The Public Relations Blog

Here's how to approach a PR firm and create a long-lasting, beneficial partnership.

Many companies would benefit from a real-life example of how to properly engage a PR firm. 

Most companies try to approach hiring a PR agency (or any creative or professional services firm) the same way they buy office supplies: in bulk. This technique gets a company a commodity PR agency. And then the company wonders why the relationship is cold, the ideas aren't creative, and the results are flat.

Our PR agency bills based on value and scope. We don’t recommend billing or paying by the word or by the hour.

Ever since Reginald Heber Smith invented hourly billing, many professional services firms – including some great law, accounting, engineering, architecture, and public relations firms – have billed hourly. Our firm is somewhat of an anomaly, as we don’t.

In fact, with all due respect to our professional service colleagues who do, we have personal and corporate ethical issues with hourly billing. And we are not alone in this opinion. While you might not share our belief, we’ll explain in this blog post our ethical concerns, why brevity is key, and why results ultimately matter more.

How you can properly vet a company before doing business with them

We were in the final in-person pitch with a prospective client. The client was a tech company that had developed a negative reputation online for its fast-paced growth because it had hurt some feelings along the way. While the company earned this reputation, the managers saw the errors of their ways and wanted to get a better handle on the company’s reputation after improving its operations and culture.

Learn the best methods of establishing relationships with media representatives

Email is a terrific way to pitch to journalists. Most people use this tool to communicate – it saves time and it’s efficient. So how can you ensure that media representatives open your email pitch instead of instantly deleting it? While there’s no definitive answer, you can increase your chances of connecting with journalists if you follow these do’s and don’ts in your emails:

Bring more customers to your company with a better reputation

Warren Buffett said it best:

A company’s reputation is one of its most important tools online – every website has ratings and feedback sections. Obviously, too many “1-star” reviews on a giant online retailer like Amazon can doom a product. It’s important to remember that while there are many indicators of online reputation, one of the most important consumer indicators may be the Better Business Bureau (BBB). 

Your company won a prestigious award. Why isn’t it making the news? The news business is a highly competitive industry. Awards are often not as newsworthy as you think and wish they were. Most media outlets consider awards to be fluff. And if it’s an annual award, it’s tired, they say. And when the award is issued by a competing media outlet, the media acts like a jealous lover.

Use this checklist to make sure you’re optimizing your relationship with your PR firm

Here are fifteen mistakes your company might be making when hiring a public relations firm:

Why It Happens:

3 ways your company can deal with internet trolls in 2017 and beyond

Earlier this month, fast-food chain Wendy’s earned numerous headlines because its social media team challenged a heckler on the Twitter playground. Upworthy writer Parker Molloy captured the entire exchange before Wendy’s deleted its comments and the critic, @NHRide (aka Thuggy-D), deleted his Twitter account. It went like this:

You see it every year: news stories about people camping out early to be the first recipients of Black Friday shopping deals.

It may surprise you to learn that some of these people are decoys, paid by stores or manufacturers to generate buzz for their products.

This is a public relations and marketing tactic that companies have used for years, and is it right for your company? Is it a scam?