The St. Louis-based Public Relations Firm

Who would want to be working at BP right now? Or at Toyota? Maybe at Goldman Sachs? All three of these companies have had a brutal time in the media spotlight, subject to huge fines/lawsuits, and a loss of public confidence.  These companies may have had a crisis communications plan in place, but their company officials did not effectively implement the plan. The results were disastrous in terms of lost credibility and financial loss.

But these are massive companies, what does that have to do with small to mid-sized business?  To a lesser extent, but no less damaging, small business can suffer the same sort of negative publicity, but lack the resources to manage or even sustain the loss of public confidence. Entrepreneurs take many years to build up a brand for their product or service, and usually set their companies apart through excellent customer service. The image of the company is its brand. All of this can come crashing down in a matter of days, especially in light of the instantaneous nature of social networks.

Take for example, a restaurant. It may serve excellent food, at reasonable prices, with great service to match. But it may also experience growing pains, not adequately hiring and training staff. Suppose there is an outbreak of some food-borne illness related to improper food storage and hand-washing of its employees? What then? This type of negative publicity could perpetually stain the brand of this restaurant.

All companies should have a well-thought out crisis communications plan. There are three parts to this plan:

1. The Planning Stage – Think of Murphy’s Law. What could possibly go wrong? Who will be the spokesperson? All employees should be trained to refer all media and interview requests to this person.
   
2. The Crisis – How often will the company spokesperson speak to the press?  What can they highlight to demonstrate that the company is committed to resolving this issue?
3. The Aftermath – What steps can the company take to restore confidence in its brand?
   

So there is “good” PR and “bad” PR, and the goal should be to put out as much positive news as possible to minimize the damage of the negative story.  Negative publicity is never good (unless you are a musician or actor seeking street credibility), and in order to weather the storm, a business needs to have a clear cut plan and stick to it!

Social Media and Public Relations is like a Stone against Goliath!

When I was a pharmaceutical representative with Pfizer (way back in 2000) my sales trainer, Jenner Marcucci, gave a mesmerizing presentation on “Guerilla Marketing” based on the book by Jay Conrad Levinson.  Jenner gave a delivered his presentation dressed in Army camouflage, with great passion and fervor, so much so that I remember it vividly to this day! The point of guerilla marketing is that when you are small and your competitor is big, you CAN compete with them on a level playing field provided that you market your business or service in unconventional ways.  The fact that Pfizer, the pharmaceutical behemoth, was considering adapting unconventional marketing was very interesting, because they were the Goliath in the classic battle!

So this brings me to my point that a combination of public relations and social media can be the Great Equalizer, an unconventional way to market you or your business. On the web, both  micro businesses and large companies can compete at roughly the same level, provided that the micro business can is resourceful and uses as much free PR and social media promotion as it can handle.  AMM Communications, for example, is a micro business with just Ann Marie and me, but our WordPress-based website stacks up and grades better (www.websitegrader.com) than our much larger, and more established competitors.  We accomplished this by using a mix of social media and easy-to-use SEO concepts, and we are amazed at how many large companies with elaborate websites don’t have optimized websites.

Don’t discount any news about your business, such as setting up a YouTube channel, a new hire or a  promotion, or perhaps a speaking engagement.  Use online wire services such as dBusiness, Pitch Engine, and for the St. Louis-area, stltoday.com to post these announcements.  You can distribute these links to your social media network and generate a buzz about you and your company.  Don’t forget to include a link back to your website.  You’ll be amazed at how much traffic you can build with these backlinks.  PR and social media, when used together, are an effective equalizer! 9GDSK8SE7TW8

People often ask Ann Marie and me how public relations and traditional communications fit into a world where social media seems to be taking the forefront of how people obtain information and converse with each other.  My answer is “very easily” because in our view, social media is an extension of traditional “earned” media.  Earned media can be defined as placements, quotes or expert commentary which appear in traditional print and broadcast formats.  The world still reads newspapers, magazines, and listens to the radio and TV, and social media is an excellent way of supplementing this exposure.

Communications and conversations tend to be  the same no matter what the medium; its just that social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn discussions are more immediate.  Instead of waiting for a Letter to the Editor or rebutting a comment on broadcast media, a person can post her reply immediately.  In fact, social media can make publicizing a print media placement more targeted as different networks of followers might be interested in different things, so not all placements need to be sent to all networks.  This is much different than advertising or brand marketing, where the brand is placed for millions to see but only a few that are really consumers; social media can make this process more targets.

Public relations is about managing the image of a person or a company and social media is a great medium for “getting the word out.” This is why Ann Marie and I operate 4 Twitter accounts (stlpr, stl_pr, ammayuga, elmayuga ), 2 LinkedIn (ammayuga and elmayuga) and Facebook (Ann Marie and Ed) profiles for each of us, and a Facebook Fan Page.  This allows us to select which networks receive updates about our clients and also allows us to show a little of our personalities on our personal accounts.  So if you are a small business or entrepreneur handling your own public relations and marketing, we highly encourage you to sign up for multiple social networks and start building a following! 9GDSK8SE7TW