I will ask one question: How important is PR for your business? How important is your reputation? So the next one: how do you take care of it?
If we think of social media, website, merchandising – what kind of visual materials you put in there? Is it your face, your premises or products? Is it a professionally looking image? Does it say ‘I am professional’ or ‘I am starting out, I don’t have money (or don’t want to invest) but I have an amazing product’?
I want you think outside the box. I was always fascinated how easily advertising can manipulate people. PR is a bit of manipulation, if you think that you are presenting yourself with ‘the better’ side; mentioning positive features and not failures. You curate the content and either build your reputation or ruin it.
I have few examples of companies, that had a ‘privilege’ to experience the latter. How carefully curated content ended badly, how un-curated went viral, how did it harm the company – or elevated it. <pictures>
I can present plenty of examples, but I want you to look at your imagery. First impression matters, we take care for our clothes, shoes, bags. We don’t treat our business images online as our business card 100% of the time. And we should! You never know who will see it. It is public. You should be proud of your company and your product/services.
So, can imagery make or break your business? Think of it – what is advertising. Is it just a slogan, or visual perception of you and your business?