The Power of Public Relations

All companies wish to grow, expand and enjoy great success and revenue streams, and public relations is a perfect means to achieving growth in customer/user base, name recognition, market share and expansion, and increase in revenue.

Under the marketing umbrella, public relations is a key part of communications and pushing your company brand to your target audience, customers, partners, investors and media. Public Relations (PR), is also very cost effective and is fairly low in price when compared to advertising.

Press Releases, Blogs, Twitter and Tweets are a few of the tools that help PR people to communicate your news and messages to the world. Using press releases and wire distribution services like Business Wire, as well as social media and social networking, blogs and company blogs and Twitter, allow communications professionals many different ways to make the world aware of your company, your name and your news.

Media placemets are the bread and butter, the cornerstone of PR. News stories in key target press can lead to huge increase in attention, customers and inquiries, and over the years I have been told by several clients that after story placements they have been "We have been overrun with so many calls, we have had to hire more sales people!" and "Our sales and customer service teams tell us our phones have been ringing off the hook!), showing just how effective a good story placement is for any company, in any market and any industry. A nice story placed in publications like Wall Street Journal, Mashable, TechCrunch, Businessweek, InformationWeek, GQ, Allure, DailyCandy or your local newspaper(s), can provide great publicity and a nice return of interest and customers/users and sales.

Public Relations is a truly wonderful and cost effective way to market and promote your company, brand, products and services.

Which is Bigger, Better and More Important? Traditional Media or Social Media and Blogs

Over the last year I have been asked by many as to the importance of traditional media compared to social media and social networks.

Which is bigger, better and more important? The answer is... Both.

Some favor one over the other, but the best strategy is to use both to take advantage of every tool and resource available. With some sticking to traditional media, press releases and wire services, and others believing all you need is a Tweet or two and a Facebook post, the truth is those beleiving in only using one or the other are wrong. By using only one or the other you are potentially missing out on audience(s) and market penetration, and this could lead to a lower market share, customer or user base, sales and revenue stream.

With public relations and media what counts most is results. With the new age of social media making big moves in the digital world of today, along with the strength of traditional media, press releases, wire services and good old fashioned distribution, the best strategy really is to use both. Once you have determined company goals and objectives, as you build the marketing and PR plan, implement the tools that will be most beneficial for your client. For each campaign and project you should use a combination of both traditional and social media, using every aspect of PR tools and services online and offline. In some cases you may determine that traditional is more important than social media or vice versa, but with many using both will be the most effective way of meeting goals and increasing market share and revenue. Using all available resources and tools increases the chance of success and quantifiable results.

When it comes to traditional and social media they are all important and should all be included, and by prioritizing the list with main focus given to your top key targets you can take advantage of both traditional and social media. Traditional media includes: print, daily and broadcast such as Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Businessweek, NBC News, etc. Social Media includes: blogs and bloggers, online news, podcasts and use of social media and social networks such as TechCrunch, Mashable, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and more.

Don't become a creature of habit and ignore either the new or the old traditional ways, as both can be very effective and when it comes to getting results and success, embrace every possible way of meeting your clients goals and objectives.