Just wrote another blog post today at The SMB Collective, my second business blog where I write on small-business issues with my peer group. That post is about Foursquare and how businesses should claim brand identity on Foursquare (and Yelp and others) even if the timing is not quite right for launch of location-based marketing.
That post got me thinking about the role of public relations. I’ve been reading in Advertising Age and a few other places that 2011 is the year of PR. Folks are saying social media is the perfect purview of public relations, and it’s logical that PR practitioners would manage content marketing. I fully agree.
Should we also “do” location-based marketing, too? YES, why not?
I think we ought to jump right in and claim that one, but not all alone. Location-based marketing requires some awesome digital expertise with mobile apps IT and design, retail marketing, general marketing and branding along with events knowledge.
Public relations needs to promote the fact that a business is engaging in location-based marketing by storytelling and sharing the news on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and LinkedIn. Any business with a success story to tout needs the help of public relations. In addition, good old fashioned traditional media would be interested in hearing about a solid case study on location-based marketing, too.
Location-based marketing services require all integrated marketing practitioners to adopt a piece of the pie. Public relations needs to work a bit harder to justify itself as a cook in that kitchen.
What do you think about that?
