So you own a business or are considering opening one? Great! Obviously, during this ridiculously long pandemic, buying a lock and key (ready to open) business may we a wise move, but expensive. Maybe your business idea is geared toward blogging. Whatever your business venture is, you will need to know how to develop public relations to make your brand name known and ultimately successful.

Branding

Branding is essentially the process whereby a concept, logo or an image is marketed so as many individuals as humanly possible come to recognize and identify with a particular service or product when other businesses are offering or providing the equivalent service or merchandise.

Keep the above paragraph in mind when here on read.cash and are making a logo and essentially selling yourself to the reading audience.

The purpose of branding is to get people to identify so strongly with your service or product that it is their go-to brand above all others. In other words, branding is the strategy of putting your thought into people’s minds.

Branding is important because it builds value for a business. With the advent of the Internet and intense competition in a globalized world, branding is vital in order to stay ahead of the competition with innovative ideas, marketing, and reaching out to individuals around the world to set a company apart from similar businesses.

Branding is not the same as it was in even a few years ago. Before the Internet came along, businesses needed capital, some semblance of social status, were pretty much related to using TV and print ads to attract consumers, and were forced to offer better products or services than their competitors.

Wise business owners always want to obtain a competitive advantage!

Branding is different nowadays as a result of the use of ever-evolving technology. Branding is now a matter of being able to connect with people, even if you do not have the massive financial capital like large businesses. In other words, any person with a great idea and social media savvy can build a brand and achieve success if they are able to connect with people.

Engagement

When engaging people in a conversation, there are certain advantages and disadvantages for any business venture. Some advantages consist of utilizing social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. By using these tools, businesses are able to immediately interact with consumers to mitigate a problem, are free to create any content they prefer to engage their audience with, and by staying in tune with consumers build brand loyalty.

On the other hand, some disadvantages consist of the ability of consumers to post negative comments about a product or service. Also, a communications specialist has to stay on top of things to mitigate any negativity, and oftentimes there is just not enough staff or time to keep up with every social media post.

The responsibilities of a communications specialist (you as the business owner or an employee) are to ensure that consumers or client needs, complaints and/or suggestions, are taken into consideration and answered as promptly as possible. Blowing someone off can prove disastrous, because word of mouth spreads rather fast on social media platforms and on the mean streets.

Common sense guidelines consist of not allowing one’s emotions (anger, frustration, etc.) to dictate a response to a consumer or client, interacting in a timely manner, maintaining professional courtesy, and ensuring that matters that are crucial to a brand are resolved in a timely fashion. In this manner, negative feedback does not go viral and crush your sales and/or reputation.

Finally, it is important to be on top of audience engagement because “…investing time into social media can help a business create lasting relationships with customers that will keep them coming back for years to come.” According to Hutchinson (2014), communication specialists are the conduit whereby successful engagement is achieved. Taking the time to interact means going out of one’s way even when it doesn’t appear to be profitable. In the end, all people are equally important.

Build your brand through public relations and you will see your business grow. A failure to stay in touch with your consumers can lead you into bankruptcy.