The Public Relations Blog

Use PR to avoid, endure and outlast whatever trouble strikes your company

A public relations crisis can happen to any company of any size at any time. Sometimes, they happen quickly, like the scandalous retirement of the CEO or inappropriate comments made by a top executive. Others develop slowly, like disgruntled employees whose behavior eventually begins to affect customer service.

It’s been quite a busy summer for Disney. With a fair share of controversy, it’s safe to say Disney’s public relations team has been working hard all summer long. If you’re not familiar with the headlines, here’s what’s been going on at Disney in 2017 and three PR lessons you can learn from Mickey and crew, along with their competitor.

3 ways to ensure your company receives fair treatment in the media

In the last several months, news programs and media pundits alike have attempted to unravel the meaning behind President Donald J. Trump’s tweets. When this effort falls short, President Trump’s spokespeople regularly opine that the media has an obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter – and little of what he does as president.

What your company can learn from Oscar’s biggest goof

It was the moment everyone was waiting for: the announcement of this year’s best film, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

And then the presenters called the wrong name.

And how your company can too

Your competitor hits a crisis and is facing bad headlines. Good news for you, right? Not necessarily. If you’re going to capitalize, you need a public relations plan and you need one NOW.  A public relations firm that has seen it all can act quickly to help. In this case, McDonald’s hit headlines for all the wrong reasons. When an Arizona mom began swab-testing McDonald’s play areas and finding dangerous pathogens, the fast-food giant banned her from its restaurants. Let’s look at McDonald’s mistakes and how Chuck E. Cheese’s acted smart and fast to take advantage of the crisis.

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.

Sometimes it’s what you don’t do that matters

Business icon Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” With that in mind, Axia Public Relations once again brings you the top avoidable PR goofs of the year. Let’s hope no one repeats the errors of 2016 next year.

No matter how bad your year was, hopefully, you can take comfort in the fact that you didn’t suffer a reputation-destroying PR goof. Here are five PR mistakes you can avoid making in the future.

3 ways Macy’s effectively handled its Black Friday virtual traffic jam

According to data collected by Adobe Digital Insights, Black Friday sales hit a record $3.34 billion in e-commerce. This marked the first time sales surpassed $3 billion. Successful companies know they must provide an optimum online shopping experience for consumers (75 percent of worldwide shoppers will abandon a company’s site if it’s buggy, slow or prone to crashes) and that includes preparing months in advance for the busiest shopping days of the year.

Learn from slip-ups, pick up the pieces, and move on with help from PR.

In the midst of a crisis, your CEO says something insensitive. During a media interview, a top executive mistakenly talks about a project you weren’t ready to discuss yet. Mistakes by a company spokesperson happen all the time. It’s how you handle them that defines your company and makes the difference between a minor error and a major mess.

To inform the public about your company, you must put yourself out there. The more you do, the bigger the potential for missteps. Learn these public relations tips and techniques to decrease the chances of a mistake happening to your company.

Valuable PR lessons from Starbucks that you can apply to your own crisis management strategy

Starbucks is no stranger to controversy, and this week’s release of a new coffee cup that the industry titan hoped would celebrate community stirred up some more.