Although it’s an intimidating role, and plenty of business owners, founders, and CEOs tend to shy away from the spotlight, becoming the face of their own businesses is something that can be beneficial for many companies across a number of industries.

However, plenty of business owners still consider staying away from the spotlight as a way to personally protect themselves and their companies’ reputations, or even as a way to appear more humble.

Many years ago, one of the currently most successful personal care brands, Old Spice, faced the problem of not appealing to a younger audience. Although back then the company was promoting its products to the older generations of consumers, after assessing emerging market trends, it decided to switch to a younger target audience. However, this was a difficult thing to do , because Old Spice had a reputation as a company that sold products to older people. That meant appealing to a younger target audience was going to take some rebranding, and the brand had to change its image.  It did this successfully with a bold marketing campaign.

To save the brand of Old Spice, the company understood that it had to think big and create a marketing campaign that would grab attention. That’s why Old Spice decided to work with the same marketing professionals that came up with Nike’s own “Just Do It” slogan.

There was a time when PR was associated with free publicity and marketing with paid advertising. That distinction has blurred since the popularity of the internet, especially social media. On the other hand, it depends upon whom you ask.

For companies selling products or services, marketing, and public relations have the same goal of producing positive returns that result in increased business and profits. That has never changed but social media has drawn the lines closer together in what’s called relationship management. It’s also called relationship marketing.

These days, there are still a number of people who don’t really understand how big the video game industry really is.

Generally, about ten game titles make just as much if not more than Hollywood’s biggest hit movie each year. Just in the last year, the gaming industry’s revenue reached over $150 billion.

Communication has been dramatically changed by social media. It was because of these platforms that great pop culture moments have been created, and even political revolutions have started by people getting together on them.

With companies still trying to figure out the best way to utilize the power of social media platforms, one of the most well-known marketing tools has transformed its original purpose.

Public Relations firms work very well for larger and established brands because their focus is on getting more mentions and generating more buzz.

With larger companies, these smaller wins count because they are established enough to generate traction even through smaller mentions.

At its core, public relations is the best way for startups to develop mutually beneficial relationships both with journalists and with the target audience. This helps generate positive brand awareness and grow the company itself.

Although big brands and corporations can afford to collaborate with professional PR agencies and have tailored campaigns, startups don’t usually have the budget to do the same.   However, they can learn from others’ campaigns.

For companies that are just starting out, it’s an option to either work on PR efforts on their own, or work with a trusted PR professional. When working on their own, companies should start by asking themselves what the goal of their PR efforts is , what they should be doing to achieve that goal, and how to effectively reach their target audience.

With all of this information put together, companies will be able to create more targeted PR efforts, and narrow down their list of media outlets and journalists to reach out to.