Every business wants to maintain a positive relationship with the public; the act of doing that is Public Relations. The major reasons for the existence of PR are:

• Representing businesses, brands, or companies in a positive light
• Fostering and maintaining relationships with the general public, 
• and invariably increasing an organization’s numbers in terms of leads, sales, and profit. 

PR is all about building mutually beneficial relationships and managing communications between organizations, clients, and the public at large.

Right now, you’re probably wondering why Social media is pertinent to PR.

By design, social media facilitates a rapid 2-way communication between organizations and the public.

Times back, PR professionals primarily engaged with the public, either after a major change, or the occurrence of a terrible event that needed to be managed. PR officers would usually give assertions on-air, discharge them on paper, or distribute them on the web. 

The excess time and resources this approach requires are what makes social media a much more effective substitution to these old methods. 

Social media has completely reshaped the field, and can either help you meet your goals or hinder the reputation management process. What makes the difference is the level of experience and professionalism of the handler. This is why you need to be careful of who you entrust your brand’s PR with. 

Why Should You Use Social Media to Build Public Relations?

Grow Sales

The long-term effect of positive brand imagery is the trust it instills in the public, which in turn leads to a massive increase in sales. People mostly buy from brands they’ve come to trust, and trust takes time to build. Maintaining a positive brand image helps ensure that there are no doubts in the minds of potential customers, and in turn gives them the push required to make purchases, turning them into clients.

Connect with fans

It is not always likely that customers and fans will be available for conventional PR activities like press releases. They would rather be updated on social media than spend their time moving from one location to another. With social media, updates, announcements, and other important information about a brand can be passed around faster to reach a target audience more effectively. 

Connect with influencers

Social media influencers give brands and businesses a voice and reach they would not have been able to gather on their own. Social media influencers have huge followings that brands can take advantage of, to advance awareness, contributions, and secure fans and customers.

Identify threats

Social listening gives professionals the power to understand the public’s opinion before it turns into a trending topic. You can proactively find and address online threats and possibly prevent a major brand reputation crisis.

Some other facts for your perusal:

• Today, 74% of consumers worldwide rely on social media to purchase a product or service.
• Social media marketing has reduced costs for 45% of businesses.
• Businesses grew by 24% since using social media for Public Relations, and lead generation.
• Almost 55% of internet users are on social media.

Social media is awesome and such a great place to be. Sticking to these few reasons will take you one step closer to your goal daily. This will also help you improve your social media performance and achieve a more consistent result.

In my journey as a marketing officer, it has always been my mission to help businesses become more likable and profitable on social media, and here at Social Sugar, we put the sugar in social. So, If your brand’s online reputation could use some of our sugar, feel free to get in touch.

                                                                                     Mr. Adeniyi Adekoya, Marketing Officer