As my final assignment for my professional blog, I was assigned to research other blogs about my blog topic and report on my findings. Through my research, I have found that most knowledgable blogs on public relations and community relations topics, agree with what I have been mentioning in my own blog over the past few weeks. However, they do bring up some interesting points that I didn’t.
First off, I came across Paul Barsch’s blog titled “The Long-Term Value of Community Relations”. He states that community relations sets a company up for long-term success. He also says that true community relations is when a company accepts its civic duty and acts for the well-being of its community. This turns into long-term benefits such as community support, loyalty, and goodwill. He also adds that community relations has nothing to do with a company making its quarterly numbers. I completely agree with Barsch’s statements and have even mentioned those long-term benefits myself. I found his point about meeting quarterly numbers refreshing. It shows that company’s with true community relations is selfless enough to actually look out for its community, not be money hungry, and reap the benefits in the long run rather than instant gratification. Companies need to understand this in order to be viewed as genuine to the community.
Next I came across Laurel Papworth’s blog titled “Public Relations Becomes Community Relations- Social Media”. She makes the point that public relations is all about creating multiple publics and that once you’ve created a relationship with the community, it’s tough for them to leave you for a competitor. I have also mentioned the importance of this point. Once you build a community for your company and establish a trusting, two-way relationship, they will ultimately become your customer as well. This is a part of branding. Once they become loyal to your company brand, they won’t want to go to a competing company who hasn’t spent the time and energy to build a relationship with them.
I hope that from reading my blog, you have come to an understanding of the importance of community relations, tactics in which to build a relationship with the community, and how other people and companies are already implementing these tactics. If you want to stay ahead of the game as a public relations professional, begin a community relationship quickly and retain long-term benefits!