pr

How PR builds brand community

How PR builds brand community

I hear all the time that social media is toxic but I really don't find that. The reason? I'm really selective about who I follow and therefore what pops up on my timeline. This means that I typically leave social media feeling positive, having either been inspired, educated or entertained. One of the people who contributes to this is Famira Green (Community Focused Brand Coach) who recently shared a post on the 5 key differences between building an audience and building a community. Not only was it too good not to share, it really reminded me why I love PR so much. For example:

4 ways to build confidence for PR Success...

4 ways to build confidence for PR Success...

When I first started my blog, I wasn't confident in my writing skills; so I would write my blog posts, record myself reading them and then send them to my friends Isata and Daryl every...single...week. And every single week, they would listen, give me feedback and affirm both me and my talent until I finally got to the point where I was so confident in my abilities that I didn't need to send the voice notes anymore. Now things have come full circle and I get the chance to serve my clients with the very copywriting skills that they helped to nurture via done-for-you PR services and The Perfect Pitch Packet. Through this journey, I have learned the importance of the following for building the confidence needed for PR success:

5 unexpected reasons to get started with PR today

5 unexpected reasons to get started with PR today

I have many nick-names spanning from the expected (Neen, Neenz, Nini), sentimental (baby, baby girl, sweet girl) to slightly random without a back story. One of the more random nick-names came from my girl, Kishma, who went through a stage of calling me "Pretty Pants".

Here’s the back story to where that came from:

If you've been following me on social media for a while, or know me in real life, then you'll know that this British-born Nigerian girl loves patterned clothes. In case you haven't or don't, the pic above should prove my point. (Aside from African prints, I'm also partial to florals, animal prints and bright colours).

About 6 years ago, before my hair was locked, I was walking around Wood Green (a cosmopolitan shopping part of London) wearing trousers that had a black background and were embellished with bright, colourful flowers.

Long story short...

As I shuffled through the crowd and walked pass a bus stop a guy (who I had noticed watching me and hoped would leave me alone) cat called me with the phrase "Hey, Pretty Pants!" (referring to my trousers in his Jamaican accent and vernacular). I, of course, kept walking but I couldn't help but be amused by his "original" pick up line. So amused, that I laughed out loud as I walked away from him and told Kish about it the next time we met up, hence the nick-name "Pretty Pants".

Remember me saying that this happened before I locked my hair? Here's why that's an important detail...

Me and Kish actually went on to lock our hair shortly after that *clears throat* incident. Whenever people who are thinking about dreadlocks ask us questions about whether they should do it too, we often talk about the expected benefits of locking- like the low maintenance; improved health and strength of our hair- and laugh about the unexpected things- like the fact that men speak to you differently and, rather than calling you "pretty pants," "my size" and so on, use more respectful terms such as "Empress". Who knew, right?!

It's like that with PR too, sis. For example, you might be expecting PR to cause an increase to your visibility, credibility, email list and money- and rightly so! But some things that you may not be factoring in as a perk of PR (because I certainly didn't!) is: