How PR can elevate your brand in ways social media can’t
Many beauty brands utilise social media for influencer campaigns, advertising, or building a core community, and you wouldn’t be wrong for questioning whether social media is a useful tool.
Social media can be complicated to navigate; you may have heard lots in the news recently about ‘algorithms’ damaging a brand’s ability to reach their target audience. This can be due to accounts being ‘shadow banned’ for unknown reasons, or simply your engagement goes down as Instagram doesn’t prioritise your posts. Similarly the rise in popularity of new social media platforms like TikTok can cause a drastic change in how your target audience use social media, and result in a complete re-strategy of what channels you’re using to target your followers and how successfully. Whatsmore, the younger generation seem to be becoming more aware of their social media usage; more and more people are moving away from social media due to the damaging effects it can have on mental health. Should brands do the same?
Soap brand, Lush has been in the news frequently about this topic after ‘quitting’ social media due to the negative feedback they received on it, and the impact social media can have on self image. They believed that as a wellness brand, how could they stand for wellness effectively on platforms that encourage people to sit and stare at a screen, scrolling through content that can promote the complete opposite of health and wellness.
We’re not saying that social media isn’t a good place to focus your marketing and PR efforts, because it is. However, despite the rising influence of social media, it’s not the only avenue to attract your audience and achieve successful media campaigns. So, what can PR do to help elevate your brand in a way that social media can’t?
PR is all about building a brand or founder’s identity through media placement and communicating the brand’s story with the target market. Whether it be through inclusion in a Vogue product roundup, or being talked about on ITV’s This Morning, consumers want to trust a brand and PR can achieve this by elevating a brand’s industry presence and reputation.
We’ve broken down the two key ways that PR can elevate a brand in ways beyond social media:
Develop a brand’s identity - consumers trust a brand that has a clear identity, and a brand’s identity can be found in their unique selling point (USP). A brand’s USP should help their target audience to understand why they should love the brand, what the brand stands for, how it’s different from other brands in the same industry, and why anyone should be interested in the brand at all. Knowing these elements will shape your PR strategy and help define clear goals for how you want PR to reach your target audience and which media outlets are the best to achieve this. Unlike social media which could pigeon hole a brand by focusing on one area, PR provides multiple media outlets to tap into and more opportunities to build a brand’s identity.
Increase consumer interest and trust - PR raises awareness of a brand which results in an increase of consumer interest. This is particularly important for new brands which may find it difficult to build a consumer base through social media alone with algorithms to contend with. PR can create a ‘buzz’ around a new brand by building relationships with journalists resulting in brand inclusion, helping the target audience to find the brand in areas they trust. They can then be directed towards the brand’s website or social media platforms, creating a positive domino effect. The key here is for a brand to utilise PR achievements effectively; if a brand’s product is included in a Vogue roundup, then they need to shout about it on social media.
The key thing to take away is that if a brand chose to avoid social media, that doesn’t mean they’ve lost all opportunity to engage with their target audience. A brand can build their identity, tell their story, increase industry presence and reputation, target the desired audience and increase sales all through good PR.
