Sherron Washington
Public Relations, Social PR Secrets

71: How Should Businesses Respond to Current Events by Sherron Washington

How can brands pick the right social media platforms for their strategies? Why is language so important in marketing? How should businesses respond to current events? Sherron Washington, author of the new book The Oops Moment: Eliminating Marketing Mistakes, Mishaps and Missteps shares her expertise on timely PR and marketing issues, as well as self-care tips.

In this new episode of Social PR Secrets, host Lisa Buyer sits down with Sherron Washington, Founder and CEO of P3 Solutions, her marcomm consulting company. Sherron has recently launched a new social media campaign, #YourWorthIsValued, as a way to shed light on the individuality and qualities of Black men. She says the campaign aims at doing so both inside and outside the community, through the kind of visibility only social media can allow. 

Lisa and Sherron also discuss the state of mass media and journalism. Sherron believes that the media should be treated as the business it is. According to her, we should, as a society hold ourselves accountable for pressuring news outlets into sharing so much negative information. 

When asked about her pet peeves words in marketing, Sherron had a surprising answer. She uses words that are usually considered no-gos, such as great and amazing but never on their own. Instead, she explains those adjectives in relation to the content, while still using them as ways to easily reach people. 

Sherron’s Social PR Secret: Master a Few Social Media Platforms

When it comes to which social media platform brands should master, Sherron advises to choose only a few platforms to post daily on. She emphasizes that businesses don’t have to deal with every platform to dominate, especially because social media is so saturated. Her chosen ones are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram because they allow for better connection-building, unlike Twitter.

On how brands should react to current events such as Black Lives Matter, Sherron says that they should not only be paying attention to trends but also to what matters to their customers. She says businesses shouldn’t be trying to forecast what will matter in a few months but instead listen to what their audience believes is important in the moment. 

Sherron explains that, these past few months, brands have been making two main mistakes. They have been posting too much content and text and have been too quick to move to video, without being strategic enough about it. Lisa adds that, in 2020, everyone has been more forgiving so now is a good time to experiment with PR and Marketing. 

How to get through extended quarantine? How to get the most out of working from home? Sherron shares how she reduced stress and stayed healthy during quarantine. She also explains why being in the moment is one of the most important lessons 2020 has brought, both as an individual and a professional.

“Every moment is an opportunity to begin again, you don’t have to wait until tomorrow.” – Sherron Washington 

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

  • The importance of Facebook
  • Mistakes brands make
  • Fake news
  • Entrepreneurship in marketing

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