Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations,
team building, and goal achieving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast
with your host Paul fella Aldo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven
Minute Leadership Podcast, Episode one seventy one. In two, the Mailbag we
Go. So, I received a message from a listener that is a few
months away from opening their own business and they wanted to know if I had
any insight on where they should start with building a public relations team. And
my short answer as yes, yes, yes. So first of all,
congratulations on launching your new business, and that's for everyone out there too that
there's to go on that journey of entrepreneurship. And as you embark on that
exciting journey, it's very important to recognize the importance of public relations or PR
in building a strong brand and establishing a positive reputation for your business. So
it goes without saying that in today's consumer in digital world, assembling a talented
and effective PR team is immediately essential for your new business, and I would
start here. Before assembling your PR team, you have to sit down and
do some planning because it's vital that you first establish clear goals and objectives.
Right consider what you want to achieve through PR, whether it's a grand opening,
increasing brand visibility, managing crisis, launching new products, or just enhancing
your overall reputation. Clearly defining your goals will help you shape your PR strategy
and determine the skill sets required from your team members for that PR team.
In next, it's important to understand the various roles and responsibilities that contribute to
a successful PR team and campaign. And I know this firsthand having been the
PR guy for many different agencies over the years, for many different conferences with
no budget. The one person may wear all the hats and do all the
jobs on the PR team like I did, but eventually the goal should be
to have one dedicated person in each of these positions, and I think you
need six of them. I know for some companies that may be a long
shot, and like I said, having done all the positions, it's a
big challenge for one person. So here are the key positions that I think
you need for a successful public relations team, and we first have to start
with the PR manager. The PR manager is someone that's going to oversee your
overall PR strategy that you created. They're also going to manage all the team
members in coordinate all of your campaigns in the second person you need is a
media relations specialist, and this is someone that's going to focus on building relationships
with all your journalists, influencers, and media outlets to secure media coverage for
your events and manage all of your press inquiries. The third person you need
is a dedicated content creator. You need a skilled content creator because they can
develop all of your engaging written in visual content, your articles, blog posts,
social media content, and just in general everything catchy that you see online
that other companies are doing. Next is your social media manager. You have
to have a dedicated professional to manage your online presence, engage with your audience,
and create compelling social media campaigns. And here's one role that you might
not be thinking of, and that's a crisis communications specialist because this role is
responsible for managing a potential pr crisis, developing crisis communication plans, handling sensitive
situations effectively, any negative reviews or bad publicity you may get, you get
the point crisis communication specialist. And the last one is an analytics expert,
and this is someone that's going to measure the effectiveness of all of your PR
efforts. You know, someone to track key metrics such as reach and impressions
and all that digital stuff that no one cares about when you just launch a
blind tweet or Instagram post on your own personal accounts. So, now that
we've identified the roles needed for a PR team, it's time to start the
recruitment process and you have to look for professionals who possess relevant experience, a
solid understanding of your industry, in excellent communication skills. You have to look
for individuals that are creative and adaptable and have a track record of achieving results,
and just look at their social media when you interview them and their client
lists. They should come to you with a digital portfolio that will knock your
socks off. So these roles and responsibilities that I discuss this is like a
basic framework for assembling an effective PR team, and I get it. It
may be a challenge for small businesses to have dedicated individuals for each role initially,
but the ultimate goal should be to have specialized professionals in each of these
positions. So by assembling a talented and well rounded PR team, you can
effectively manage your brand's reputation, max amis visibility, handle a potential crisis,
and achieve your PR goals. Remember, investing in a strong PR team is
an investment in the long term success and growth of your business. So best
of luck on your entrepreneurial journey and congratulations on taking the first steps towards building
your PR team and establishing a strong brand presence. This has been the seven
minute Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening. For more Paul Fellovaledo podcasts,
visit Paul Fellovaledo dot com.