With more businesses cutting budgets in 2009, PR has become one of the first to get slashed. A generally unwise decision, because the power of PR is long lasting, and can actually help carry business through a tough economy. To set your business aside from the competition, it’s important to invest in managing the process of getting your message consistently out to your audience via the press, social networks and other media strategically. When the economy bounces back, you will have set a standard so high that your competition will struggle to catch up on. PR has the flexibility to not only manage perception, and maintain long term branding momentum, but also has the power and patience to do it at a cost-effective pace.
In times like these information received from valued resources like key influencers and favorite reporters carry more weight than an expensive and forgetable advertising campaign.
Successful PR campaigns are about longevity and not only connecting with target audiences, but establishing a dialogue with them. PR has the power to accomplish this, but needs to be consistent.
I am still not convinced about the power of social media from a PR perspective, but am interested in seeing how this will work out in the future.
Great start to a new blog! The challenges of working with PR in the new social media world are really quite intriguing. I’m working right now with a client that has three major vendors helping in a PR effort: a traditional PR firm, a traditional creative firm and a online reputation management firm. We find that we need all three to tackle the world of Google, Facebook and Twitter. Coordinating between all of them is a pretty significant challenge because each of the firms sees the world from a different angle . . . and let’s face it, this world is pretty new and we’ve certainly not worked out the challenges of melding the old and new approaches to PR. There is alot of room for creativity.
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