For every entrepreneur, hard work, persistence, the ability to learn, adapt and build a strong core team are obvious essentials. However, reputation could be the defining factor that puts you ahead of your competitors and drives your business and sales. What people say about you when you’re not around is what your reputation is and that, is everything to a brand. This is exactly what public relations is all about, it not only enables you to share your vision with your consumers, it also shapes how your target audience influences you. This, in turn, will build your profile and set you up as an influencer and thought-leader in your domain.
Here are 5 PR tools that every entrepreneur should deploy to build and maintain a reputation of a successful entrepreneur with leadership qualities that go beyond the boundaries of your own business but for the sector as well.
Maintain a good bio
If you’re going to be a good entrepreneur, you first need to be competent at being able to sell yourself. A good bio is one of the tools you could use to describe and showcase your career, highlight your achievements and expertise.
Your bio should always be readily available in multiple versions, depending on the situation. For social media and/or adding to the bottom of articles, a micro bio of one or two sentences is perfect. For media opportunities maintain a short, 100-word bio and for a long, one-page bio is suitable for conferences and websites.
Keep networking
A good way to build your reputation and get you name out is by connecting with people often. People are more likely to go in to business with you if they know you and what value you add. Good network and reputation will also get you business through recommendations.
Good networking is hardly about talking, let alone selling. It’s about listening and investing time to hear someone else’s issues, invest time and find out what you can offer them to bridge gaps.
Develop PR and social media strategies
It takes time to learn how to successfully pitch your professional knowledge and services to a journalist. It is important to create a plan around how you are going to build your reputation and to develop compelling story angles to gain the media’s interest.
While it is important to read newspapers daily, spend more time on reading the publication you want to appear in – it helps you understand what story angles work for those journalists. Read publications and blogs that are specific to your industry and watch out for trends within these. Keep your ear to the ground and pay attention to the questions your clients and customers ask you. Suggesting topics to journalists based on what readers want to know about makes it easier to get media attention.
Another way to make use of all this information is by utilising it on your personal (company) website. This could be the platform where you promote yourself and co-related work, your knowledge and expertise and acts as a hub of all your information.
Learn how to write a press release
While a media release is a great way of maintaining a communication flow to build your reputation, if it is not engaging enough it is likely to end up in the trash in a few seconds. You need to strategic with the structure and draft of your announcement.
You overall objective is to communicate a message to a certain target audience, the media is the middleman, however, without them it would be difficult. Hence, it is important to understand the publication you are pitching to so you can customise your message accordingly.
Keep an updated media list
A media list could include journalists, producers, freelancers, bloggers, editors and the like. It is a document that maintains the key contacts in your industry whom you are looking to build a reputation with. They are the ones who would be writing pieces on key issues in your industry and on you.
To create and maintain a good media list, define your target audience and find out what publications they follow. Then you will need to find the right contacts to reach out to for story pitches and media releases. Sort your contacts by areas of interest or topics and categorise your list. One of the most important things to remember is to regularly update your list.
Successful entrepreneurs require determination, passion and a positive attitude when faced with adversity. However, knowing how to use PR to build one’s reputation is what makes great entrepreneurs.
