Media Relations Services and Don Martin Public Affairs

Posted by Don Martin on June 28th, 2017

5 Must Know PR Tips for Small Business Owners

You don’t have to be a big corporation with deep pockets to have a thriving public relations program. As a matter of fact, as a small business, there’s one key competency that leads to PR success: It’s your ability to build relationships with people. With a minimal time commitment and a good solid focus on connecting and advancing relationships, you’ll be on your way to creating stronger bonds that create a PR impact.

              Here are a few PR insights for small business owners; they’ll get you ignited without having to pay large agency retainer fees or shell out for expensive events. Devote some of your time and energy to these, and get the best results.

1. Offer your expertise on the stage.

You might not have a national audience at the beginning. However, reaching out to build relationships with local organizations and offering to speak at their upcoming events is an excellent way to support them fill a speaker roster and showcase your leadership.

You’ll have both the platform as well as the audience to share your expertise. Sure, speaking engagements need your time. However, the more you work with the local organizers and speakers at these events, the better your chances of being recommended to take the floor on a national platform. At the same time, you’re developing your awareness among potential customers who will view you as the expert.

2. Use free tools to connect with the bloggers and media persons.

There are some free tools to assist you to find media and bloggers who are interested in particular types of stories, or who might want to interview your business' subject-matter experts. You can go for HARO (Help a Reporter Out), which is a daily newsletter with requests from many skilled journalists looking for targeted information and credible sources to interview.

3. Customize the news stories through a content platform.

As a small business, there will be times when you want to share your news through mainstream media. Using a paid wire service will let you cast a wider net to reach more media outlets and see who interacts with your story.

But when you’re on a much smaller budget, you may wish to customize your business stories through a publishing platform that lets you reach various stakeholders. Here’s where a service like PitchEngine is beneficial. PitchEngine allows you to build a story for the media, bloggers, investors, and even your customers—anyone interested in your news announcement.

4. Use social media to build robust business relationships.

Social media is the quickest way to connect with like-minded people and take the relationship from the virtual into the physical realm. Through in-depth discussions, social media has helped me connect and build relationships with other executives resulting in interview opportunities, speaking engagements, and new business.

And remember, when it comes to the social media, you don’t have to be everywhere. Select the neighborhoods where you know your audience congregates, and start your networking virtually. With every targeted connection there’s an opportunity to advance a business relationship.

5. Solve issues by sharing valuable information.

Using Google Alerts as well as other free social media monitoring tools, “listen” or monitor keywords in your social media communities. It’s an excellent opportunity to study the “pain points” of your community members (i.e. your customers). Whatever the hot topics or critical issues on their minds, you can write blog posts, create videos, share Facebook posts, and write eBooks to help them solve their challenges. If you can solve a problem, you’ll make friends. You can build powerful bonds when you gather information and share the content to help customers make better decisions and to find better solutions.

These are a handful of ways that PR can help small businesses build relationships, expanding awareness and recognition that result in loyalty as well as advocacy. You can start gradually or go all-in with your program.

As a small business, never let your size or your resources slow you down. Remember that your program starts with your commitment to building a relationship with people who, in turn, will be loyal and will advocate on your behalf.

Don Martin to know more about media relations kindly visit http://www.donmartin.com/

Don Martin, More information visit: http://www.donmartin.com/

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Don Martin

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Don Martin
Joined: June 28th, 2017
Articles Posted: 1