Despite the fact that Covid-19 has drastically transformed the world, business can still continue and public relations can still rise from ashes. If you want to learn some new PR models and techniques, check out this article.

Optimize and Work on Your Digital Spaces

Whether it concerns blogs, websites or any third-party sites, the Covid-19 lockdown provides the right time and opportunity to refine and improve SEO and marketing strategies to increase and boost the visibility of your online content. Old information can be updated and you can look for new ways to improve your SEO performance.

Using keywords and links is one of the most crucial factors for search engines but you can also employ SEO brands such as Yeah! Local. It’s a company that will look at your websites’ or blogs’ SEO, will give suggestions for improvement and will then provide regular updates on your brand’s performance.

Focus On Backburner Projects

It often happens that PR organizations place some projects on the back burner. However, now is the perfect time to take out these projects and to start working on them. These projects could consist of updating a brand messaging, creating a new website, publishing a new blog, creating a video or posting a picture. As simple as these tasks can be, they still require your full attention.

Think Properly About How to Tell the Story

The epidemic has resulted in heightened fears all over the world and the level of pessimism has increased too. So, before PR experts hit “send” on any marketing emails and click “post” on any social media platforms, they need to think about whether people would consider them to be profiting from the worldwide crisis.

Increase the Creativity

Before the Covid-19 crisis, many PR campaigns used creativity and innovation and brought PR strategies to another level. For instance, Paramount Pictures used a PR strategy to promote the horror movie series, The Ring and arrange for a publicity stunt to scare people in a real-life scenario. It is said that the video received more than 10 million views on Facebook.

The Covid-19 crisis may not allow PR organizations to arrange for such publicity stunts, but there is still some place for such creative and innovative online methods to engage and appeal to the audience. For example, after the tragic Paris shooting in 2015, Facebook added a France flag filter where users all over the world could apply this filter to their profile pictures to show their support for France and all those who died in the incident. This is an example of a simple, cost-effective and unique PR strategy.

Think About the Long-Term and Use Online Platforms

Many PR organizations have been discouraged and affected by the pandemic. As per a research study conducted by the PR Cavalry and Intuit Research, “50 % of PR freelancers have lost at least 60 % of their income while 33% PR workers have seen their incomes decreased by 80 %.” Fear is taking control of the PR sector and many organizations are reducing their budgets, decreasing the number of workers or closing offices.

However, if one looks back in time, history shows that many of the prominent brands have begun and flourished during hard times, such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Square. Hence, these serve as an example to PR companies and practitioners to promote their brand values and strengthen community relations.

“Remember Yesterday, Dream About Tomorrow, but Live Today.”

During this crisis, the above line is less of a quote and can be considered more as a PR strategy.

• Remember yesterday: There are many projects such as a product launch or a new program that were placed on the back burner. However, it is also essential to remember these past projects and create contingency PR plans.
• Live today: Crisis communications states that one should always move and respond quickly. Similarly, it is essential always to be connected with your clients during this crisis, whether through online communications.
• And remember: an absence of communication can result in your audience having ambiguities to understand certain things about the brand or product. A lack of proper and immediate communications can also lead to failures.
• Dream about tomorrow: PR practitioners must also think about what will happen after the crisis is over. It is also essential to think about the future plans and projects as your competitors will still remain your competitors, but the battle will be more challenging compared to before as said by the rule of the jungle, only the strong can survive. Hence, PR experts can start creating future PR strategies and tactics.

Add the Human Touch

According to a study, 70 % of online customers claimed that they trust the opinions of influencers. For example, many people rely on cultural icons to navigate through online platforms during the pandemic. A great example is how in South Korea, even during the pandemic, the K-pop industry has used the K-pop idols as leading influencers for perfecting their PR campaigns.

Always Monitor the News Cycles Closely

It is not really a good idea for a PR organization to create messages without monitoring recent news. Thus, it is critical for PR practitioners to stay updated about current news and to always be active on social media platforms. By incorporating social listening, the public relations sector will be able to create impactful stories and pitches.

Show Support for the Community

How many people are homeless or dying out of starvation during the pandemic?

During these tough times, one way to promote your company and at the same time do something good for the community is by providing help and support to the needy of the society.

What do you think about these PR strategies? If you have some other ideas, why don’t you share them with us in the comment section below?