The Public Relations Blog

Make PR and positive news your secret weapons to move ahead of the competition

Most companies know that positive media coverage can help with promotion and increased visibility. What you may not know is that media coverage can also improve your online reputation.

With the popularity of online shopping and social media, the first interaction customers are likely to have with your company will be online. Therefore, it is vital to have a stellar online reputation, and PR, along with positive news coverage, can help.

Protect and improve yours with the Axia PR reputation management e-book

For everything you do in business, reputation matters. Sometimes it precedes you, other times it follows you – but it’s always there. It’s up to you to give it form and control its direction. You can learn to do this with Axia PR’s Online Reputation Managemente-book.

All it takes is one careless comment on social media or a few negative reviews to damage the good reputation it took you years to build. However, by learning to manage your online reputation, these incidents don’t have to spell disaster for your company.

Learn the difference and let PR show you how to control both for increased profits

Would you let your accountant or HR officer run amok with no oversight or direction from you? Of course not, but that’s exactly what many companies do when it comes to their online presences.

Some believe that as long as they have search engine optimization covered, they’re fine. They use the right targeted keywords numerous times and customers will be able to find them, so that’s it. However, how consumers find you is not as important as what they see when they do. It is vital to control the information about your company on the Internet. This is called online reputation management, and having professional PR help in this area is essential.

You’ve rolled out a new flagship product. You’ve worked hard at research and development, marketing and promotions. You were ready. You thought your customers were ready.

And then … it flops, and lots of people are talking about it. What can you do from a PR perspective to preserve your brand reputation or change the conversation? Maybe your idea didn’t scratch up to all you’d envisioned for it, or maybe it was just ahead of its time. Read on for valuable ideas to help boost your results, either way.

Plus: Ways you can help now through 6 green priorities

According to research conducted by Protiviti and North Carolina State University’s ERM Initiative in a recent report entitled “Executive Perspectives on Top Risks for 2014” (pg. 5), there are eight top strategic risks for 2014:

Who is visiting the school of PR hard knocks? OfficeMax

They know who we are. They know what we like. They know what we watch, and where we shop. (The companies we buy from, that is). That data in and of itself is be very useful for both companies and consumers. However, OfficeMax’s recent PR blunder demonstrates important lessons in the challenge of maintaining quality control with data, and shows how not to deal with a PR crisis in your organization concerning data.

Even ultra-clever commercials with catchy drum beats can’t distract millions of consumers from wondering, at least a little, if they can still shop safely at Target.

It seems like there isn’t a direction you can turn when it comes to the NFL where you won’t hear about the Washington Redskins and the calls to change the team’s name. The situation has now worsened due to a controversial sign at Sonic, a major fast-food company, that called for the Kansas City Chiefs to “scalp the Redskins” and “send them to a reservation.”