The Public Relations Blog

Learn how you can keep employees engaged and create a positive workplace culture with our guest Richard Hadden.

Guest:

Our episode guest is Richard Hadden. Richard is an author, speaker, and workplace expert who helps leaders connect people practices with profit performance.

Topic: 

The one with Richard Hadden on what changes you can make to better engage employees.

Use our step-by-step guide for measuring public relations the right way.

Before you can meaningfully explore PR measurement, you have to account for research, planning, and implementation. Research and planning will help you identify the end results, and then you can work backward from the desired results.

Too often, executives and public relations pros want to measure PR without establishing a research baseline.

Under research, planning, and implementation, you have objectives, inputs, and activities. And under measurement, you have outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and impacts. Although most public relations professionals at PR firms and in-house PR staff tend to focus on measuring activities and outputs, efficient and effective measurement goes well beyond measuring activities and outputs.

Let’s start at the beginning. A good framework for measuring public relations and corporate communications begins with objectives. 

Why you need a PR expert on your team

Having someone on your team that knows PR can make the difference in your brand’s success. Brand awareness, crisis management, social media, and audience analytics are all areas that a PR professional should be knowledgeable in.

If used correctly, companies can implement pranks to increase engagement

As public relations and communication professionals, our job is to create connections with our audiences, especially during holidays. April Fools’ Day is a perfect example of a holiday that many companies use to attract more attention and engagement to their brand. 

Relatable content makes for great PR and can help to elevate a company’s image. Here are a few examples of companies using April Fools’ Day to their advantage: 

A look into what not to do 

We’ve all seen harmless company April Fools’ Day pranks that went well. But what about the ones that caused a PR nightmare?

Learn why you should put your PR efforts before advertising when building your brand with our guest, Laura Ries.

Guest: 

Our episode guest is Laura Ries, president at Ries & Ries. Laura is a branding guru and the bestselling author of “The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR.”

Topic: 

The one with Laura Ries on how brands are built with PR and maintained with advertising.

As marketers and public relations pros, we’ve likely all wanted to have an amazing April Fools’ Day prank as a fun way to bring attention to our brand.

In the right circumstances, April Fools’ Day pranks can make for great PR.

In the wrong circumstances, April Fools’ Day pranks can make for really bad PR.

Even the least experienced PR professionals know, as with any joke, there are many potential April Fools’ Day pitfalls to consider. Avoiding backlash should be a top priority.

When a company hires a PR agency, it will get consistent quality and measurable outcomes when our processes are followed. Having the processes is the first step. Getting buy-ins from the team and having the processes followed is the bigger challenge.

Know how to best share your company’s message

Earned media coverage is built awareness about your company through efforts like media relations (connecting with reporters), blogger relations, influencers, and word-of-mouth. It’s counterpart is paid media, which is advertisements that you or your company creates or pays for about itself. We have many clients ask us the difference between earned and paid media, and in the same breath, they also ask us to create a press release to earn media coverage.

Learn how the decay of civil public discourse is hurting our democracy with our guest, Anthony D’Angelo.

Topic: 

The one with Anthony D’Angelo on what you can be doing to combat incivility in public discourse.