It’s said that a crisis brings out the best and worst in us — and in our leaders. In the three long weeks since the Coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, Americans have experienced a crazy-quilt of messages from leadership at federal, state, and local governments. There are leadership communications lessons about crisis management in…
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It’s a tough time for business leaders. The rapid rise of public health warnings about COVID-19 and the ripple effects of the pandemic and our coping strategies pose a particular challenge for any organization, especially its communicators. The news cycle is dominated by the spread of the coronavirus and its repercussions. The effect on employee…
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As a PR person, I’ve always been fascinated by the complicated psychology of whistleblowing. Lately it seems particularly relevant. Tom Mueller, who interviewed over 200 corporate whistleblowers for his book Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud, proclaims this “the age of the whistleblower.” Look at Theranos – the health tech unicorn that…
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As every politics fan knows, the Iowa caucuses mark the official start of voting in a given election year. Because of its first-in-the-nation status and a quaint, complicated caucus system (or maybe in spite of it), Iowa has an outsize impact on news and social media coverage. Newspapers camp out there, journalists embed with campaigns,…
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For a PR agency, what’s better than winning a new client? Keeping the ones you have. Naturally, any good PR firm wants to do both. But it costs a lot more to find a new client than to keep (and grow) current ones. Research by Bain & Company shows that boosting customer retention rates by…
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For most experts in public relations, it’s easy to identify episodes where companies or individuals made mistakes, often making a bad situation worse. But what about the successes? Those are harder to assess. They may be about the brand that punches above its weight, one that makes a comeback against the odds, or even the…
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Who had the worst PR of 2019? Yes, it’s that time of year when we evaluate the mistakes, stumbles and train wrecks of public reputation over the past 12 months. There’s lots to choose from, including fresh blunders by the usual suspects like Uber and Facebook. But for this post we’re focusing on truly terrible…
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DTC luggage company Away replaced Steph Korey as CEO just days after a PR trainwreck of an article by The Verge exposed its punitive work culture. Korey will be kicked upstairs to take an Executive Chairman post and former Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden will step into her old position. To be clear, Haselden’s hire must…
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We seem to be in a crisis of confidence. Public faith in many institutions – organized religion, Congress, and the news media — has eroded over four decades. According to Gallup, only the U.S. military has enjoyed a fairly consistent upswing in public confidence since the 1970s. The change seems particularly acute lately in our…
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The Thanksgiving holiday always requires advance preparation, but this year, we’re adding expert PR and media training advice to the list. With wall-to-wall press coverage of impeachment hearings and the runup to the 2020 election, it’s a tricky time for families who disagree about political issues and candidates. Here are some follow-ups to last year’s…
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FedEx CEO Fred Smith’s overheated response to a New York Times story about its tax bill – or lack of it – offers a PR master class in how not to react to an investigative piece. The NYT story packs a punch. By taking advantage of the 2017 tax legislation that cuts corporate rates from…
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To promote professional expertise and build visibility, it helps to be a media resource – that’s what keeps PR agencies in business. It’s also why it hurts when, after investing in researching and shaping a potential story, an interview doesn’t make its way past the initial phone call. How can subject-matter experts maximize their chances…
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In general, startups make great PR clients — especially those with a story to tell. A high-growth tech company with financing behind it is in a perfect position to make the most of a public relations agency partnership. For the PR team, it’s rewarding because PR is typically a top priority, and the work is…
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A great PR campaign will obviously build brand visibility. But can it help where it really counts — customer acquisition? Can you draw a line from a PR program to a specific number of prospects generated? What about conversions from website visits, or deals influenced by credible articles or analyst reports? Does good PR create…
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The lifeblood of any startup is new customers. Whether it’s a B2C company that needs a high volume of sales or a B2B with a slower selling cycle, every high-growth business invests heavily in customer acquisition. Many businesses use a mix of email marketing, paid search, SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing to create…
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Most PR pros know that throwing facts and figures at a business audience won’t necessarily win them over. A great story, on the other hand, is more persuasive and more memorable. At a time when we have more data than we can possibly use and people connect on social platforms, storytelling is an ideal tool…
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In business as in life, reputation is everything. Few corporate CEOs will deny that a company’s reputation colors every aspect of business, including marketing, talent recruitment, employee relations, shareholder relations, and even customer experience. In fact, the 2017 U.S. Reputation Dividend Report calls reputation a “cornerstone of corporate value” and quantifies the dividend that corporations…
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It’s fascinating when a company’s public relations gets ahead of its reality. Any strategic PR or marketing plan should emphasize an organization’s strengths and rebut weaknesses and threats, but there’s such a thing as too much hype. This is particularly true in the tech sector. Case in point: WeWork. The Gizmodo headline, “WeWork To Delay…
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When is a boycott more than just PR? What makes it work? Recent reports of a slowdown in SoulCycle’s business made me wonder about the staying power of customer boycotts. Why do most fade while others gain traction and even force change? If you missed it, famous SoulCycle fans were outraged when billionaire Stephen Ross,…
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We’re hearing a lot about how automation and machine learning can make our lives easier, as well as how they may threaten our livelihoods in the future. Even in PR, an occupation that’s known as hard to scale and relatively labor-intensive, there are new opportunities to automate large parts of what we do. Entrepreneur and…
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The recent move by the Business Roundtable to redefine corporate priorities by emphasizing value beyond shareholder profits is the latest indicator that corporate reputation’s importance is on the rise. The statement supporting “stakeholder value” is also a good sign for public relations professionals who preach corporate responsibility or even strategic activism in U.S. corporate boardrooms….
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It’s always instructive when PR teams entrusted with managing the reputations of major corporations run into reputation problems of their own. But it’s downright disturbing when it happens to one that presumes to lead our industry. Mega-agency Edelman recently made waves by resigning a lucrative engagement working with for-profit corrections company The GEO Group, a…
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As the influence of digital and social media has soared, PR agencies who focus primarily on earned media (once known as publicity) are often warned that they’re falling behind. There are regular calls for PR services to include paid media and other offerings. Many firms like to brag about how little they depend on earned…
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The past five years or so have seen drastic changes in the media and cultural landscape that impact PR and marketing. Challenges for PR practitioners include a faster-than-ever news cycle and what seems like constant political and cultural controversy. Combine that with an erosion of faith in government and private institutions, and it can make…
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As the national holiday approaches, it’s a fitting time to consider the importance of independence in the world of PR agencies. For years, advertising and PR firms have touted their “independent” status. But what does that really mean? One thing might be faster growth. In our industry independent agencies have grown at a brisk clip…
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Public relations teams and their agencies routinely urge leaders to build a public profile through social media and high-level content. But when should the CEO of a major company serve as its public spokesperson? How should a public role align with an organization’s business goals? Research by Chief Executive magazine and the USC Annenberg Center…
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“Strategy” is an overused word, but in public relations or marketing, it’s a key to success. Without the right PR strategy, a program can fall short or even fail spectacularly. Casual observers of the many ways PR generates earned media, like jumping on a breaking story, might conclude that planning isn’t a priority. Some PR…
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A high-impact PR program can be a technology company’s greatest asset – provided it’s well conceived and skillfully executed. In today’s frothy tech market, where the venture dollars are flowing and 32 new unicorns were created last year, PR can be a strategic weapon. Good will and strong community relations are also in demand as…
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In today’s fragmented media environment, the scarcest commodity for any marketing or PR pro is customer attention. That’s why engaging users and relationship marketing is so fascinating – and so elusive. Too many brands have outsourced their customer relationships to influencers like celebrities for hire. Influencers are effective, but how much more powerful are real,…
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In public relations, there are many career path possibilities, but most fall into either the agency side or the client side. This is the time of year when I get questions from new graduates about which path makes the most sense for an aspiring PR professional. But the question isn’t just for PR beginners. Many…
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