work more dedicatedly. Every committed employee prefers to work for companies that are transparent in their practices and goals.  By communicating on a daily basis, company workers will be able to put major organizational changes and developments, declarations, events and news in the right context.

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Effective Ways to Measure the Impact of PR

Effective Ways to Measure the Impact of PR


A decade back, when the focus of public relations (PR) professionals was on traditional media, it had been really difficult to monitor and gauge the effectiveness and impact of PR campaigns. Today, PR professionals interact with journalists and influencers through social media,  they also discuss things with marketing team to ensure successful launches of products and services. In addition, they develop blogs and manage social media channels to enhance the visibility and image of a brand. In the present era, it can be easily checked that how long is the list of people talking about a particular program, these discussions and comments can be further segregated in two separate categories – positive and negative. If a company finds that its social media mentions have increased after launching PR program, it means, the campaign is going on a right track. 
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Businesses can estimate the success of a PR campaign by tracking the newspapers, magazines, TV channels and of course the digital media. Also, it is vital to ensure that the information shared by the marketer is viewed and responded by the target audience. Through clip counting, one can calculate media impressions to know the number of people who may have seen the article, or read something about the campaign on a web page or blog. It is assumed that an article in a newspaper or magazine will be read by the number of people equivalent to the readership of a particular vehicle.
 Apart from the measurable quantity of the articles in several publications and impressions or “eyeballs”, companies should monitor the quality of content that gets published. Measuring their publications or mentions against how often or where your rivals get placed can help distinguish the PR firm’s efforts. Companies should analyse that the published content beautifully conveys the key message. 
Another way to decide that the PR is raising the brand awareness is to evaluate the traffic your website receives before and after launching the PR campaign.  An increase in new visits further justifies the effectiveness of media-driving efforts. To measure what influenced people to visit your site and make purchases, you can ask them how they heard about you and your offerings.
Awareness, attitude and action, these 3As should be the prime objectives of every PR team. Therefore, a comprehensive market research before making a PR plan should be the foremost priority of the top management. Better the research, easier would be to assess the impact of PR.

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Why Public Relations Is Better than Advertising

Why Public Relations Is Better than Advertising

Public Relations (PR) is the practice of developing communication between marketers and the target audience using all types of media vehicles such as print, Television and the internet. Public Relations (PR) for an organization or individual is nothing… […] Read more

Public Relations – What Exactly is It?

Public Relations – What Exactly is It?

The effectiveness of your organization does not matter if the people don’t aware of your business’s brand, successes or contributions. Effective public relationswork can enhance a company’s reputation and build its image in the mind of the target audience. A good public relations campaign highlights your products and services, educates and informs people about your brand and promotes the business as whole. It helps gain media exposure and deals with many stakeholders on behalf of the customer.
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Though the goals of PR agencies and advertising agencies are same, to promote clients and make them successful, but the paths of creating awareness are extremely different. Unlike Advertising agency, a public relations agency increases public awareness of certain company, organization or individual without especially selling or promoting their products or services. PR agency is known as “free” or “earned” media that promote the companies and individuals via editorial page. It harnesses the power of print media, electronic media and online media to inform people about you, your company, your activities and your achievements. One of the advantages of PR over advertising is that it disseminates information about an organization through a third party, such as magazine or newspaper, which enhances people’s trust on the organization and its activities. Also, they often use embargo’s to ensure that the companies/organizations/ customers receive press from various outlets at the same time.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that people’s act generally based upon their perception of facts.  Thus, the primary aim of every PR agency is to create, control and influence people’s opinion because their perceptions will drive their decisions about whether they want to work with, shop with or support the organizations. Public Relation professionals work behind the scenes- they send information for media releases, courting journalists, identify the best way to reach the main client groups and audiences, draft speeches and arrange interviews to position their clients as positive role models.  
A good PR agency work also involves sharing general interest stories in different media channels, such as how you set up your company and it also educates people about your CSR activities.  PR also helps you to gain media exposure if you are planning to launch or re-launch your business or if you are organizing a promotional event. 
Therefore, public relations agency enhances the brand awareness of a company by communicating and building relationships with media persons and stakeholders, and makes a business more relevant in the public eye.

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Imperative Elements Which Make PR a Must for Growing Businesses

Public Relations is science of image building and it is beyond business communication. The traditional PR was restricted to print media and television channels and media used to enjoy more freedom in choosing a story or covering an event. Several stori… […] Read more

Public Relations Is A Need NOT Publicity

Relationship unfolds opportunities, create friends, build trust and of course your reputation in the market. Relationship with the press and media is as important as with people and only a reputed Public Relations (PR) firm can improve your nexus with both media and your target audience. PR agencies play a vital role in converting unknown to known and product to brand. The information age is the era of PR for businesses, politics and people who want to make themselves recognised in the society and are willing to flash their pictures in the Page-3.
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Businesses require investors and sponsors, writers sought after publishers and politicians want party tickets, PR help them all. Public Relations professionals work as an interface between marketer and media, they make strategic PR plans for the client, arrange press conferences, events and social gatherings, invite the media and disseminate news and press releases. Apart from traditional media, which comprise newspapers, televisions and FM channels there is an active role of digital media too, that is viably equipped with social media channels and Search Engine Optimization.

Public Relations has changed dramatically after the birth of the internet or more precisely the advent of social media. A PR without covering the social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are considered useless in the recent time where people spent their most of leisure time in searching the things of their interest on the internet. The cumulative population of social media channels is much more than the total world population. From students to academicians and entrepreneurs to housewives all love to hang out in the digital world and exploring growth opportunities by interacting with the people across the globe. Hence, PR plays a vital role in both online and offline branding and promotional activities.

Getting the right coverage in the media is a difficult task, but PR people know very well that how to project a product or a person and pitch the media. A business quote to a by-line article and blog to interview they can add the client’s name or services in multiple ways. The size of the organisation and age of a person doesn’t bottleneck the PR activities. Things required in this context are clear vision and objectives, right strategies, relationship with the media and the right choice in finalising the PR agency. So, if you are looking for a PR agency hires one which is professional,  known and credible in the market.   

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