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      Pew’s findings, upon first analysis, appear to be nothing but dismal. The report indicates that newsroom cutbacks and smaller budgets continue to plague the traditional media outlets. For instance, they note: “The latest newspaper newsroom employment figures (from 2014) show 10 percent declines, greater than in any year since 2009, leaving a workforce that is 20,000 positions smaller than 20 years prior.”

      But, for businesses, would-be thought leaders and business professionals, there’s a silver lining here.

      This continued erosion of news reporting sources, says Pew, has converged with “growing opportunities for those in politics, government agencies, companies and others to take their messages directly to the public.”

      We’ve seen that trend in action, actually. It is increasingly common for us to be able to submit work on behalf of our clients as “contributed content” to both new and traditional media. That means we’re writing the content and submitting it, and the news media are publishing it with our clients’ bylines. That means increased – and very credible – exposure for our clients, and less work for the media.

      The Power of PR Messaging

      Consumer perceptions generally are influenced in four ways. In order from most to least impactful they are:

      •Through their own experiences — trying a new restaurant, for example

      •Through recommendations from others (word-of-mouth)

      •Through what they read or hear about companies, products, services and service providers via various trusted media channels — channels that, to maintain that trust, must use respected gatekeepers to discern “facts”

      •Through messages that organizations and individuals share about themselves through traditional advertising, websites and online communications (including Twitter and other social media channels)

      We trust our own experiences. We trust respected friends, relatives and colleagues. And, to a certain degree, despite a media environment where trust is at an all-time low, we continue to trust certain media outlets.

      Traditional advertising, while diminishing in value, is still important and still has the power to influence if done effectively. Public relations is gaining in impact, I believe, because of the ability to leverage online communities and social media outlets to spread the word in ways that capitalize on personal and word-of-mouth recommendations that can be positively affected through online PR efforts.

      In an increasingly competitive — and global — business environment, PR is a necessity. Organizations and individuals absolutely need to manage their brands, their images and the perceptions of consumers toward the products and services they offer. They can do this through a strategic focus on public relations as part of the overall promotional mix (that will include traditional advertising, events, etc.). To do this effectively, businesses must fully understand their audiences, what those audiences want, and how what they have to offer can help to meet those needs — all while also considering how their offerings, and audience perceptions, are affected by competitors.

      Ideally, your overall goal with your public relations efforts should be to get those third-party influencers — whether media outlets, bloggers or participants in online conversations — saying the same things about you that you are saying about yourself. The closer the messaging across all channels, the more positive the impact on your brand. The greater the disparity between these messages, the more your brand will suffer and the more trust in your brand will erode.

      I started Strategic Communications in 2008 and, at that time, assumed that my work with organizations and individuals would involve both traditional and digital marketing along with a heavy dose of traditional PR or media relations. What I’ve found, though, is that much of our work today is focused on PR through a combination of outreach designed to gain coverage through various media outlets and the use of social media channels and content marketing. These efforts work together to drive that all-important word-of-mouth, which studies continue to show has the most significant impact on both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) purchase behaviors.

      The internet and social media have impacted the power of word-of-mouth immensely. Satisfied customers and clients tell others about their experiences, as do unsatisfied customers, and reputations are built — or destroyed.

      Businesses

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