Looking to boost awareness for your brand, but not sure where to begin? Do you need a public relations strategy? Do you need to start utilizing social media? Guess what – you need both, and here’s why.
First, your brand needs to establish a brand identity and voice. All of your marketing materials should have consistent verbiage, and style. Then, through both PR and social media, you can grow your customer base and build confidence in your brand.
Why You Need Social Media:
Free Marketing Tool
Your social media pages will reflect all of the essential information that customers need to know about your company. Social media gives brands the opportunity to speak directly to their audience. Free promotion doesn’t get much easier than that!
Building Customer Relationships
These days, when customers have questions or concerns about a product, the first place they are likely to go is social media. This creates a great opportunity for brands to connect with their existing and potential new customers, and build a relationship.
However, on the other hand, poor social media management can also create a very negative response, so it’s important to be on top of overseeing your pages.
Why You Need Public Relations:
Exposure
While social media has built a foundation of information about your brand, without media exposure, it will be difficult to expand your customer base. Through strategic outreach, public relations efforts can get your product seen in the right place by the right people.
For example, if you’re looking to increase sales, you’ll need brand exposure to your target customer base. PR outreach for product reviews is a great way to spread awareness about your product, and boost consumer confidence.
Build Trust in Your Brand Through Reputable Sources
If your product is the best of the best, how do you get the consumer to know that? Media reviews. In a global study by Nielsen, 92% of consumers say they trust earned media above all forms of advertising. When a publication reviews your product, your brand essentially gets the stamp of approval from that outlet that it is the “real deal.” You reap the benefits of having a trusted source talk about your product, and it’s an unbiased assessment, as opposed to many other forms of advertising.
Key Takeaways:
Think of social media as the structure and design of a car, and public relations as the engine. With a solid foundation, your social media pages can tell consumers exactly who you are, and what your brand is all about. Public relations can be the catalyst for your brand, to get you where you need to be. Strategic outreach can get your brand in front of the right audience.
The recipe for success is simple – integrate your strategy! Don’t underestimate the power of each platform.