Tag: lakeland florida pr

Today’s Lakeland public relations can no longer avoid the power of social media and the influence it has over all aspects of promoting a business, boosting a client’s reputation, and answering questions about issues that could impact your client.

Even print journalists themselves are thinking about social media when writing their stories. A whopping 76 percent of journalists admitted that they think about the “shareability” of their stories on social media when writing them. They understand the power of social media and they are harnessing that power to their advantage.

Build relationships with influencers

Influencers are giving brands a voice that they could never use on their own. They have a lot of social media following, some big ones even have more followers than Hollywood celebrities.

Brands should be able to tap influencers who can promote their products and protect their reputations. If you can manage to build a good relationship with an influencer, you could use his/her voice to promote your business and defend your business from bad press.

Identify brand threats

It cannot be helped that even though you are protective of the quality of your products and services, some customers won’t be too happy with it. You should immediately be able to identify these problems once they come up and before they become a trending topic on social media.

Once a negative comment or post about your business has been shared and has spread, it would be difficult to contain the impact on your business. You need to proactively find these threats and address them immediately. There are many tools out there that could notify you when someone mentions your company’s name.

Influence journalists’ stories

There was a time when journalists would go to the streets for vox populi or the opinion of the people. If they want to know what others think, they would interview random people on the street.

But that’s over now. Thanks to social media, all journalists have to do is browse Facebook and Twitter and look for the opinions that they need. This is where your job as a PR officer can become useful.

You should be able to join the discussions and influence journalists to see your side of the story. You may not always see the story you want from the press, but you could keep the angle in the public eye.

Swiftly react to negative process

Social media is the first place that people look for when there’s an issue about a product. They check their Facebook accounts about how the public is reacting and what their opinions about the topic. Social media gives public relations professionals immediate access to a vast and attentive audience.

Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly hold events to promote an idea, sell a product, and introduce a new service to their target audience. The goal is to reach their audience and persuade them to support the cause or purchase the products/services. whatever the intentions of your events are, you have to make sure to include Lakeland public relations early in the planning stage.

Why? Whether through traditional or new channels, public relations can generate buzz to boost ticket sales and attendance. It could secure sponsors and advertisers, create public awareness, and encourage the media to attend the events.

Develop a PR plan

A PR strategist will tailor a PR plan for the event. They will set the strategies for communications, convey the messages to the target audience, schedule the deliverables, deadlines and responsibilities, and craft the messages. The plan should include various avenues such as media outreach, social media, email marketing, and website updates.

Tailor messages for each channel

The PR team will create each message according to the channel which they will use to disseminate the information. They will use daily teasers to get customers, friends, and followers interested in an event if they will use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.

Email blasts, on the other hand, are the perfect venues for a Save The Date reminder and to convey the reasons why the clients should attend the event.

To generate a broader interest for the press to attend, the PR team should send media advisories and press releases. These should be well-written and should convey the right message to the media.

Make a work plan

Without a work plan, the process may feel disjointed and there might be miscommunication among the members of the PR team.

A work plan will keep the team organized and well-managed. There should be a daily status report from the team members regarding the responsibilities and duties they should fulfill.

Start as early as possible

A PR team knows the importance of starting as early as possible in introducing the event and reaching out to customers. They will hire writers, photographers, and the general media to fill up the event space.

They will have to get on their radar, so they will be interested in the event. Starting the PR strategies early will also get more sponsorships and will interest advertisers to look into the event and see how this could be beneficial for their own businesses.

If you own a small business, you may not be paying much attention to your Lakeland public relations needs. But if you want to be successful in your business and you want to brand, market, and promote your company, PR is one of the most important tools that can get you where you want to be.

Define your “why”

Your “why” is the ultimate goal of your PR campaigns. You need to answer these questions: “Why am I doing this?,” “Why does your business matter?,” “Why should they support your business?,” and “Why did you decide to put up this business in the first place?”

Once you have answered your whys, you can then create a PR strategy that will communicate your goals.

Build your own media list

Crafting a press release could be easy but it is in distributing them that you can meet some roadblocks. Which journalists would be interested in your company? Where should you send your press releases and which news outfit will be interested to find out more?

You have to study the journalists and your competitions—what are they covering and what are they talking about regarding the industry that you are in. Before sending anything, you have to make sure that what you are pitching is relevant to what they are writing about.

Create a strong message for your brand

Research your competitors and what they are pitching to the media. You need that information to create a different message for your brand.

This message will differentiate you and will make you unique. If you don’t hear from the media, don’t take it personally. Journalists can be busy and it may take more than just one try to catch their attention.

Build a relationship with journalists

Building a rapport with journalists will take time. Usually, it starts with responding fast to their requests, offering them timely and personalized information, and not pestering them about follow-ups.

Boost your social media presence

Your social media presence will influence the success of your PR strategies. People are so in tune with what’s happening on Facebook and Instagram, you have to maximize this certain obsession with social media. That means creating the right content catered to your audience.

Ask for help

Finally, many consulting firms will know the right way to handle your business’ PR needs. All you have to do hire one of these firms and they can get your business on the right track towards success.

Even the most sophisticated executives and experts can feel uneasy when faced with the prospect of a live TV interview. After all, there will only be once chance for him/her to impress the audience. Anything can go wrong and it will spell disaster for the reputation of your client. In fact, it is quite understandable for the Lakeland public relations team to be on tenterhooks, too.

But that’s okay. Stress and pressure are great motivators. With the right approach and preparation, everyone can be an effective communicator and with the success of the TV interview, the success of the business will soon follow.

Understand the medium

Before even starting to draft the messages to be delivered, you have to understand what kind of TV program your client is facing. What is the theme of the program? What stands has it taken in the past week regarding issues related to your client?

Is the journalist (interviewer) knowledgeable about the issues and does the interviewer have a conflict of interest? Is the interview taped or live? Can it be edited? These questions are important to understanding how to effectively use the medium.

Build the message

There is a limited amount of time dedicated to TV interviews. Broadcasters won’t spend more than 10 minutes interviewing you and you only have that small window of opportunity to make your case known and to persuade viewers to listen and believe in you.

When creating the message, act like a trial lawyer. Nothing should be obscure and everything should be clear, defensible, and memorable.

Anticipate questions

If the issue is important, your client should anticipate questions from the broadcaster. Anticipate the questions coming from the reporters.

You have seen the news enough to know that reporters as very probing questions. If your client is not ready to answer such queries, you can simply provide a generic answer that will fit all types of situations.

Practice

They said that practice makes perfect and indeed, it is. How do you think bodybuilders built all those muscles? It’s not a one-day work, right?

That is the same effort we should be putting into improving our Lakeland public relations team. Act out the interview since this will help sate the tensions felt by your client. One strategy you should practice with your client is called bridging and blocking.

Basically, your client will use the phrases “the real issue here is…” to refocus the questions to the issue he wants to be addressed or “let’s put it in perspective” to divert the attention of the questioner from a topic your client is not comfortable with.

Meeting with prospective clients can be very difficult because there is a lot of pressure put on your shoulders. After all, often times, you will only have one chance to persuade the clients to hire your Lakeland public relations company. Your pitch needs to be perfect. Otherwise, the clients will simply move over to the next company in their list.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

There’s nothing worse than a PR agent who has not prepared for a meeting with a prospective client. You need to research about the client, his business, and the needs of his business. If possible, make an outline of your agenda.

What is the first order of business? You should be clear about your intentions. You need to lay out to the clients your plans for his business. You could also send the agenda before the meeting, so the client is aware and can expect what’s about to come.

Look and act professionally

Even if you are pitching to a close friend, you should always be professional in your manner of presentation. If you are meeting with someone from the political sector, you must dress the part and be in business attire. That will show your prospective client that you are serious about clinching the deal.

If you’re meeting with someone from an edgy technology startup company, you can tone down the attire a bit. If you are unsure, dress always in business casual, which means a smart pantsuit for the ladies and slacks and long-sleeved polo for the guys.

Avoid meeting clients in your office

Being in your office will cause a lot of distractions—your secretary will call you for a meeting, another client will arrive, your phone will ring, your workmates will get into an argument, etc.

You won’t be able to focus on the topics that need to be discussed with the prospective client. You need a neutral space where both of you will not be distracted by your personal and professional lives.

Listen to what your client needs

Meetings can be stressful, especially when you are pressured to seal the deal with the client. Even amid the stress of the meeting, do not forget to listen to what your client needs and wants.

Do not forget to ask him what the goals of his company are. Keep to your list of talking points and to your agenda, so both of you won’t divert far from the goal of the meeting.

It is hard to imagine a business that does not use press releases for their Lakeland public relations. Even in this day and age of the internet and social media, no business can survive without using press releases to promote a product, introduce a new service, and update investors and other stakeholders about the company.

Here are seven ways to maximize press releases for your business:

Tease and tell

Your press release should include information that will tell customers and journalists why it is important, but it should also open up a floodgate of questions and inquiries. They have to want to dig around the information you shared and know more about the company and its businesses.

Use images and charts

According to studies, press releases with images, videos, charts, and graphs will most likely increase the engagement by 18%. When it comes to videos, the engagement can rise by 55%. That information should be enough to persuade you to include visuals in your press release. It is, after all, the perfect vehicle to deliver information.

Include SEOs

You should increase the chance of your press releases to be noticed in Google and websites by using SEOs. Don’t go overboard, though, and let the keywords flow naturally in the content. If you let the SEO dictate the content, it will be unnatural and customers and journalists wouldn’t want to read it.

Tell the reader what’s in it for them

Use your press releases to build and establish relationships with the customers and the journalists. Your press releases should tell the reader how they can benefit from them. Don’t simply email one generic press release for all types of readers. Much like marketing, get to know your readers and tailor-fit the press releases according to what they want.

Be ready to answer questions

If written correctly, your press release should generate calls and inquiries from people who want more and may be interested to subscribe to your products and services. Your contact information should be clearly displayed on your press release and you and your staff should be available to answer any questions and inquiries about the company.

Use free and paid distribution services

Distributing press releases can be expensive, but it’s a great investment. You can opt for free distribution services but they post to lower-quality websites. It’s better if you can invest in paid distribution services because they have tight relationships with Google News and USA Today.

Every Lakeland public relations company should be learned and should have mastered the art of writing a press release for their client. But this is not the point of this article.

After you have written a smashing press release, the next step is for you to distribute it to the proper media outfits. The goal is to reach people who could influence the possibility of the success of the business.

As a PR agent, you must be very strategic in using the techniques of distributing the press releases. Here are some of the best instances to distribute PRs to journalists, media outfits, bloggers, and influencers:

Press conference

Call for a press conference. This is a lot of work just to distribute a press release, so make sure that your client also has something important to announce. You have to plan the press conference in advance—rent a venue, hire a caterer (snacks will do), and invite journalists, bloggers, influencers, etc.

Keep in mind that the press conference must be done in the morning before journalists and reporters submit their stories for the day. This will allow their editors to plan ahead and place your PRs on the right page (maybe even the front page).

Online sites

There are many free PR distribution sites online. You can sign up for a free account and upload your press releases to the database.

The sites will then distribute the press releases to different media outfits. If the client has the budget for it, the best option is to sign up for a paid distribution scheme. These systems have a vast network of media outfits that they can tap for your press releases.

Even the big ones would receive your PRs provided that they signed up for the system. Many PR companies use this method to distribute press releases, but this is not exactly the norm for many public relations specialists and this method is still frowned upon in the industry.

Events

You can attend events related to your client’s business and distribute the press release there. These events will give you an access to many of the stakeholders in the industry. The press would also be there, creating a golden opportunity to reach out to journalists covering the beat.

Make sure to make a good impression during these events because the reporters would probably judge the legitimacy of your client the moment they meet you. In many cases, you will be the representative of the company.

Nothing comes easy to Lakeland public relations experts. They find a solution to a problem. They fix the problem by writing a good speech. They brief the speaker about what to do and what not to do. And yet the biggest problem remains: there is no guarantee that the audience will listen to you.

No matter how well-researched and well-written your speech is, people will choose to do what they want to do during their speech unless you somehow harness the power to grab and hold their attention.

Here’s what you need to do:

Start with a bang

Every book is judged by the first sentence. You know how Moby Dick starts with “Call me Ishmael”? It sounds inviting, almost as if the author is directly speaking to the reader. How about when Earl Spencer spoke during the funeral of his sister, Princess Diana?

He said, “I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock.” These opening lines make the audience lean forward and listen closely. They are curious where the speaker will take them. In this scenario, the speaker has already captured the attention of the audience.

Connect the story to them

Make the story about your audience. Connect the topic to the audience—their fears, their desires, their pleasures, their insecurities, etc. They need to feel the connection with the topic and they need to understand why this topic is important.

If your speaker is talking about the healthcare system, make sure that there are examples of a family struggling to get the proper medication and health aid. Make the topic human and connect emotionally.

Add visuals

Talking about budget cuts, fiscal policies, and the healthcare system is hard enough to quantify without a talking head in front of the audience. Make sure that you include visuals into the speech.

Do not just stand there and talk about numbers. People will get lost. Point to a board—to a graph, pie, and chart. The audience will understand the concepts and ideas better when they see something that supports the speech.

Get to the point

Though there should be drama and surprise in the beginning of the speech, never forget that the speech should get to the point as soon as you catch the attention of your audience.

If you prolong their agony by making them listen to a never-ending speech, they would lose interest and you’ll lose the opportunity to convert them, too.