With the rise of social media and influencers, a shift has occurred in how the public gets connected to the brands they love. Now, we look to those we follow and trust for advice on what new products or services are worth using. This doesn’t just mean the top tier influencers, but also mid and lower levels have plenty of pull within their audience. Why’s that? Authenticity. Social media has allowed us to research brands and products by just picking up our phones while we watch others do the testing for us.
How this works: While A-list influencers have plenty of followers, you can’t just put all of your eggs in one basket. Reaching out to those with fewer followers can be beneficial as well, and could allow you to gain more traction with their followers. Public Relations has always been about getting the public on board with what you’re advertising and pushing for, and while that hasn’t changed – the ways in which we do it has.
The Gist:
Yes, it’s important to get the media to understand the need for your company, product or service and cover your stories. Most types of content that PR generates (barring press releases) are by design not overtly promotional therefore, the soft sell of a brands byline can be too subtle and go unnoticed in today’s media maelstrom. It is all too easy to generate a sea of bland content that goes ignored. However, a great product review; a nice company profile; articles that argue for the type of change/experience that a brand provides – that is great PR that is admittedly harder to get but is still vitally important. However, in the new era of media relations, earned media is no longer just relegated to above mentioned traditional media.
It all gets back to social proof – with the target audience endorsing and approving the brand. Influencers have become some of the best and most authentic reviewers for products, services, and brands now – as they often will speak the truth about whether they like something or not. While these influencers will give us a heads up that it’s been promoted or not, they will still give us their authentic selves and what they enjoy about a product, and we all listen. Gone are the days where PR could just make a publication on how great a client is, the audience wants an authentic review or perception through influencers on social media. We’ve all seen the trends and brands that have gotten popular online due to mass reviews on Tik Tok and social media as a whole. Now you can use many methods to check what is trending online by TikTok creative center, Google Trends, following influencers and blogs that are within your industry – and using those methods to also build your brand or client by following these trends, and connecting with influencers that fit your clients M.O. Being able to create a presence in the social media world takes skills and staying up to date with trends to remain relevant and to produce quality content that appeals to the online audience. It also includes being able to start from the ground-up with influencers that may not have that many followers, the more people you have backing you up – the more authentic you become in the eyes of many.
Amongst all the noise in the media space, the loudest the public is hearing is authenticity and social-proofing.
Allowing the product, brand, and service to speak for itself among influencers, blogs, and those that try your product or experience what you’re selling is across the board. Having that solid backing of many different outlets that show they enjoy and like what you’re promoting, and having people that will back you up on your claims. Fighting for the idea you want to put out there to be seen and heard is no longer a one-way ticket with pitching to the media or journalist, and there’s many ways and outlets to do so, almost endless possibilities. One thing is for certain, authenticity is the way to creating a difference in the storytelling of PR.
