The Public Relations Blog

A gifted spokesperson improves your image and grows your brand

Your spokesperson becomes the voice of your company as he or she shares your story with your target audience. It’s critical that you select someone who understands how to convey your message to the media, especially during a crisis. Here are four ways a great spokesperson benefits your company.

Use these PR tips to get back on track

Many executives shy away from any type of public speaking task due to fear of humiliation or embarrassment. However, if you avoid speaking in public, you do a disservice to your company, and you miss out on important opportunities for increased visibility and engagement with vital audiences. With tips and training from public relations, you can learn to correct mistakes or avoid them altogether.

4 tips for choosing the right person to represent your company

Identifying the right spokesperson for your brand is very important. When your company has special events, announcements or even a crisis, who should represent you? What are the qualifications you should be looking for in the individual who will be the face of your company?  

Why reading from notecards is not in your best interest

Anyone who has made a presentation or spoken in front of a large group knows how nerve-wracking it can be. So, wouldn’t it make sense to prepare notecards before your speech to be certain it goes smoothly? In a word, no.

Media training can be as involved as a daylong session with public relations professionals including everything from mock interviews to critiques. This is ideal for someone who has little to no experience speaking with the media. But media training can also be as simple as a quick meeting or call with the public relations team to discuss interview purpose as well as anticipated questions and responses.

How to find the right spokesperson without compromising the ethical standards of your company

One important decision your company will make is choosing who will serve as its spokesperson. Selecting the right spokesperson to represent your business isn’t easy. This person has to satisfy many professional and personal requirements to be the right fit for your company. On top of having high professional standards, your chosen candidate should comply with ethical standards. Here are four principles of ethics that every spokesperson should follow.

5 situations when you may not want your CEO to be your spokesperson

Steve Jobs said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.” This begs the question of whether your CEO must always handle spokesperson duties. No one has more influence on what happens at your organization than the CEO. However, does that mean no one else can speak on your company’s behalf? When you learn more about the importance of the spokesperson role, you can better decide who it should be.

Can an outsider represent your company?

Finding the right person to represent your company is not easy. Often, small-business owners can’t afford to have a spokesperson on their staff; so when an event or crisis occurs that requires a company spokesperson, they need to hire someone who can temporarily fulfill that important role. What attributes should you be looking for in your temporary spokesperson?

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.

Know the difference between these two roles and the services they provide

There are plenty of professionals, in and outside the field of communications, who utilize both spokespeople and spokesmodels – but don’t recognize how different one is from the other. As more celebrities have evolved into lucrative business people, the definitions of spokesperson and spokesmodel have blurred, yet they each serve distinct roles.