The Public Relations Blog

Keep media contact professional. Handsy PR guy shows you how not to do media relations

As a public relations professional, your job is finely tuned to working with others, which necessitates that you understand the rules of personal space, body language and other communication elements. Even so, those without experience jump into PR jobs believing if they can write a news release, they can do the job well. The lack of true understanding of public relations, however, can lead to faux pas or worse.

5 ways to create key messages for your company

Key messages create a narrative for your company, which crystallizes business information, stimulates calls to action and solidifies public opinion. Put forth in easily digested sound bites, key messages articulate business differentiation, value proposition and, in their totality, are the very essence of your business.

5 ways to be sure improper media relations doesn’t hurt your business

Practicing media relations isn’t for the faint of heart. Public relations professionals learn from experience – through networking and building relationships – the optimal way to earn the trust of reporters and editors. Too often though, a business has its employees reach out to the media and the results are unsuccessful and sometimes detrimental.

Be sure your spokesperson is ready for the tough questions

If you lack spokesperson training, an interview with the media can be daunting. It’s not easy to maintain your composure when you’re standing in front of a bank of microphones with camera lenses pointed directly at your nostrils.

A critical public relations skill is optimally negotiating media interviews. Most PR firms offer a form of spokesperson training or coaching to clue in company spokespeople about the finer elements, one of which is how to properly set the tone for media interaction – whether amid crises or simply run-of-the-mill product launches.  

Even extraordinary PR can’t save a poorly produced product

Vince McMahon and Duncan “Dick” Ebersol, two respected heavyweights in the promotion and media worlds, set out to change the course of history when they launched the XFL. What they didn’t know at the onset is that if your product isn’t as good as your publicity, you will not succeed.

3 reasons executives should engage on social media

Juggling the demands of big business, speaking engagements, board meetings and global sales calls, CEOs are some of the most sought after yet hard to pin down human beings. These elusive individuals are inundated with requests for “five minutes” from media, customers, vendors, clients and even their own families. How can a CEO be in 100 places at once while giving thousands of people attention at the same time? The answer is to leverage technology, particularly social media. Social media represents a powerful, scalable and efficient means to doing it all.

If you see smoke, there is most definitely fire

With access to breaking news at any time day or night, you may find yourself uncertain whether what you see on your Twitter or Facebook feed is, in fact, news.

4 ways to protect your company’s online image

If negative or unfounded reviews or comments from consumers or former employees have marred your company’s reputation, the uphill battle of refuting them is both costly and time-consuming, with little hope of remedy. Hiring defamation lawyers or public relations professionals to repair damaged credibility takes time, and on the internet, information can still remain, especially when review sites or search engine behemoths don’t agree to removal.

3 ways you can combat fake news about your company

For those who studied journalism, the fake news phenomenon likely guts you like a knife. Our centuries-old career remains governed by a code of ethics, yet is regularly called into question in an era when anyone with internet access can call themselves journalists and appear semi-legitimate.

Fake news isn’t creatively disseminated or opinion-rich news; it is fraudulently created, completely false and non-fact-based information presented as news.

3 ways to help your clients prevent the spread of misinformation

In his farewell speech in Chicago, President Barack Obama mentioned the fake news phenomenon as a threat to democracy. “Increasingly,” he said, “we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there.”