Marketing - How Can We Manage Publicity?

All right, so publicity is a key part of promotion, which is, of course, one of our main tools as marketers

But with publicity, we don't control the message. So how can we manage publicity

Well, we can't control the message completely, but we can sort of start the conversation through what we call press releases

So we can notify the media when we have a new product coming out

They may or may not report on it, but we can at least let them know

If we sponsor an event, as you see in the next bullet point, with sponsorships or getting involved with a charity

that's something we probably want the media to talk about. So we should also issue a press release in that situation

Also, just anything that we're doing that we think is positive, we should sort of let the media know in case they would decide to talk about it

That's one way to try to manage publicity. Another way is, like I said, the sponsorships and being involved with charity

We know that it would be hard for somebody to take that negatively unless they don like the cause that we have affiliated with So as long as we choose carefully being involved with a charity or sponsoring some kind of event should be nothing but positive publicity

Next, we can help encourage what we call brand advocates or people to go out and talk about us

If we can identify people that like us and encourage them to tell other people about us, there's a good chance that publicity will be positive

Another key way we can try to manage publicity in today's world is by being active on social media

That's a place where we can start conversations that, you know, we can't control where they go from there

but we can at least start a conversation on the right foot. Coupled with that is what we call influencer marketing

or identifying people that have a big audience and trying to get them to talk about us

Again, it could be a very good source of good publicity. Lastly, if we can help encourage or create brand communities, people that come together

around our brand, that should generally create positive publicity as well. So while we can't control all the messaging and we can't control what other people say

about us, these are ways that we can try to manage publicity and hopefully steer it in

a positive direction