Yesterday KnowledgePeers organised a panel on Raising Your Profile – Here are the few interesting notes I took on PR and social media.
Small business can use PR to tell a better story than the bigger companies that will just broadcast press release on the wires. The story of the artisan crafting his product, the baker preparing his cake or the winemaker cherishing his grapes is often more compelling.
Caroline Kinsey from the panel used an analogy to compare PR to a bowling ball that is sent and hit as many pins as possible and social media to a pinball ball that is sent and hit wherever it bounces next.
As someone in the audience put it, marketing via social media is like preaching to the converted. The people you reach already ‘like’ your product. The point then becomes to incentivize those fans so they will spread the word and act as the ambassador to the product. This could be done by:
– giving reward related to the brand and the product (free sample?)
– giving information a head of the mass so they feel they are on the inside
A good way to think about how to communicate with your customer on the social media is by asking the question: how does my present in social media add value to my customers.
When thinking about marketing a small business, I find those point helpful.