In a nutshell, PR campaigns are efforts that intend to align corporate policies and publicity initiatives with media monitoring and public opinion research, and whether it is possible to use these to improve brand reputation.
We will explore the ways in which media monitoring and online reputation building can be used to calculate improve reputation, as well as their impact on external brand perception.
By illustrating how this can be done, this study will highlight some of the limits of current media-sensitive PR practices and illuminate some of the alternative approaches that can be used to improve brand reputation and corporate policies.
In order to improve corporate reputation, brands are constantly evaluating how they are perceived, as well as their relevance and desirability as a result of consumers’ engagement with their brands.
They must decide how to respond to critical media coverage or the possibility of boycotts, and to respond to these media and public responses they engage in what is called public relations (PR), a profession which has existed since the late 1800s.
PR professionals seek to create favorable media and public perception about a brand by engaging in media monitoring and research, or by communicating with the public in the media, such as press releases.
Further, they encourage communication between the media and brand representatives by using media monitoring tools. The aim of all this is to gain and maintain a good reputation.
We are in an age where media audiences are engaged with their media more than ever before, and with a level of sophistication in communications beyond that of traditional marketers.
Unlike traditional marketing, PR practitioners engage in critical analysis of the content of news items and commentary on public issues and then seek to influence the narratives by influencing the media and the public through dissemination of media and public information about the corporation and its employees, products, and services.
As such, brands are highly vulnerable to negative media coverage that threatens to tarnish their image and sully their brand reputation.
Therefore, PR professionals constantly need to take into account media monitoring tools that give them the power to capture media sentiment about a brand, and are constantly monitoring these media in order to gauge the influence of negative media coverage on consumer purchasing decisions and company reputation.
A public relations campaign is a concerted effort to communicate with media about a company and its products and services, which includes dissemination of information about the company, as well as requests for interviews, reviews, or columns.
It is the role of public relations professionals to plan the strategy of the campaign in order to determine how much media coverage is desirable, as well as how and when to deploy media monitoring tools in order to determine the impact of media and public response on a company’s brand, and it is their responsibility to determine the cause of negative press coverage, or media, and evaluate its credibility and its impact on the brand.
So a public relations campaign does not necessarily mean a vast press or PR campaign in front of the media, it can also include media monitoring tools to determine the impact of media coverage on a company’s reputation.
Both the large and small corporations around the world are increasingly reliant upon public relations strategies to secure the attention of the media and establish a positive image in the eyes of the public, as their sales are shrinking, and both traditional marketing and media are changing.
The growth of the Internet has transformed the way people interact with each other, in terms of using tools such as blogs and social media.
The spread of smartphones and the usage of social media is also expanding rapidly, with approximately 4% of the world’s population using these tools on a daily basis.
Nowadays, companies need to build the capability to monitor the media, to collect public opinion about the company’s products, and to use the media to communicate with the public.
Social media today is an essential part of a company’s PR strategy.
These tools can be used in all kinds of ways, such as blogging, tweeting, sharing content, liking and following others, engaging with comments, and spreading the company’s information across the Web.
But even if the entire Internet is blanketed with your company’s content, it is important to take heed of information posted on less popular social media sites such as blogs.
Blogs are opinion-based. It is the responsibility of a PR professional to monitor them and get feedback from the media about a product. Blogs are a new way for readers to engage with media, and can be an excellent form of PR.
The company must also be careful about what kinds of opinions are spread through social media and keep an eye on how these opinions impact the company’s image.
If the opinions of the media or bloggers damage the company’s reputation, it is important for the company to address the problem quickly and unequivocally.
Negative media coverage about a company can have an impact on consumer purchase decisions, especially when consumers feel that their purchasing decisions are being undermined.
If these consumers feel that they are being treated unfairly, they may make a decision to avoid a company’s products and services, and companies have a lot to lose by such a reaction.
Brands today have evolved from traditional selling to talking to the customer, a strategy that used to be regarded as quite innovative but has now become one of the most important and effective elements of the modern marketing mix.
PR professionals use social media to communicate with the public about a company’s products, its brand, and its attributes, as well as to get feedback and advice.
The use of PR tools can help to increase visibility of a company’s products and services, and establish a relationship with the media. By monitoring social media and blogs, PR professionals can gain insight into the public’s perceptions and beliefs about a company’s products and services, which can affect the company’s reputation.
A company’s reputation can be damaged or maintained by the actions of third parties, and PR professionals can set out to obtain negative information that can be used in a positive way.
As the PR industry is changing, the “how” of the PR function is changing too. Companies today have to have the ability to monitor the public’s perception of a company and its products.
A PR professional should be able to sift through feedback and views, and create an in-house system of feedback loops to get a better understanding of what the public thinks. The company also needs to be aware of a vast range of media channels available, and can engage with journalists and bloggers in a way that is most effective for its needs. But it is also important that companies develop a business plan, based on their needs.
Companies need to understand what media outlets they are interested in, how best to get their message across, and how best to avoid negative feedback.
All companies need a PR strategy to maintain their reputation, and the methods used must change as the needs of the PR industry evolve. Companies need to adapt to an ever-changing media landscape in order to maintain the confidence of the public in their products, and protect their brands.
