The Public Relations Blog

Hourly billing models are outdated and underserve modern client relationships. Here’s why.

As a prospective client exploring public relations solutions, you may default to paying agencies via Reginald Heber Smith's long-prevailing hourly billing approach. Charging for time and materials once sufficed in purely labor-driven relationships, but this model is now antiquated. We must reconsider hourly billing, given modern clients' needs and partnership dynamics.

Both agencies distribute information to media outlets and the public, but they serve different purposes.

News wire services and press release distribution wires are both valuable tools for communicating with the media, but they serve distinct purposes.

Understanding common media terms in these four categories will help communications professionals demystify any newsroom or office.

Corporate communications professionals need familiarity with media terminology to perform their duties effectively on a daily basis. A glossary of common media terms, for example,  provides public relations practitioners with an invaluable reference to navigate the communications industry. 

The celebrity, industry legend, and prominent local all reveal the importance of branding.

Fame has many forms, from globally-known industry legends to niche, local celebrities. Some figures gain recognition through individual achievement, while others achieve prominence through association with existing icons. Throughout the spectrums of prominence and fame, the megastar and the prominent local both have influence on different audiences. 

While the pinnacle of superstardom may elude most, meticulous messaging and reputation management can help any individual or brand stand out and gain prominence. With the right strategy, even a locally prominent figure can command some influence. A strategic approach in branding and public relations is often the key to amplify visibility and progress from the obscure to the newsworthy. 

Keep your news contacts updated so your company can quickly earn media coverage.

A media list is a resource your company and PR team utilizes throughout a PR campaign to build relationships with contacts at specific outlets. A strategic media list will help the PR pro know who to share your company’s newsworthy information, such as the opening of a new location, new products, new hires, donations to nonprofits, and more. 

Effective newsjacking injects your ideas into a breaking news story to get media attention, but it requires careful execution.

Newsjacking is a technique media relations professionals and agencies use to hijack trending news stories, inserting their brand into the conversation. PR practitioners must stay current on trending news topics to quickly identify newsjacking opportunities. By injecting their brand’s unique, provocative, or contrarian views into breaking stories, they can earn media coverage and bring attention to their organization or clients. 

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust will boost your content marketing strategy.

Producing high-quality online content is a vital yet challenging part of content marketing. To cut through the competition of billions of web pages, use EEAT. The acronym stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness and acts as the set of criteria search engines use to evaluate content quality and usefulness.

Make sure your company is prepared when catastrophe strikes.

From a PR lens, the fires that devastated parts of Maui stand as a stark example of the public relations challenges natural disasters can pose. With record-breaking wildfires becoming more frequent, PR experts must analyze past disasters to identify communication gaps and empower future readiness.

Tracking and building domain authority scores can amplify the SEO impact of earned media coverage.

Domain authority is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. It's calculated based on an analysis of over 200 ranking factors, including the quantity and quality of links pointing to a domain. 

For public relations professionals, understanding and tracking domain authority is crucial in four key ways.

News releases focusing strictly on news value are more effective than press releases in today's media landscape.

In the world of public relations, there are two main types of releases organizations use to garner media attention: the press release and the news release. Though they may seem similar, news releases are more valued in today’s media landscape due to their higher news value and more journalistic style.

So what’s the difference?