PUBLICITY

Publicity is creating public awareness of yourself, your business, or your brand, products, or services through media coverage and other forms of communication. It's often part of a marketing campaign. Publicists help to manage publicity for individuals and businesses with a goal of increasing positive publicity and minimizing or responding to negative coverage. Types of Publicity Your business can pursue several types of publicity, including: 1. Social media: Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter allow you to connect with your potential customers. A strong social media presence keeps your brand in your followers' minds. Rather than trying to make a single post that goes viral, focus on building an interested audience slowly and steadily by offering posts that educate, entertain, or both. 2. Product placement: Send free products or offer free services to public figures, bloggers, or other media personalities. Your products may end up being featured in their blogs, social media posts, or other public content. 3. Partnerships: Working with other brands or businesses can allow you to get your brand in front of a wider audience and generate publicity. Approach potential partners about collaborations, product swaps, or offering your products and services as a free bonus to some of their customers. 4. Promotional swag: Branded items such as calendars, pens, notepads, tote bags, and phone cases can put your brand name and logo in front of a wide audience. However, you have no guarantee that your target audience will be the one seeing this swag. Think of swag as a fun bonus for customers, rather than a guaranteed way to generate publicity, and budget accordingly. How to Generate free publicity for your Brand 1. Focus your coverage: Choose carefully exactly what you want to cover and your target media. Whether it's the launch of a new product, a significant anniversary or a competition win, make sure it is relevant to the readership of your targeted media - be it traditional or online. 2. Use social media for free PR: You can set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account at no cost. Social media is an excellent way to build relationships with your customers and encourage word-of-mouth publicity. 3. Viral marketing: Whether it's a YouTube video with thousands of views, or a photo that is tweeted and retweeted, if your promotional material goes 'viral' it can give your public profile a huge boost. There is no magic formula to viral marketing - but something quirky, interesting and funny is more likely to capture people's imaginations. 4. Write a great press release: Press releases serve two purposes - you can add them to the news section of your site, link to them from your social media accounts, and send them to journalists. Ensure you have an eye-catching headline and a strong, summarising opening paragraph before getting into the details. 5. Get back to basics: Traditionally small firms aimed to get editorial coverage by sending press releases to newspapers or magazines in the hope that journalists would write about their new product or service. Journalists want to write about something that is newsworthy, particularly if it will appeal to their readership. If it's linked with famous people or places, controversial or amusing,you are more likely to get the coverage you want. 6. Advertising promotions. These can be a double-edged sword - although you are guaranteed editorial coverage, paid promotions can be expensive and potential customers may skip the feature. Weigh up whether the potential results are worth the cost. 7. Go for gold: Winning an award is a fantastic way to get publicity - not only does it recognise your talent and increase your prestige; award ceremonies are a good place to network and are usually covered by trade or local press. Many awards are free to enter. Look for one that is well respected in your industry and is likely to generate press coverage. 8. Get philanthropic: You could get involved with a local charity to increase your standing in the community. Offer to speak at industry events or to write a column for a trade magazine or website. 9. Dealing with bad publicity. Not all free publicity is beneficial. One negative comment can undo months of hard work. If a customer complains, contact them directly with a full apology and suggested solution. If you see negative and anonymous comments online, respond honestly in the same forum, explaining the situation from your perspective. Do not ignore negative feedback or bad publicity - it may be the first thing a prospective customer sees if they decide to search for you online. 10. Keep it in perspective. Publicity is a great way to increase footfall but don't neglect other aspects of your business in a bid to boost your profile. If you are spending a lot of time and energy on PR without much success, sit back and work out another strategy. By: Oluwapelumi Atanseiye