It is more important than ever to integrate a rich content marketing program — one that focuses on search engine optimization — into public relations campaigns for companies and brands that want to grow. But as the strategy becomes more and more prevalent, the rules are changing, and communications pros need to constantly refresh themselves on…
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The rise (and persistence) of the listicle has some of us PR professionals feeling a bit fatigued. Of course we understand the value of serving up easily digestible nuggets of information to your target audiences, whether they be media, followers, or potential clients or partners. But as with many memes, the ubiquity of the form yields…
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What makes a successful brand PR stunt? St. Patrick’s Day, with its colorful parades and festivities, has us thinking about Chicago, a standout on that day for a quirky tradition that has endured through six decades: dying its river green. It’s a PR stunt that still makes headlines every year for its “wow” factor, not…
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As the most overtly “professional” of the social media platforms, Linkedin is an important and necessary part of any good public relations program. While fans look for inspiration on Instagram or Pinterest and journalists hang out on Twitter, those more focused on business — prospects, clients, partners, and employees for a given company — inhabit Linkedin….
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With Valentine’s Day upon us, we hope you’ve found just the right gift for your favorite PR agency person. But in case you’re still figuring out the quirks and preferences of the PR pro in your life, we have some advice. On a date with a PR professional, avoid these six surefire ways to make him or…
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Do blogs and bloggers still matter for PR agencies and professionals? While it seems that every news organization, business and activity “enthusiast” has a blog, blogging itself has quieted down in the past few years. Many blogs are extensions of mainstream media, rather than disrupting or supplanting it, and when it comes to working with bloggers…
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Twitter is coming up on 9 years old — practically “vintage” in social media terms! — yet it’s still relevant for PR agency pros and communications people. Just consider the Super Bowl: with a record-breaking 24.8 million tweets during the broadcast, Twitter declared the game was the “most tweeted @Superbowl ever.” Fancy real-time graphics aside, Twitter still…
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Journalists are making the transition to PR in greater numbers than ever before, with many joining PR agencies or taking corporate communications posts. It’s widely accepted that former reporters can be valuable additions to communications teams (some arguments notwithstanding). For PR, it’s important to be able to think like a reporter and to understand how…
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Creating content that is shared broadly is a great way to build good PR, whether it’s for yourself, your company or brand, or for others. And while there’s no way to predict precisely which posts, pictures, videos or articles will be most popular, there are some basic guidelines to improve the chances of your content’s being shared….
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Much of successful public relations has to do with simply spotting good ideas, and recognizing their PR value. But generating good press for businesses and brands also means coming up with fresh concepts on a consistent basis — especially after the cool new product has been launched, or the buzz from a seasonal campaign has died down. Consider…
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Visual images often have an emotional punch that text lacks — a worthwhile consideration for anyone developing a compelling PR campaign. To understand the power of visual communication in our business, look at the meteoric rise of Instagram. Since the photo-sharing app is based entirely on pictures, certain limitations apply, naturally. But with its more…
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We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling: you’ve just hit send on an important PR or program document, only to realize it had a glaring — and completely avoidable — error in it. Honest mistakes are bound to happen, but some writing slipups are too common, and they simply create bad PR for PR people! We’ve…
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Welcoming in the New Year provides a great chance to take stock of things and set some goals and refresh your public relations. Whether it’s tech PR, consumer, or B2B, we resolve to do better in 2015 with the following resolutions. Get visual. If you haven’t already jumped on this trend, now is the time….
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As any good PR agency will advise, media interviews are not: an interrogation, a game of ping-pong, or a commercial. A good media interview is actually a conversation, as well a chance to educate and an opportunity to tell a story. A great media interview is a usually a choreographed affair with the interviewee at ease,…
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It’s getting cold out there, and the approach of colder months is a great time to shore up your PR programs for the months ahead. Just as you’d weatherproof your home to prepare for the long season of colder, darker days, communications professionals can employ some basic steps to prepare for success in the next…
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Sometimes it can seem like much of what we do in the PR agency business involves managing information and its potentially negative implications. The media love a “bad news” story, and crisis management is a multi-million dollar industry. That’s why it’s refreshing when you come across stories that just make you grateful. (And it’s scientifically…
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There’s no escaping the Taylor Swift PR phenomenon – like it or not, the millennial pop queen is everywhere! This week she promptly became the only recording artist in history to sell more than 1 million albums in a week, three times in a row. And her decision to pull all her music from the…
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For some companies, it can be challenging to think about PR, but if you’re an innovative startup with a great story, a solid communications plan is a smart idea. It can be tempting to focus solely on “keeping the lights on” in the early phases of life, but there are plenty of good reasons why…
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Halloween has us thinking about some scary PR experiences we’ve personally endured or heard about. Rarely can these mishaps be predicted, but sometimes they can be avoided after we’ve stopped cringing at the memory. Here are some of our favorites. Disaster preparedness. Two years ago, just before Halloween, Hurricane Sandy struck here in New York….
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No doubt you’ve heard many a newsmaker say, “It’s not a sprint, but a marathon.” With the start of marathon season here in the Northeast, this got us thinking about how we view PR: is it a sprint, or a marathon? (Full disclosure here: as a three-time marathon finisher, I’m partial to the “marathon” approach to most…
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Nobody likes deadline busting, and in the PR business, completing projects on time is critical. Whether it’s finishing a new business proposal, writing a seasonal PR plan or editing that byline – every PR pro juggles deadlines. As we can all probably attest, missing deadlines can erode credibility, while delivering on time helps earn you…
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Long before I came over to the PR side, I was a young reporter working under some really smart editors who taught me everything I needed to know about the media business. The most fundamental lessons were about what makes something news. After all, “Is it news?” is the driving question for every good journalist…
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