It’s inspiring to meet newly minted public relations or communications grads looking to crack that first job in their chosen field. And though the first break is rarely easy, for anyone set on a career in PR there are likely to be forks in the road at the beginning of the career journey. I often…
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Some PR agencies fall into a trap of chasing only only large, brand-name clients. This is in part because like attracts like; large brands can bring more of the same, they reason. A PR firm may also think that doing media relations for well known brands can be easier than work for unknowns, because journalists…
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What’s the cost of a brand crisis? As video of United Airlines passenger Dr. David Dao being violently dragged from his seat went viral last month, the media – and a global audience of prospective customers – were shocked. It may not have hurt the airline’s stock price in the long term, but CEO Oscar…
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Some say the goal of a great public relations program should be to build brand reputation, while sales and marketing actually drive sales. The reality is that the lines between PR and marketing are getting blurrier all the time. The two can and should work together – much like brick and mortar. A strong public…
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A few years ago I dropped in on a client’s booth at an industry conference, and the company CEO introduced me – the founder of his company’s public relations agency – as the “publicist.” Who, me, a publicist? What he didn’t realize was that for some PR people, the term is faintly pejorative. It implies…
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At least one company learned something about PR and reputation from the United Airlines fiasco earlier this month. Over the weekend, Twitter and Facebook lit up with smartphone videos of a fresh instance of passenger distress on an airplane. This time it was a scuffle between an American Airlines flight attendant and a passenger who…
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Not long ago, a chief executive could lead a business, even a large one, fairly quietly, leaving public relations and social media management to the corporate communications team. The CEO job was mainly to deliver a strong financial performance. Today, things are different. A capable business leader is expected to also serve as a brand…
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The public relations team at United had probably just started to breathe easy after the infamous “leggings” crisis when a second PR disaster hit. And this one’s a doozy. Late Sunday, a United passenger who refused to give up his seat on an overbooked flight was forcibly removed from the plane by police, to the…
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Brand Pepsi fell flat this week with its bafflingly tone-deaf ad featuring Kendall Jenner, but in the wake of a public relations backlash, the brand did at least one thing right. After Twitter lit up with nasty tweets and late-night comics poured on scorn, Pepsi reacted quickly. Its response was so simple, sensible, and honest…
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Can influencer marketing work for B2B brands? PR programs with influencer tactics evoke emerging YouTubers or glitzy Kardashian-type personalities, but influencer marketing works in B2B public relations, too. The names may not be as glamorous, but the impact is real. Here’s why. Most B2B companies operate in a competitive category characterized by a long selling…
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Mistakes in PR planning or execution are costly, particularly when you consider the typical investment in a top public relations agency. But errors aren’t always predictable, which is one reason why PR is both endlessly fascinating and frustrating as a career. Years of experience have taught us that when a program isn’t working, there’s a…
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Most companies hire PR agencies to help them get out positive news. But what happens when the juiciest stories about a business aren’t flattering? What, if anything, can a PR or corporate communications expert do to turn things around? Consider Uber’s rough ride of late. First, a video of founder Travis Kalanick arguing with a…
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In today’s volatile media and social environment, good PR comes at a premium and brand reputation is fragile. Look at Trump’s dressing down of Nordstrom, or the controversy Uber runs into just about every time Travis Kalanick does anything. (More on that later.) Some argue that presidential tweets might actually be good for business, even…
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Has public relations finally won the respect of journalists? Sure, PRs and media work together, and we need each other. But the relationship between “flacks and hacks” is an odd and uneasy symbiosis. That’s why a recent piece in the Columbia Journalism Review about PR professionals and the war between our 45th president and the…
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Does a startup business always need to hire a PR agency? There’s no shortage of advice on the question, and much of it is contradictory. Mark Cuban famously advised young companies not to bring on an external PR firm, reasoning that an entrepreneur is the best person to handle media contact. I’m a Cuban fan…
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A couple of weeks ago, I was called by two journalists wanting public relations insights on companies hit with blowback for comments about our new president. Should brands get political, they wanted to know? I shared my perspective that brands shouldn’t always shy away from controversy, summarizing with, “You can’t put your head in a hole,…
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As journalists grapple with “alternative facts” and the Trump administration’s war on the media, some professional public relations people are putting ourselves in the shoes of those who act as spokespersons for the new president. Those shoes are pretty uncomfortable. As the Trump and the media squared off, I was struck by a provocative post…
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Good customer service and good public relations have never been more aligned. One of the quickest ways to understand an organization’s reputation is to look at its response to a consumer complaint. A company can spend millions on a brand reputation campaign, use high-powered PR agencies, and reap the benefits of CEO thought leadership, but…
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Donald Trump gave his first press conference as President-Elect yesterday. Reactions to the presser may vary with the political views of the observer, but most professional PR people would probably say it did not go well. Overall, the transition team seems to be stuck in campaign mode. The briefing was staged more like a mini-rally…
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Like any other business discipline, public relations has changed in recent years. The Global Communications Report, a comprehensive worldwide survey of more than 1,000 senior PR executives worldwide, reveals that the worldwide PR industry is predicted to grow from its current estimated size of $14 billion to $19.3 billion over the next five years. According to…
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2016 had plenty of the kind of the kinds of news-making crises that public relations people dread. It was a year of surprises, setbacks, and scandals. Here’s our list for the top stories that damaged brand reputations, wrecked careers, and kept media and PRs working overtime. Samsung’s product recall gets heated Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 showed…
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Some PR pros consider Donald Trump a master of public relations. The $2 billion worth of media coverage his campaign earned helped him stand out in a crowded GOP field and win his party’s nomination. And one of Trump’s standout skills is his facility with Twitter insults. No one is immune to the POETUS Twitter…
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For anyone building a career in public relations, there’s no better environment than a PR agency. If you wind up in a specific sector, like technology or healthcare, an agency of any size is a solid starting point. If your work takes you on a corporate or nonprofit path, the broad experience gained at a…
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Like many in PR, advertising, and journalism, I was relieved when Google and Facebook announced they would ban “fake news” sites from using use their ad services. By attacking the advertising model that supports sites like World News Daily Report and NewsBuzzDaily, they might help slow the viral spread of false, defamatory, and even dangerous…
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For any brand or business looking to bring on a PR agency, the cost of a quality public relations program is a key factor in the decision. Yet for the uninitiated, the different ways agencies budget and bill can be opaque, to say the least. That makes it difficult to get an apples-to-apples comparison when…
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Public relations and content marketing are powerful when they work together. This is particularly true for B2B PR programs designed to educate prospective customers and push them down the funnel to a point of purchase. But too often, the disciplines and even their teams are distinct. Many PR practitioners naturally prioritize the generation of earned…
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Despite becoming more data-driven in recent years, public relations is still a relatively low-tech business. That’s one reason the $5 million fundraise by AirPR, which builds analytics tools to measure PR’s impact, was notable in PR and technology startup circles. Compared to digital marketing and advertising, which has only become more automated over time, our…
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What would happen if your emails were disclosed for all to see? For most of us, it would be awkward at the very least, but for a public figure or corporation, disclosure of private communications amounts to a full-blown public relations crisis. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is currently dealing with a regular trickle of private emails…
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Tying a brand to a big news story is a time-honored public relations tactic for earning media coverage. Sometimes it’s about a fast-breaking event, like a data security executive commenting on a major hack. Often there’s a narrow window of opportunity to ride the wave. Then there are stories that dominate over months, offering more…
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People who work in media and public relations like to say that click-bait headlines and hot takes have replaced traditional, “shoe-leather” reporting – the type that involves long hours of investigation, dogged pursuit of sources, and boring background interviews. Some even say the internet killed “real” journalism. But one reporter has turned that trope on…
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