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5 Ways a Public Relations Specialist Can Help Your Business Grow in Chicago, IL
Chicago is one of the largest cities in the United States, with a large number of residents and businesses all throughout the city. Given the large market size of Chicago, businesses that operate here are constantly looking for ways to get more visibility for their brand with their potential customers and to drive interest into their products and services. While every business is different in terms of how they go about attracting customers and developing rapport with the Chicago community, public relations places a major role in how these businesses can get the word out when needed. If you have a business located in Chicago and are curious how you can get the word out and grow your business, consider working with a public relations specialist.
Public relations is a business area that focuses on connecting a business and what it is announcing to a potentially interested public that may want to connect with that business. For companies that work in a direct-to-consumer environment, this may entail putting out announcements when you are launching a new product or initiative and want to generate public user interest in what you are providing. If your business is more on the B2B end, public relations can help to put together your plan for how you can announce important business updates to parties, such as investors and partner companies. The core responsibility of public relations is to circulate information and announcements from the party that is putting it out into the public and to connect these announcements to potentially interested parties.
Companies and organizations may go about public relations in a variety of different matters. Depending on what your business does and what industry you are in, public relations may play an important and regular role within your organization. For example, if you have a very well known company that consistently has interest within your market and amongst your customers, you may need a structure that can allow for public relations to be working with your organization to provide regular public facing announcements and information. Alternatively, if your business does not often make announcements, you may still need to focus on public relations so that they can drive home the importance of your announcements whenever you put them out there into the public. A public relations specialist is a dedicated role that can strategically help you to push out your announcements to the public in a way that will present you and your business in the best light possible.
As the name may suggest, a public relations specialist is someone that specializes in their ability to relate with the public. This means that they can create, maintain, develop and foster relationships with the people that your business needs to connect to in order to be successful. It is extremely rare that businesses can operate solely without getting the word out about what they are doing and a public relations specialist plays an extremely vital role in how these businesses can be set up for success. A public relations specialist is someone that knows how to use the right words, at the right time, and for the right audience in order to form a connection between your business and the public. Public relations works closely with third parties, such as relevant media outlets and other parties that are interested in new information, to get the word out via things such as press releases, interviews, speeches, press conferences, and other methods of connecting with communities. In a hyper competitive market, such as Chicago, there is oftentimes a large amount of news and information that is being sent out into the public. In order to get your word to stand out and resonate with the public, work with a public relations specialist. Below are some of the areas that a public relations specialist can typically work with a company to get the word out.
Event Publicity and PR Support
Chicago plays host to a large number of events and festivals that attract a lot of public attention. While there are regular events all throughout the year, including sporting events, like Bears and Cubs games, there are also events that only happen once a year. Given that these events may only be happening once a year, businesses and organizations must put significant effort into ensuring that the public is made aware of these events ahead of time in order to develop publicity and demand to attend these events. Yearly events, such as the yearly St. Patrick’s Day parade, are often well known to the public, but there can be changes to how these events operate each year and the organizations that run these events need to learn how they inform the public about what changes to the events are happening and what they can expect when they attend.
If your business is planning to host an event to get the word out about you and what you provide to the public, a public relations specialist can work with you to craft your communication strategy about your event. In this situation, a PR specialist can work with your stakeholders to formulate your communications and messaging around the event and then can strategically work to get this word out to interested parties. Things such as timing and dates are important to the public, so a public relations specialist will work with you to determine when you need to make an announcement on your event in order to facilitate demand leading up to the event. Public relations specialists can work with you to get the word out all the way up until the event and then after the event is over, they can assist you in figuring out what messaging works best for potential future events.
PR Content Development and Marketing
If you are in need of assistance when it comes to content and marketing materials to get the word out about your business or organization, a public relations specialist can help with the creation of these materials. As we’ve discussed, a PR specialist works on ‘getting the word out’, but they should be working with you to determine what the words that you will be using are. Given that the materials that a PR specialist may develop are geared towards audiences, such as news and media, they can help to craft your messaging in a way that can get these third parties excited to talk about you.
If you find yourself in a situation where you need to make an announcement, but do not have the right words, consider working with a public relations specialist. They can handle the creation of your announcement content and can figure out a plan for circulating this messaging. After the content is approved, a PR specialist will work to get the word out to as many interested parties as possible. At this point, the public is aware of your content and a public relations specialist can maintain this relationship with follow ups when needed.
PR Social Media Strategy and Execution
In today’s digital and social media focused world, social media channels are critical areas for public relations and getting the word out. Historically, businesses and organizations may have needed to work with specific media outlets to get a word out. Nowadays, businesses and organizations own their own social media channels that can allow them to make announcements directly to the parties that follow them. While social media PR does sound like traditional public relations, there are some differences that businesses should be aware of when finding the right public relations specialist for their social media strategy.
Social media empowers organizations and individuals to have a public facing conversation that can get amplified and spread to an exponential number of people. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, all have regular users that are on these platforms at various points throughout a given day. A public relations specialist that has social media experience can help you to identify the exact time of the day that your audience is most active on social media and can strategically work with you to push out announcements during this time period to maximize attraction to your messaging. Social media can play a major role in making something go viral, but in some cases that is not always a good thing for the businesses and organizations that are making an announcement.
PR Crisis Management
As we just mentioned, social media is an avenue where there is potential for negative consequences with your organization and the public. In some cases, businesses and organizations can spend significant amounts of time, money, and effort into developing a message to its audience, only to have their message ridiculed by the public. This is an example of ‘crisis management’ which is something that businesses want to avoid, but a good public relations specialist is someone that can help to lead your messaging throughout this troubling time.
As the name may suggest, ‘crisis management’ is focused on alleviating concerns and issues that may have arisen from something that is public facing for your organization. In some of these cases, the crisis at hand may be a result from your businesses end and in order to save face and maintain your reputation, you need to work with a public relations specialist that can help to salvage your reputation, along with what you were trying to get across with your messaging. If you find yourself and your business in a trying situation that requires improvement with your relations with the public, consider working with a public relations specialist that is experienced in crisis management and knows what to say during these troubling times.
PR Corporate Communications
While the name ‘public relations’ may seem like it is primarily focused on consumer areas of interest, public relations can also assist businesses that are trying to attract fellow businesses that they are looking to foster relationships with. In the corporate world, businesses need to be able to work with stakeholders, such as investors and companies that they partner with, in order to successfully operate. As part of this relationship, businesses and organizations will need to be mindful of the messaging that will be specifically geared towards these B2B audiences and how they can present their own business in the best light possible.
A public relations specialist that has experience within corporate communications is someone that has extensive hands on experience in dealing with the messaging that resonates the most in the business community. While the public may need a more simplified messaging in order to generate interest, B2B audiences often expect a level of expertise to come through within the messaging that they consume. If you are looking to develop improved communication and messaging to foster better relationships within the business community, it is highly recommended to work with a public relations specialist that can connect you to your important business relationships. Public relations specialists with corporate communications can assist your organization with developing trade show discussion points, newsletters to important stakeholders, and annual reports that showcase all of the great work that your company has done over the previous year.
Find a Public Relations Specialist in Chicago, IL
As we previously mentioned, messaging plays a major role in how you can resonate in a large market such as Chicago. If you find yourself and your business in need of help to determine the right messaging to get maximum exposure within Chicago, consider hiring a public relations specialist for your organization.