Businesses use positive publicity for a variety of reasons. While this approach may be considered unethical in some industries (e.g., social media spam), you can still use it to create some buzz about your brand or increase your search engine rankings, which will translate into sales.
However, remember that negative publicity is just as powerful, and if you see an opportunity, you should absolutely use it.
Here's an example of a brand getting positive attention:
Shakira's "Mi Gente" is now the top-trending track on Spotify.
Lionel Richie released a video that perfectly captures what it's like to become an OTR (out of office) text message icon.
Justin Bieber posted a six-minute video to his Snapchat account in which he talks about his health, struggles with acne, his grandmother's unconditional love, and much more.
The #RootsAreTheHomeOfTheChicken campaign by We Should All Be Feminists went viral with more than half a million Instagram posts and many more on Facebook.
Positive publicity is great for driving business through the internet because it goes viral faster than many other methods, such as direct mail, which is most often used to gain consumers' attention.
Facebook and Instagram are both effective marketing channels because users are already there, so it doesn't take much effort on your part to get them to visit your website or your phone app. You don't have to work hard to reach consumers; you just have to engage them in meaningful ways.
Customers that visit your website are most likely looking for a sales page, so make sure it provides valuable content with great benefits for your customers.
Setting up an Instagram account and posting valuable content regularly are also great ways to drive traffic to your website; and on the other hand, providing additional information on your products that is interesting and useful to your target audience will drive new customers to your website.
But how do you actually get your customers to share your content?
One of the most effective ways is by using your competitors' content to create a competition. Here's an example of how this can work.
Rachael Ray makes a range of healthy, delicious recipes for her viewers to use. She has a serious following on social media, and people love to ask her questions.
When her followers found that they couldn't ask her questions without purchasing the products in her recipes, they started asking her questions in the comments of her posts and using a hashtag that included the hashtag #askrachael; people got the opportunity to ask Rachael Ray.
The result? Rachael Ray made $250,000 in sales through her campaign, which is a 30% profit margin.
You can start the process by creating a competition asking your followers to comment on a specific hashtag for a chance to win a product in your recipe book, or ask them to share your content on social media using the #BeMoreBrilliant hashtag.
Online marketing is free money, so why wouldn't you embrace it? If you have a website and have done some SEO work to improve your website's performance, you can start driving traffic to your website by targeting the keyword you think will get the most traction with your audience.
You can also use that keyword in your calls to action to get the visitors to buy your product or service.
Obviously, you don't want to spend too much money on online marketing because you have to pay the bills. You'll still need to spend time with your customers, and that's what a strategy is all about, so make sure you are getting your customers to buy your products or services in any way you can.
As you can see, marketing online is a simple way to generate a huge amount of online sales and drive your business further.
The key is to get out there, get active and keep it up, because no matter what industry you are in, having a robust online marketing strategy will allow you to reach and target your customers, whether they are living at home with mom and dad, or traveling the world.
Mr. John Doe interviews for the job of advertising sales rep for a large firm. He is polite and personable in a business setting. His work experience is extensive, and in the field he is applying for.
He seems to be confident and relaxed.
Interviewers try to catch him off guard by asking questions that bring out his most extreme characteristics.
The candidate's prepared responses are brilliant and insightful. He is charming, sympathetic, and forceful in his presentation of himself.
He is sincere. He does not allow himself to be goaded by the interviewer into evading the question.
“As a very young child, I decided that no one in my family would know my heart. That the only thing that mattered was my interests and my studies. This decision took place at the age of six.”
Here the candidate, who in the first interview had been too forceful, takes a step back. The candidate is thinking and watching the interviewer's reactions, and slowly the candidate starts to feel that he is provocative.
This is an excellent opportunity to refine his presentation.
“I soon learned that my position was too precarious to justify any reference to the complexities of my childhood. Now that I am over the threshold, I realize that my background was actually in the greater sense an introduction to adulthood, where the challenge is to find my own direction and stick with it.”
By the end of the interview, it appears that the interview is going very well.
The interviewer notices the candidate's practiced answers and begins to relax. The conversation has turned to the candidate's background.
The interviewer takes a thoughtful look at the folder in his hand. The candidate has been organized in his responses.
The interviewer notices a legal document from a court case against a debtor. The debtor owed him money and had failed to pay in full.
Here is a perfect example of positive publicity from an unexpected source. The interviewer is a little flustered and off guard by the candidate's background and responses.
Mr. Doe has taken a moment to think about the situation and is perfectly poised to deal with it. He is, in effect, appearing to be a winner.
The reader of this article will remember this interview and the outcome. Mr. Doe's response to his interviewers' questions makes him appear to be a winner.
This set of questions and answers reflects the attitudes of a winner. The interviewer saw that the candidate was smart, honest, practical, and confident.
He was not intimidated by the questioner and was able to identify the candidate's basic character traits.
