As a profession, public relations evokes images of media pitching or crisis management. But according to the 2018 USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations Global Communications Report, writing is the skill most valued by PR recruiters. That makes sense; persuasion is fueled by artful storytelling, and despite the growth of video, many stories are still…
Read more
Posts By: Richard Etchison
Beyond Publicity: What Your PR Agency Can Do
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsA startup or early stage company that’s considering a public relations budget may be wondering what PR entails. While earned media visibility is the bread and butter of many PR campaigns, they can do far more for an organization. Any PR program that only includes media visibility is inadequate. While winning media coverage can yield…
Read more
Dad’s Wisdom Makes Great PR Advice
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsFor Mother’s Day 2018, we reported how mom’s wisdom makes great PR advice. Dads clamored for their say. Most of our fathers’ advice probably went in one ear and out the other — as a dad would say. As we approach Father’s Day, let’s stop and recognize how a dad’s sometimes patronizing, always wry nuggets…
Read more
A PR Intern’s Guide to Agency Lingo
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIf you’ve scored your first tech PR internship this summer, congratulations and welcome to the *dark side (some jargon already!) You’re about to be thrust into the fascinating world of public relations – where people naturally speak their own private language with various business slang and PR lingo. To get ahead of the game and…
Read more
You’ve Been Served: How To Be A PR Client Service Superstar
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsWorking in a PR agency means working with clients and making them happy. Yet not all have the same goals, needs, or expectations. But it’s fair to say that the best PR people, like Liam Neeson, have a particular set of skills that keep the clients coming back year after year. Here are seven indispensible…
Read more
PR Lessons From Twitter
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIn this blog, we often dispense practical media relations or PR advice based on years of experience in the trenches of tech PR. However, no one can advise PRs better on how and what to pitch reporters than… reporters. Journalists love to take to Twitter to offer up best practices or, more likely, let off…
Read more
PR Tactics To Show Company Values
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsPR is an essential business function for imparting a company’s values and beliefs to the public. Because earned media confers credibility, it can be decidedly more powerful than marketing and advertising. With the public too cynical to buy into ads trumpeting a company’s inherent beliefs, public relations offers that all-important third-party acclaim. If a young…
Read more
PR’s Top Tech Events For Executive Speaking Gigs
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsSure, it’s only February, but if a technology company is serious about a consistent thought leadership drumbeat at industry conferences, its PR team needs to be nailing down third and fourth-quarter events now. Tech conference programming teams begin developing their themes, tracks, and agendas many months in advance, of course. Events open their speaking proposal…
Read more
How To Go From PR Intern To Permanent Hire
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIf you’re an aspiring public relations pro and have nabbed your first internship, congrats! Soon your head will be spinning as you’re surrounded by new people in a fast-paced environment. If it’s a good internship, you’ll learn a lot, get a flavor for what PR is all about, and end up with a clearer idea…
Read more
PR Tips For Stellar Executive Quotes
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIn the round-the-clock battle for media attention, reporters, marketers, and PR pros cannot afford to waste words. We’ve all come across executive quotes in press releases or news articles that sound like they were written by a novice PR person, or, worse, a committee. A poor spokesperson quote is a lost opportunity at best. How…
Read more
10 Reasons Your PR Might Be Failing
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsThe success or failure of a PR program can hinge on many factors, most of which are within our control. Still, when you’re too close to the work, it’s difficult to determine what gears might be hampering a machine’s performance. Here are 10 possible reasons for PR outcomes that miss the mark. There’s no buy-in…
Read more
10 New Year’s Resolutions For Better PR Campaigns
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsThe beginning of a new year brings a turning-the-page feeling of renewal. While we had a wonderful 2018, now feels like the right time to refresh and refocus our efforts for an even better 2019. In PR, we’re getting ready to clear an ever-rising bar. Sometimes you just need to remember the fundamentals. Other times,…
Read more
PR Tips For Winning Business Awards
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsPlacing a piece of industry hardware on the company mantle can be a nice PR win for a B2B company at any stage. Along with earned media visibility and recognition for thought capital, awards are an exciting way to build credibility and authority. Most importantly, awards represent a third-party endorsement. That’s valuable currency for rising…
Read more
How To Make Small Talk With PR People
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIt’s that time of year when we chat up colleagues, family, and friends old and new at holiday gatherings. At some point, you may ask a new acquaintance what they do for a living. If the response is “I work in PR,” you might be stumped for a minute. If so, don’t feel bad. Some…
Read more
Family PR Lessons For (Surviving) The Holidays
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsThe holidays are a wonderful time to take a moment to reflect on our blessings, as well as to spend quality time with loved ones. Sometimes we travel long distances to visit with family with whom we rarely spend time — which can make for awkward communication. Families practice their own inscrutable form of PR…
Read more
Best PR Uses For Video Content
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsAs much as video content has grown in advertising, marketing, and PR, data shows that it continues to expand. WebpageFX predicts that by next year, 90% of online content will be video. PR practitioners have long helped clients amplify video content through social media promotion and earned media coverage, but they may be underusing video…
Read more
6 Benefits Of Long-Form Content For Brands
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIn this age of short attention spans, it may seem counter-intuitive to champion long-form content for PR and marketing. But in recent years, data has shown its efficacy. Longer content like books, white papers, podcasts, eBooks, and video can take more time and effort than shorter bites, demanding greater depth and creativity, but it can…
Read more
Worst PR Technology Nightmares
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsAs we’ve pointed out, PR pros use many tech tools to do their jobs on a daily basis. Most are used for internal and external communications, and they work well. Yet an accidental keystroke or a slip of the mouse can produce mortifying results. If anything, technology tools allow mistakes to travel faster and further…
Read more
Halloween Costume Ideas For PR People
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIt’s that magical and very busy time of year when PR agencies are prepping for the holiday season and are happy for a fun distraction. Halloween allows us to celebrate, or make a mockery of, our heroes in PR, journalism, and media. Here are some ideas for PR-relevant costumes for Halloween 2018. 8 Halloween costumes…
Read more
How To Make An Impact At A Business Conference
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsLove them or hate them, conferences and trade shows are important venues for any business to generate public relations, marketing, and sales returns. If you’ve ever attended a major tech trade show, you know they can be a blur of handshakes, branded swag, business cards, and mediocre meals. How to make the most of a…
Read more
7 Must-Have PR Tech Tools
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsWeb 2.0 has made the daily nuts and bolts of public relations work unrecognizable from a decade ago. Now, every public relations team needs reliable tech tools for media monitoring, instant messaging, task management, and media-list building, just to name a few. PR people routinely use apps for document design like BeFunky, the industry standard…
Read more
PR Tactics To Differentiate Your Brand
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsGood public relations can be an essential way for a brand to stand out from the pack, especially in the B2B/ technology sector. The tech space is a crowded category with more startups entering every day, so in order to compete, companies must differentiate their product or service. There are some PR tactics that can…
Read more
How Social Media Drives B2B PR
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsWe associate social media platforms with splashy consumer campaigns, but social is increasingly important in B2B public relations. B2B buyers are often looking for as much information as possible on vendors and products before they buy, and they rarely buy on impulse. According to an IDC study, 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice…
Read more
PR Tips For A High-Impact Technology Launch
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsTechnology companies gearing up for a new product launches know full well they’re adding to a crowded marketplace. It can be particularly challenging for B2B startups offering SaaS or other tech services to generate visibility when the category isn’t new. But no tech company can afford to overlook the power of public relations to create…
Read more
5 Ways To Raise Your Internal PR Game
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsEarlier this week, we made the case for raising your internal PR game. Today, we’ll suggest some ways to do just that. The technological and social changes over the past few years have both made internal communications more important, and also opened up opportunities to revolutionize it. Still, companies are dragging their feet in this…
Read more
8 Reasons To Raise Your Internal PR Game
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIt can be easy for a corporate PR team to neglect a critical aspect of business communications — internal PR. Sometimes the last stakeholders on the minds of senior management are those inside the organization. In certain cases, high-profile companies take it for granted that employees are corporate cheerleaders, or they may leave the responsibility…
Read more
The PR Perils Of Cultural Appropriation
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsPR teams have been pressed into crisis duty in a series of corporate missteps that have something in common: marketing or advertising that shows “cultural appropriation” – borrowing a sensitive ethnic or cultural theme for commercial purposes. It’s easy to see why a marketing campaign would be tempted by the currency and news value of…
Read more
6 Quick Tips For PR Writers
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsIf you’re in PR, chances are, you’re a writer. Now more than ever, public relations recruiters prioritize writing skills. Yes, visual content is very important in what we do, and we’ve woken up to the power of podcasts, but don’t underestimate written-word content. According to USC’s 2017 Global Communications Report, written communications is second only…
Read more
How PR Can Boost Lead Generation
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsPublic relations isn’t just for publicity, awareness, and reputation management. A company’s sales and marketing teams should consider PR as a lead-generation tool that can work in tandem with business development and paid advertising. Here are some things to consider when planning your next campaign. PR as a lead generation machine Earned media boosts SEO…
Read more
6 Ways To Generate PR When You Have No News
by: Richard Etchison in: Crenshaw Communications, PR Fish Bowl, public relationsThe PR plan has clear visibility objectives that call for earned media or branded coverage — and there’s news that will help tell the company’s story. But after the initial executive moves, product launch, or funding announcement, then what? How does a PR team keep the momentum going if things get quiet? 6 ways to…
Read more