Surprises? Great for parties and gifts, but not so great for public relations. Like many client service businesses, ours works best when it’s predictable and reliable. This means attention to staffing, budgets, deadlines and prep work to ensure successful outcomes. Our informal poll elicited some interesting – yet undesirable – surprises we all strive to…
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Summer in public relations includes outdoor meetings, shorts and flip-flops (if your office works that way), Summer Fridays, and an all-around happier work environment.  But it doesn’t mean we strive any less to keep clients happy and implement great new campaigns. If you find yourself needing any more motivation, music is always key and we…
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In public relations, it’s always gratifying to be recognized by one’s peers. Typically, that recognition comes in the form of industry awards. Right now we’re finalists in a couple of awards competitions, and we’ve won our fair share as well. So, we thought it might be a good time to review what helps make a…
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The past couple of weeks have seen quite a few public relations faux pas committed by folks who should know better. But it seems a combination of hubris, ignorance and impatience may have gotten the better of them! Some have handled the situations well, and others, not so well. Let’s review. PR: The good, the…
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When choosing top summer books with public relations interest, our first “KPI” (key performance indicator) is anything that is well-written. Writing is the backbone of all good PR, and the best way to become a better writer is to read great stuff. After that, the criteria looks like this: books that touch on PR and marketing;…
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Congratulations, you’ve retained a new public relations firm, and you’re getting ready to kick off a successful partnership. Like any new relationship, this one is in the honeymoon phase as everyone gets to know each other. But things are about to get real, so all parties need to be on their toes to ensure success…
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Public relations experts know that the majority of traffic coming to a blog post comes in the first hours and days of publication. This makes the timely promotion of your blog content critical to its success. And, according to TrackMaven, you might want to publish your post at 3 p.m. EST for the highest number of…
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Recently a journalist posted some basic advice for public relations people to improve media relationships. He said to “read stuff, then take it to reporters who like that stuff.” That’s a little like Elmore Leonard advising writers to “try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” Simple, yet true, and harder than…
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Millions of college students graduate this year, and if my inbox is any indication, many would like to work in public relations. Of course, anyone entering the field is likely to look at the different paths to a career, which typically means exploring large agencies, in-house opportunities, and smaller firms. We’d like to make the…
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Nearly every public relations campaign can benefit from smart use of hashtags, those words that start with the symbol # and make social content more searchable by topic. Marketers know that hashtags help spark brand conversations, expand content reach, engage a target audience and improve search and SEO. Building Better Hashtags Hashtags work best when…
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