Set Your PR Goals and Make 2016 Your Year to Shine
Welcome to 2016! As with the start of every year there is a sense of optimism in the air and the determination to stick to all those newly made resolutions. Have you thought about making a resolution for your personal branding and PR strategy?
It’s important to reflect and assess how your PR strategy performed throughout the year, what worked and what didn’t. By assessing these factors, you can review your PR strategy to plan what you would like to achieve in 2016 to reach your goals.
Here are some tips on what to include in your PR strategy to make 2016 your year to shine.
Review your key messages:
Key messages are what you want people to remember about you and your brand. It is a good idea to review your key messages and determine whether they still communicate the right information about you.
It is important these messages are clear and concise, communicating what you want your audience to remember. This is especially important you’ve experienced significant change or have decided to rebrand. Start by considering the key points you want your audience to hear and remember and make sure your key messages communicate this.
Review your media coverage:
Did you achieve as much media coverage last year as you wanted? Review the media coverage you achieved last year and the publications in which they appeared and determine if you need to review your approach to pitching to the media. Perhaps all that is needed is a review of how many pieces of media coverage you secured each month.
Sending out more pitches per month may increase the amount of coverage you achieve, increasing the opportunities for your audience to connect with you.
When you receive media coverage, it is worth communicating. Promote your media coverage on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as company websites sharing the links to your coverage. It is a great way to increase audience exposure to your stories.
Research new publications:
Is your media list up to date? A lot can happen in a year, and with the current landscape of the media, journalists are often changing roles, publications and contact details. It’s important to make sure your media lists are up to date so you can continue to contact the appropriate journalists.
It is also a good idea to review the publications you currently pitch to determine if they are still suitable and conduct research into other publications your audience engages with and start pitching to them.
Think about what other publications you could pitch to. This could be daily newspapers, online blogs or vertical publications such as small business, finance, leadership and entrepreneur. It is important to remember your audience receives information daily from numerous publications, so the more you pitch to, the greater chance your story will be published.
Network more:
Networking is a key ingredient for gaining new clients. Networking is designed to create relationships and connections with other people that may lead to career opportunities.
It is important to be able to walk into a room full of strangers and pitch yourself. This is not an easy task and requires determination, courage and plenty of practice. A good tip is to use every business or social event as an opportunity to pitch yourself to potential clients. Get started on your road to success by booking yourself into a Women’s Network Australia networking event.
A PR strategy can be great tool to help you achieve your personal branding goals. It will help you maximise the success of your PR efforts and help to grow your brand.
To help you perfect your PR skills for 2016, as a special gift, WNA readers can download my Public Relations Strategy Checklist for FREE! Download yours now!