Public relations( my second initiative) has always been a key element in any major companies business plan from amazon to Asos, neglecting public relations can and has had detrimental effects on many a company; For example Nestlé Maggie noodle scandal(peoriamagazines.com, 2018). PR is the use of intermediaries to communicate with your chosen audience and influence them(Prweek.com, 2018); its probably one of the least understood marketing tools.

My second initiative focus was to improve the PR of amazon and make It more user friendly.
1. Raise awareness of amazons 0.5% policy
2. Start investing or support charities to Gain PR
3. Create a blog campaign on social media, such Instagram ,Facebook championing how ethical Amazon is, challenging any negative blogs.
4. Survey new customers to quantify the impact of the PR campaign.

How should it be done?
One of the tasks for any company in regard to public relations is the effective utilisation of social media there are several social media platforms, tweeter, Facebook, net-log etc. However many users abuse them or don’t use them enough, or use them without interacting with their target audience first(Anon, 2018). Furthermore self-promotion without substance something particularly important in the 3rd plan of creating a blog campaign, can make the public see you as self centred and give the impression the company only cares about itself; the opposite of what we want.

Secondly too much can be expected from too little, many members of staff who do public relation have expertise in other fields this bolstered with incorrect understanding of public relations, can lead to the public relation campaign being underfunded or staff member being asked too much from too little. It is important that managers understand the limits of PR and provide resources accordingly.
Third point, public relations should be given enough time to grow, public relations by its very nature will take time to grow. Thus its paramount the company gives enough time for both the message to disseminate into our target audience as well as give time for intermediaries and there message to get through. If this criteria is neglected it will show itself in the self-evaluation stage of the campaign( surveying new customers), with new customers stating other reason for using Amazon other than the PR campaign.

What resource’s are there ?
There are many resources available to a company in improving their Public relations such as Mattison (Mattison Public Relations, 2018). Firstly there are companies that specialise specifically in providing public relation services, by outsourcing, one can reduce the cost of having there own public relations department. Since they don’t have to reallocate staff or their own time in improving public relation. Furthermore a company can benefit from the experience private companies such as Mattison possess since trying to improve public relation in house can come with many pitfalls( a single careless comment can have significant ramification)that experienced companies such as mattison can avoid.

Continuing on there are a myriad of research done on the importance and relevance of public relations in 21st centaury, these include the journal of public relations research done by Taylor and Francis and is issued quarterly and gives great insight into mass communication(Anon, 2018). Furthermore if literature is not your thing there are several blogs such as this one as well as videos giving great tips on pr.

Problems?
The first problem imposed when trying to improve public relation of a company, is that it is labour intensive and time consuming endeavour. The second initiative will be time consuming & labour intensive in respects to surveying new costumer on the impact of the new PR campaign and creating a blog campaign..

To continue public relations by nature is difficult to control, due to so many external variables as juxtaposed to regular advertising whose placement, message and graphic you can control. This means any initiative involving public relations must be planned thoroughly from knowing customers to knowing there interests to knowing one’s own competition, and is paramount in launching a successful PR campaign. If these elements are done incorrectly the PR campaign can either become superfluous at best or damaging at worst, such as new cola in the 1985( brand contamination.)

Conclusion:
Public relations is greatly important in this day and age yet it is also greatly misunderstood, it’s a marketing tool which is indispensable to veterans but poison to novices.
• Allocate enough resources to the PR department if done in house
• Outsourcing can save money and man hours and be effectual((Mattison Public Relations, 2018) )
• Give PR campaigns time to manifest
• Have expectations that are reasonable and excellent PR campaign will not support a faulty company or product
• There’s a lot of research already on public relation all of which can be indispensable to both individuals and companies.

Refrences:

Anon, (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hprr20/current [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].

Anon, (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-problems-facing-public-relations-practice-world-dr-ajihson/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2018].

Mattison Public Relations. (2018). Homepage — Mattison Public Relations. [online] Available at: https://www.mattison.co.uk/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].

Prweek.com. (2018). Nestlé stuck in the PR soup as Maggi noodles fallout continues. [online] Available at: https://www.prweek.com/article/1350336/nestle-stuck-pr-soup-maggi-noodles-fallout-continues [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].

peoriamagazines.com. (2018). The Importance of Public Relations to Businesses of All Shapes & Sizes. [online] Available at: http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2012/feb/importance-public-relations-businesses-all-shapes-sizes [Accessed 22 Feb. 2018].