Public relations is about reputation management - obtaining a good reputation and keeping it so customers will find you and use your products. PR does indeed mean relationships together with your publics.Who are "your publics" anyway? Well, it's not just the public. A small business advantages from good relationships with board and workers, distributors, service providers, potential prospects, present and past customers, businesses in close proximity to your office, businesses within an allied field, other business folks who can steer customers for you, resources of capital perhaps, and the media.Strategies and TacticsPr strategies and tactics - like commemorating your company's 25th anniversary or donating your staff members' time to tidy up and plant shrubs in a pocket park in a blighted urban neighborhood - should be an integral part of your overall, ongoing online marketing strategy.Garnering good coverage by the media conveys credibility or endorsement. Therefore, an article about your organization is remembered by readers more than an ad.With today's diverse and fragmented media venues, it's difficult to learn where you can send your news - or, frankly, think about you may well be newsworthy. Generally, it's hard to convince busy media of the news headlines worthiness of your story.Haven't any real news right now? Consider informing reporters and editors about your expertise in your field - position yourself as a resource to be quoted - best timed in connection with hot national news or perhaps a new trend. For instance, my wedding planner client didn't have any particular news, but upon learning from her that lots of folks get engaged at ROMANTIC DAYS CELEBRATION, I called area newspapers using that nugget and offering her up as a local expert. The effort led to an interview of her by her area newspaper!Writing and submitting articles for publication is a strategy that elevates your reputation and could enable you to get business. For my clients who've written articles, I have placed these in national and regional magazines. Being published, furthermore, gave the writer additional online presence because the articles are "found" by Web se's.Face-to-face networking is an important public relations strategy widely employed but not necessarily effectively by way of a lot of people. In fact, many folks are uncomfortable meeting new people. One method to overcome the anxiety and maximize the business networking opportunity is to plan to employ listening skills and consider how to be of value to each person with whom you shake hands and exchange business cards. Giving gets!You cannot physically appear everywhere. Nevertheless, you can virtually "be" everywhere. The advent of Blogging platforms 2.0 has presented marketing and PR folks with new challenges in addition to opportunities to reach a wider audience and receive comments and opinions. PR and marketing professionals alike get their company's or client's messages across via online resources such as ezines, presentations on YouTube or the firm's intranet, social and business networking sites, podcasts, webinars, RSS feeds, and other tactics.10 TacticsThere are many avenues a possible client may travel before contacting you, so consider integrating these 10 tactics into the PR/Marketing mix:1. actively network face to face,2. have a specialist online presence3. use examples and testimonials to illustrate your worth;4. help a charity and share that news,5. host or sponsor a particular event,6. optimize your web site for search,7. make presentations about your industry,8. post a video of your presentation on your internet site and YouTube,9. produce a "give away" item carrying your logo and phone number.10. Keep in contact periodically with your customers past and present as well as your business alliesGet Professional HelpUnless you have the methods to employ a pr professional, it's not hard to find talent to activate for projects. Ask your business network or check with the neighborhood chapter of Public Relations Society of America (www.prsa-ncc.org) or the Independent PR Alliance (www.ipra.org [1]).Suzanne T. Fulton can be an independent pr consultant located in Northern Virginia. Contact Sfulton@SoaringsPR.com or call 703-328-8578 or visit [2]