Public relations is one of the main driving forces behind businesses. Why does PR drive business? PR helps customers feel connected to the business and its services. Below are a few of the main reasons why PR drives business:
Providing great customer service
Customer service representatives are a business’s direct line to the customers. People who work in customer service can do a variety of things for customers. Most often, people think of customer service as someone to call when something goes wrong with a product or service. This could be because the customer wants to return a product or understand how to use it better.
Promoting your business
Another thing PR does is to improve the business’s reputation, as this helps to gain new customers and keep old customers coming back for more. However, PR employees are not usually in charge of making or selling advertisements. Of course, they still work to get the word out about the business. Some ways to do this can be talking to newspapers or promoting the business on social media.
Managing social media pages
While not all people who work in PR, it could be argued that all social media managers work in PR. Social media managers work to maintain a business’s social media accounts. Social media plays an important part in connecting businesses with current and potential customers.
If a business does not already have a social media account, then a social media manager can help to create one. Once an account(s) is made, the social media manager works to upkeep it by posting relevant content. This may come in the form of posting advertisements, engaging posts, and replying to comments made on these posts. However, it should be noted that social media managers are not in the business of building websites.
Advertising events
Someone working in PR may also have some experience with event planning if the business owner requires it. The PR employee would not be the one to actually plan the event, but this employee would be tasked with getting the word out. After all, if no one knows about an event, then how can anyone benefit from it?
Because of this, someone working in PR may write a press release about the event, promote the event in newspapers or newsletters, or simply try to distribute flyers. During or after the event, someone working in PR can turn back to journalists or other writers to tell how the event went. This can keep the public interested in the business even after the event is over.
Building relationships with other businesses
Building a healthy relationship between a business and a customer is one thing but building a relationship between businesses is another—both of which a PR employee can do. When it comes to building a relationship between businesses, a PR employee might try to work with the other business to promote an event, plan a sale, or make another kind of joint partnership that benefits both businesses.
Cleaning up messes
While no business owner wants to think that anything could ever go wrong with their business, but that doesn’t mean that nothing ever will go wrong. Depending on the nature of your business, this could be something as simple as dealing with a customer complaint or a serious scandal between employees.
No matter what the problem may be, a good PR employee can help to limit the spread of bad news or turn the news so that the public’s trust in the business doesn’t falter. This is mostly done by talking to news agencies to make sure the story the business wants to be told is that one that is told, rather than rumors spreading from an unofficial source.
All in all, a good PR employee helps to bridge the gap between businesses and the general public. A good PR employee will do whatever they can to get positive attention for the business and limiting negative attention. Both of these things, along with the many jobs a PR employee takes care of, is why they are the driving force behind so many businesses.
