Can PR Improve Organizational Reputation

Who wouldn’t want to have a good reputation amongst their customers? Brand image is important for all types of businesses, from well-established corporations to start-ups.

Organizational reputation comprises many tangible and intangible components that create a perception in the consumer’s mind. It includes the quality of products and services offered, core values, the company’s take on different social matters, its employees’ satisfaction level, and most importantly, the media reports and word-of-mouth buzz surrounding it.

PR can help bolster a positive image when organizational reputation is in danger. Here are a few ways PR can improve or maintain organizational reputation.

What Is Organizational Reputation?

Organizational reputations are stakeholders’ impressions of organizations based on their past and projected future behaviors. Companies need to ensure all stakeholder groups, including customers, are perceiving their organization positively or risk damage to their overall reputation and, therefore, their stakeholders’ loyalty. Ample time and effort should be directed toward maintaining and improving organizational reputation.

Role Of PR

Public relations can perform a variety of functions on behalf of corporations, including promoting products and services, developing positive relationships between the customers and the business, and clarifying if anything goes wrong. PR teams act as the liaison between the business and existing and potential customers. Effective communication can solve almost any public issue.

How Can PR Improve Organizational Reputation?

Here are the top six ways PR functions can improve overall organizational reputation.

1. Proactive Pitching

It’s important to build a foundation for a positive reputation through proactive pitching. PR representatives can work with media outlets and partners to promote good stories about an organization’s charitable giving initiatives, its work in the community, and its great business practices before issues ever arise. This will help ensure individuals who have never had experience with the company still perceive it positively.

2. Honesty

An essential aspect of PR is authenticity. There is no room for exaggerating because this false information might influence customers to make a purchase that they later feel unhappy with. Authenticity and honesty in all facets of public relations, from proactive pitching to crisis communications, can help organizations avoid feelings of distrust and hurt.

3. Clearing a Brand’s Image  

Suppose an organization gave a statement or launched a campaign but did not deliver the intended message properly. Public relations teams can help clarify the message to the media and other stakeholders to minimize confusion and anger. Crisis communications, after all, is partly about managing public sentiment following an incident. This is another time that honesty and authenticity is key.

4. Social Media

PR managers must be active on social media and other digital platforms so they can respond quickly if any incident takes place that might tarnish a brand’s reputation. For example, suppose a high-profile individual publishes a highly negative post about your organization. The PR manager can ask that person to take down their post, can respond on behalf of the brand, and can work to make the problem right with said individual.

The longer it takes to rejuvenate a brand’s image on social media, the more likely the negative coverage is to go viral. Speed of response time and professionalism are key to tampering the flames of a social media crisis.

5. Managing Online Reputation 

PR professionals help manage brand image through both traditional and digital campaigns. Your organization’s online reputation is just as significant as its local reputation, because online coverage leaves a permanent footprint. Curious searchers can find negative comments and stories from years prior if they dig hard enough.

Digital presence is also extremely important to manage on a daily basis because online coverage has the opportunity to spread further and faster than word-of-mouth coverage. In years past, a negative newspaper article in the local paper wouldn’t be read by anyone outside the county. But today, readers from all over the country can view that type of article, meaning digital coverage has the capacity to create greater impact—whether positive or negative.

6. Customer Relationship Management

Online PR not only consists of image building; it also includes answering your customers’ queries. If a customer faces an issue with any product or service, they might air grievances online. Effective public relations can help keep virtual complaints in check and make sure customers feel heard and satisfied.

Can PR Help Your Organizational Reputation? 

No matter what issue may arise, effective PR can help rework and restore the organizational reputation of any brand. PR is not only about endorsing a product or service or making sales. It’s also about planning, maintaining, and protecting reputations. Great PR positions brands well in the minds of customers proactively and through clear and honest communication in times of crisis.