We’re delighted to be on a panel of expert contributors to the Franchise Expo website. Here’s our first blog “Jump in to the world of PR”…
Jump in to the world of PR!
Rev PR are very pleased to be writing an exclusive blog for Franchise Expo. We’ll be taking this opportunity to start at the very beginning to explain what PR is all about and why you should be using it in any business.
What is PR?
Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation and, in its most basic term, it is someone relating to their public. With PR, we aim to earn understanding, create discussions, and influence opinion and behaviour – whether that is focused on an individual or an organisation. PR works best when it is planned and a sustained effort is made to establish and maintain communication between an organisation and its publics.
So, why do you need to think about including PR in your regular activity for your business? Every organisation, no matter how large or small, ultimately depends on its reputation for survival and success. Customers, suppliers, employees, investors, journalists and regulators can have a powerful impact. They all have an opinion about the organisations they come into contact with. These perceptions will drive their decisions about whether they want to work with, shop with and support these organisations. Franchisors can use PR to build their brand, generate interest in their franchise opportunity with the right prospects and franchisees can use PR to support sales.
In today’s competitive market, reputation can be a company’s biggest asset – the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd and gives you a competitive edge. Effective PR can help manage reputation by communicating and building good relationships with all of your stakeholders.
And woe betide you if what they think about you is negative, especially in these times of instant media gratification through social media – in a recent survey by Dimensional Research 54% of respondents who had shared a bad experience said they shared it more than 5 times! So PR is also about reputation management and crisis management and we’ll discuss that in more detail in a later blog.
Look out for our blog next week that will continue to explore the power of PR for your business. And in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter @revpruk