Movin’ On Up with Public Relations

With the recent state of the economy, public relations or marketing departments are often the first ones to suffer cutbacks. However, many of the events that have impacted our country in the last decade such as environmental disasters, new lifestyles and fashion have pushed public relations up in importance over advertising and marketing strategies. Strategic communication has never been more important to a company and the knowledge of social media within the up and coming generation of college students is becoming a vital part of communicating messages to the public.

Because of consumers being more concerned with the truth behind the brands they are buying, public relations takes center stage as being able to effectively communicate those messages and continue to educate buyers about the quality of the brand. Consumers are more interested in hearing stories about these brands and delving deeper into the people behind the product than just a sales pitch.

The rise of social media and the Internet have played a huge role in this shift to favor public relations. Since the web is so easily accessible, it is even easier to spread a message or share testimonials straight from the consumer to a large audience in seconds. While marketing and advertising can send a message to consumers, the key is their communication approach and how they craft their message. If there aren’t public relations professionals within an organization, the message will be communicated, but there’s always the chance it will be done the wrong way, thus losing credibility and belief that your brand is valuable to the consumer.

Marketplaces and consumer trends are always changing, but the time is now for companies to take advantage of public relations and the relationships practitioners are able to make with effective communication tactics.

This guest blog was written by Prowl Public Relations staff member Emily Ascani.