Myrtle Beach Public Relations
As iconic as the great American breakfast of bacon and eggs is, few people know that it came about due to a massive PR campaign by Edward Bernays.
Bernays is also recognized as the father of PR as we know it today. A nephew of the great Sigmund Freud, Bernays played on mass psychology to drive several wildly successful PR and marketing campaigns.
Public relations is about shaping opinions, and that’s what the PR professionals here at AAERO do. We don’t turn politicians into saints or influence parents to raise their children on soda, but we do get brands noticed and help them recover from negative public perception.
In this age of social media, where a single Facebook post endangers business and life, the need for public relations is critical. We venture to say that PR is as critical as sales and marketing teams, and yet many brands don’t recognize the need and value of having a top PR agency in their corner.
What to Expect From a PR Firm
You don’t have to wait until you have had bad publicity before you start scrambling to take control of your public narrative. Once any business has started to grow exponentially, reaching out to a PR firm to take control of your marketing and public relations is a wise move.
Once you have a PR agency working with you, you should expect some top-notch services as part of the package.
1. Media Relations
For companies, media relations is all about working with reputable media companies to sell your company story to the public. That includes your mission, vision, culture, and more. PR companies work with newspapers, journalists, TV channels, bloggers, and influencers as a form of indirect marketing.
Media relations bring in third-party endorsements for your brand, which is critical for creating trust with all stakeholders in your business. When done right, media relations are often more effective than direct marketing because people trust the voice of third parties more.
The best PR firms will help you develop a killer media relations strategy, connect your brand with top media personalities, help you set up events, and more.
2. Social Media Management
Today, being able to moderate your online reputation is one of the biggest headaches for brands. In addition to stellar customer service, brands must listen to what people say about them to others. Think Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and Twitter threads.
As Ronn Torossian put it, public relation is an ever-changing mix of journalism, psychology, and lawyering. These elements are crucial to ensure that you can maintain a positive reputation on all digital channels.
One way this works is to encourage engagement and grow communities of fans, which is a great way of driving referrals.
3. Crisis Management
When bad publicity, negative reviews, and damning revelations hit viral status, many brands can be buried under the dirt. However, the best PR agencies have always been able to rescue sinking brands not by reversing negative PR, but by taking control of the narrative and turning it to a positive one.
You might remember that in 2011, Taco Bell was fighting a massive lawsuit claiming its seasoned beef was only 35% real beef. The brand launched a massive campaign designed to bare it all and listed every ingredient in its food. At the end, 91% of Taco Bell’s social media followers were left with a positive perception of the brand.
At the end of the day, any publicity is good publicity when you have a good PR firm at the helm to take control.
4. Market and Competitor Research
Market research is important in marketing, but it is absolutely essential when it comes to public relations. Nivea learned this the hard way when it launched a campaign with a “white is purity” tagline.
You can already tell that this was a bad idea, but it was made worse because it was targeted toward people in the Middle East! Someone in Nivea’s PR department was sleeping when this ad message was being developed.
Market and competitor research is crucial in ensuring no risk of misinterpretations, negative messaging, poor targeting, and other common mishaps. In this case, the PR agency will work with your marketing team to keep all brand messaging politically correct.
5. Content and Speech Writing
While writing content for media publications and brand websites is usually a job for the marketing team, public relations is involved in a big way. In particular, public speeches and press releases are carefully audited to ensure that all communication is aimed at achieving the organization’s aims.
6. Strategic Networking
The PR firm holds an advisory role regarding who your brand chooses to do business with. Some stakeholders, alliances, and even employees can positively or negatively affect your brand reputation.
7. Social Responsibility
As part of building a positive brand image, a public relations firm will research and propose programs of action for developing social responsibility activities. Whether that’s holding an environmental cleanup or supporting the local Little League, these programs are PR gold that helps build a positive brand image.
Public Relations Vs. Marketing
Public relations and marketing are not very different when you think about the goals they both try to achieve. These include increased visibility, long-term brand loyalty, revenues, and customer engagement. However, what differs is how the two arms achieve these goals.
Perhaps S.H. Simmons put it better: If you went on a date and, assuming you’re meeting a beautiful lady, tell her how intelligent and lovely she is – that’s marketing. If you tell her how smart and successful you are – that’s advertising. If you get someone else to tell her how smart and successful you are – that’s public relations!
What top PR firms do is start a conversation about your brand and control that conversation to highlight your best and most attractive features. This long-term investment pays in terms of great visibility, brand recognition, and excellent reputation.
Top PR Firm in Myrtle Beach, SC
With that glimpse into the world of public relations for brands, you can begin to appreciate how important a good PR firm is to brand success. At AAERO, we are responsible for shaping your brand messaging and narrative in the eyes of all stakeholders.
Public relations professionals staff AAERO with decades of experience in the industry. Having been born from our parent company, Nuclear Networking in Colorado, AAERO specializes in PR for brands that need to recover from negative press, build visibility, and drive a positive online reputation.
We invite you to reach out to AAERO for all your online reputation management needs and take control of your brand’s narrative today.