The way people use the term public relations often varies significantly, I’ve found. Some businesses will talk about their public relations plan and will instruct their employee to do ad buys, others will be referring to press releases, others will talk about putting flyers on cars.
Public relations is just that, getting word out to the public about your brand. That can be anyway you see fit. The operative word here is “relations” and you need to build them. And that is specifically what public relations is about.
Often I get clients who ask about how their public relations plan will translate into increased sales. While there are all sorts of metrics to measure that, the focus really is on building relationships with the public, with customers and building name brand recognition. After that the sales will come and they will be repeat sales because they will be coming from loyal customers.
How does social media fit in to that? Social media is another way to reach those customers. Whether your customers are solely online or mostly off you should include social media as part of your overall public relations campaign. It’s simply another way to increase your relationships with customers. And it’s a free way at that.
What different ways are you reaching out to build relationships with your customers?