 Alright, thanks for staying with us. Now, public relations are the various activities that the company undertakes to promote and protect its image, product and policy with stakeholders. Now, stakeholders are the interested parties with the companies such as customers, suppliers, shareholders and employees. Public relations advices the management to adopt rules that improve the company's image publicly, focusing on people to think positively about it and what it offers to achieve the purpose because public relations sets the company's goal. Now, amidst the tough times we are all going through, especially here in Nigeria, what role do you think PR or public relations and communications can play in business growth? That's the question for today. Now, please, let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to the rate 1-803-846-63. You can also tweet at us at Weissho Africa, one with the hashtag Weissho. Alright, so this is an interesting conversation. Let me come to you Uti quickly because you are a customer relations person. When you think PR and you think businesses, especially with all the tough times. Again, I think this is even coming off of the back of the Naira issues, right? How banks were just not communicating right to their customers. I feel like even though there was a big deal happening around, I mean, there would have been a nicer way for banks to have communicated to their customers personally that would have at least calmed everybody's nerves. That's what I feel, but hey, I'm not the expert here. So let me hear your thoughts, Uti. What do you think about PR and again, especially when we're dealing with tough times in small businesses? Well, you just insist on stepping on my inner non-banker tail every time we talk about this situation. Look, crisis management is a key part of public relations. But please, tread carefully where you say banks could have. I will limit to the PR experts to educate us today, but please, tread cautiously. Uti, hello. I'm a big proponent of public relations. I mean, as a customer expense professional, public relations goes hand in hand with what we do. Other than that, I studied public relations and marketing, so it's actually at my core, but I think that it's almost becoming what I say lost art in the way that it was originally coined. So it's evolved in many ways, taking into account new media like social media and the opportunities that customers have or other organizations have for the perceptions about their brand to go worldwide. So today, if I ask an average man on the street who's never left Nigeria about the Apple brand, he has a perception about it. So the fact is it's no longer about managing within your own primary environment. The media now allows the perceptions and your brand awareness to actually span right across the globe. So it's the same, but it's different. So it's evolving. But it just allows us to do a lot of exciting things in this time. So yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, you love it. Absolutely. Alera, quickly, let me come to you. So I mean, regarding public relations, one of the most important things it basically does is it creates some type of, it creates a journey for the customers or for the public. That's the journey of the brand. So for instance, now you have a new product that you want to put out for people to start using. The first thing you need to do once you're done with your development is to have a public relations person to come to analyze. You're going to be calling the press. You're going to be doing so many things. So public relations is quite important in this time because a lot of Nigerians are woke right now. New businesses are springing up. So it's no longer the white streets businesses or white street brands. Individuals are coming up with businesses that are helping them and being able to understand the channels and the means to pass out your message. It's very important. Like Uti mentioned, crisis management is another area of public relations that wasn't really focused on because when something happened and you hear maybe a big brand is having a drama or one issue, there's somebody behind that is there quenching the fire, ensuring that the news or the information that the public has is not what stays. To be controlled. Yes, it's controlled. Yes, it's really important. How about you, Sansi, quickly? Well, I do have a question. I'm not sure if it's time to ask her yet about public relations. Yes, there is the old meaning of public relations, which is like managing a brand and everything that comes with it. But I've noticed that lately there's like a lot of blurring of the lines. Like there is like data analysis, there is copyrighting, there is PR. And oftentimes you see like all these things are interwoven. You know, like which one is which? Let me bring her in. The lesson she did in my mind with Macaulay is a public relations consultant that has over nine years of combined professional experience in journalism, digital marketing and public relations. Now she works with African tech and startup companies to help uncover and bring their stories to life through PR, right? And she's joined us live in studio. Hello, blessing. Look amazing. So I mean, you've heard all the small banter that we had around the public relations and the conversation, right? So I'd like to just, you know, ask you, right? First of all, how important is public relations in any small business or any business at all? How important is it? Because again, especially with small businesses, I feel like, you know, when they are planning their business structure, they do not actually pay attention, you know, to PR. Because maybe they just feel like this is for the big guys. These are the ones that are supposed to be doing the PR, the marketing and all of that. How important is PR, especially to small businesses? First, I have to say thank you for having me here. And I think that I'm in good company. I mean, already, I feel great about being here because I mean, a lot of people that say that understand that public relations is important. And from what everyone has said, everybody has an understanding of the fact that public relations is important. And for small businesses, it is very important. Now, there's also the reality that they may not be able to afford it at the beginning of the business, but it is also very important to pay attention to it. And even if you can't afford this thing right now, I mean, if I want to buy a phone, I can't afford it right now. I have to make plans for it, right? So even if I can't pull out the money from my pockets immediately to pay for it, I want to ask one or two people, what do you think about the latest iPhone 14? Do you think I should use it? And I think that the same approach should also be brought into public relations. Of course, as a public relations consultant, I want you to pay me for my services. I don't want to speak my brains for free. But there's also the understanding that we have relationships and we can leverage relationships. So if I have a relationship with you or you have a relationship with me and you say, okay, I want to do this. What do you think? What would you advise? I can't afford to pay you right now. Then I could ask for ownership. Some part ownership. I'm kidding. But yeah. But what do you mention something very critical that she talked about? Crisis management. Because again, we're in tough times. Globally, right? I mean, see what's happening now in Turkey? Buildings just collapsing. There are things happening all over. And it's quite overwhelming, right? And you know, crisis management. I don't see us as, we don't do so well when it comes to like chaos, right? We're not, we're not, most businesses don't function well under chaos. They just want everything to be smooth because again, we'll give an example. I mean, we've had series of conversations with UTI on small businesses and how you do customer approach and all of that. You know, when there is maybe a bad product, for instance, that's crisis, right? It is not really so much of the fact that probably you deliver the bad product to me. That is the problem. Most of the time is the communication. It's how you, how you try to manage the situation, right? That just helps to just cut everything or mends it, right? So I mean, when it comes to like crisis management, right? What is the best approach, you know, when it comes to crisis management and PR and communicating at that point? What's the best approach? Okay, so unfortunately, lots of businesses have to suffer crisis and not just businesses. I mean, organizations in general, from private to public, everybody's, I mean, everybody's prone to a crisis. But step one is to know that there could be a crisis because nobody is, I mean, nobody's invisible. And when you know there could be a crisis, you have to make plans for it. So while you're making your communications plan, why you want to launch your product, why you want to be in the media, do you have a crisis communication plan in place? That's very important. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't have that. And because they don't, they don't have that. There's campring when a crisis comes and it's like, okay, let's just try something. Let's just try, let's try to make it work. If you're able to work with a professional from day one, there's a high chance that you will avoid the crisis. Or even if some crisis are unfortunately unavoidable, if you can't avoid the crisis, there's a plan in place for when a crisis happens to manage it. And that's, I mean, that's what it's about. So unfortunately, there's all of the chaos going on in the world right now. Some of it could have been better managed with a crisis communication plan. And often people know that there is a crisis coming. There's times that you know a crisis is coming. So let's take the Naira redesign, for instance. There's a deadline for Naira redesign. So unfortunately, people don't have enough. You know there's not enough to go around. I think that communication should have actually gone out. There's digital communication, there's newspaper communication. All of that stuff could have gone out to say we may go through this process. We may have to deal with this crisis because unfortunately, we do not have enough cash in the banks. So we will recommend that in this moment you begin to make use of transfers, electronic payments, options and all of that stuff. Well, I mean, I didn't see a lot of banks do that. And I have quite a number of bank accounts across. But I didn't see quite a, I didn't see a lot of them do that. Nobody sent you a message once it was, after anything happened? Yeah. It was after it became a crisis that it started saying, consider using electronic payment options and all of that. Imagine if you had just prepared. Yes. Sanzy, you wanted to ask. Well, for me, I feel like, yes, there is crisis management or being proactive or thinking ahead. But also sometimes I feel, and this is me thinking as just the average Nigerian because we're, our first example is like Nigerian businesses, right? I feel like it's, sometimes it could be this thing, lie to me and make me feel better, right? So it's like, think like, we're all going to drop, but don't worry, we're going to be okay. You know, that's kind of what I feel. So I remember a little while ago, I think that was last year, I was working in a corporate field. And so we're talking about this PR. And then someone raised up his hand and he said, no, they're like a bunch of liars. I'm sorry, Dave, this is what you said. This is your word, right? So how do you manage that mindset that a lot of Nigerians have about PR and what they're marketing? They just think that you guys are really beautiful liars because you know how to package nonsense and give it to us. I take an exception to that. We're not liars and we don't package beautiful nonsense. I mean, those are package beautiful nonsense would probably be the unprofessional ones, right? But if you meet me, public relations professional that knows their owners, that understands the ethics of the profession, the person is not willing to package nonsense. As a matter of fact, if the product is... I can see the product. I know that it's a problem. I know that if I don't ask you to fix that product, there's a crisis within for me in front. And I don't want you calling me up at midnight to say, oh, something is going on on the internet, you can't sleep or somebody ate our food. No, I don't want all of that. So if I see from the get-go that it's a problem and I mean there are lots of professional colleagues in the industry that also stand by this, if the product is not good, we don't want to be associated with it because we love our place. Because they will come for you. Yes, of course. I mean, you know how we can get. They're not just coming for you. They're not just coming for your profession. They're not coming for you as a professional. They're coming for your personal life. Your family, your children, your husband. You're more than your husband. And every other person in your profession. Now, if you're just doing things to stay with us, we're discussing PR and communication for business growth and meet tough times. And we have with us blessing Emmanuel McCauley. Now, please just hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 0-1-803-4663. So Alera, I'll come to you then. I'll come to Uti. So for me, the question that I have for you is, you know how I don't want us to focus on the bigger brands or the government or the banks. I want us to focus on small businesses for my question. You know how a lot of times, one of the most important things like you mentioned is to ensure that you have a PR communication specialist on your team, right? What is the major thing you would say a brand should consider when it comes to avoid a problem, you know, like a branding message or something that will happen eventually like a crisis? What is the most important aspect of PR that you would suggest that a small business should, you know, enforce? Sorry, you mentioned, you know, earlier, we're talking about like a product, a product was designed and in between, customers are using this product. There should be somebody in-house, probably check-in to ensure that, you know, that false doesn't come. So aside from products, when it comes to a brand in general, what is that major thing that you feel like, if you don't put this one in place, just expect that, you know, a problem will come at the end of the day that you might have to start putting out some messaging. Okay, so like we already said, the first thing is be sure that you have a good product or service, right? Good is, I mean, it has to be good. It has to meet the promise that you have given. If you say that the glass couple, when you drink what that promise, you feel like you're in heaven, it better meets that promise, right? That's the most important thing. So whatever you say you will give and sure to deliver it, and then when you're able to do that, every other thing begins to fall in place. Unfortunately, lots of businesses do not pay attention to that because like somebody mentioned, and I quite agree, a lot of small businesses just started on the basis of I need to just survive, I need to have to make money and all of that. And that's okay, right? But as you go along, you need to be able to talk at the heart of your audience. And there's also a chance that the product that you think is the best product in the world will solve all of the challenges, is not even solving the challenge. So you need to also go back to the drawing board, do some research, have conversations with your target audience, work with a communications professional to understand the target audience and understand what they want. Because as much as we are in the business of communication, our role is multifaceted. I like to say that we are your therapist, we are your lawyer, we are everything to you, right? Because we actually, we put our hearts into what we do because we know that when your brand looks good, we look good. So that's very important. So I would say focus on solving a problem and then delivering on your brand promise. And then once you're able to do that, things begin to fall into place. Okay, Uti, let me come to you. Okay, so I guess my question is around how, like I said earlier, how the space has evolved. And since we're talking about SMEs, I will assume that quite a few of them are unable to, potentially don't even know how to get in touch with a communications expert. And most likely they may not even be able to afford one. So how would SMEs be able to manage this space, given how much exposure they have today with social media? How would they be able to manage that space? What should they be looking out for and thinking of in terms of easy steps without the expert guidance of a consultant like yourself? Okay, so what should SMEs look out for? Easy steps, first of all, satisfy your customer. That is number one. And like you mentioned earlier, customer service is a very important role in the public relations scheme because I also like to say that your customer is your best public relations channel because if I have experienced good service I want to tell somebody else about it. So first of all, focus on satisfying your customer. And there's social media which is low cost and has low barrier to entry. So just get on social media, speak to your customers, actually engage your customers and show that you're able to connect to them with your brand. Listen to what they're saying. There's a chance that you're saying this is what it is and all of that fancy stuff and your customer is saying no, that's not what I'm experiencing. So listen and then of course take the lessons, tweak and bring something better back to them. There's also the place of email communication, periodic email newsletters with periodic email newsletters to keep your customers abreast of what's happening in your industry. We recently did this. This is what's going on in the industry. This is how it's affecting us and all of that stuff. We keep them abreast so that they know and they can be a part of what's going on. I would also say you shouldn't want to get it. Most importantly, as much as you cannot afford a professional in the beginning just try to have a conversation with somebody. So a communications professional I'm not saying anybody have a conversation with a communications professional to say this is what I'm starting. I can't afford you right now like I mentioned earlier. I can't afford you right now but what do you think I can do and that would definitely help so that when you can actually afford to get one to When you can afford to hire a communications professional then you go full swing at least you have the good foundation. So let me quickly go back to you as a professional in your years of experience and working with small businesses startups and techs like we read what has been the most common errors that you have observed among small businesses when it comes to the PR and communication what is the most common error that you see that maybe like seven businesses it was a repeated error that you needed to correct what do you think that would be? I would say it's with getting your messaging right so a number of people that go into business are and I don't want to say I mean this is not statistically based but a number of people go into business they have say they are creatives for instance I am a fashion designer and then they go into their business consistently creatives are also they always have many ideas I mean you are creative you can relate to what I am saying and because they always have so many ideas there is a chance that they want to push all of the ideas at once they want to talk about these and talk about that and all of that stuff and that is the main message unfortunately a lot of businesses have to deal with I have this message there is that side of me and I want to showcase everything at once no it's important to focus on one thing at a time focus, streamline let's focus on this let's get this done let's let people know that this is what your business is about in this moment so in the next five years there is going to be a different conversation you have probably taken a different route or you are adding something to it yes that's possible and when it's time to do that we can expand the message or even change the message or make adjustments to it as necessary but it's important to reduce your message into what is important in that moment and not just be all over the place sorry let me just add one more question so you know how there is a trend of things going on so for instance I listened to an audio radio advert this afternoon they were saying they tell her difference you know how things are trending do you advise that businesses go with the trend to boost their popularity because when I listened to that but I was just laughing because guys I was inviting to a town hall they don't want to say different I said ok me and now completed I mean so what do you advise there are trends going on Tiktok is always one trend or the other going on on Tiktok do you think that there is a fun way to pass your messaging to pass whatever it is that you are doing to communicate do you think it's fun for businesses to jump on trends when it's happening do you think that works my first question is always is this relevant to your business citizens you don't have to be everywhere you don't have to be you in fact you don't have to be on all social media platforms just stick with what's important to your business in the moment there's no new jumping on the town hall trend if it's not relevant yes we want to we want to trend we want to go viral we want the attention because we think that it will help improve sales and all of this but for what it is worth you could just be turning people off for what it is worth that trend may not even suit your target audience so focus my first question when I hear let's jump on this trend is is it relevant if it's not relevant to citizens okay go ahead ladies alright so I think I asked you a question earlier and you have just said that as a PR you shouldn't be everywhere but the very first question I asked is there is this thing about the line is getting blurred right so oftentimes you see like a PR person you don't know are you a copywriter again are you a data analyst are you a skit maker are you a social media manager which one are you but oftentimes you see most times you see them like handling all of that so does that does that take away from the office of the PR or is it like just one of those upgrades you have to go along with in like an inventory world so like I said earlier we wear many hats we are multifaceted and we are that because it's what our job requires from us right so everybody every public relations professional cannot do everything as a matter of fact of course you have your strength and it's important to know this is where my strength lies and when I need somebody else to do something that is not my strength I should just tap into the person's strength and let the person do it but it's also important that as a PR professional you have an idea of all of these things for instance you've mentioned data analysis, you've mentioned copywriting, we do a lot of writing you must know something little on everything but there of course there are the core that you must