The Public Relations Blog

The first reaction to a company crisis is usually to speak out and defend yourself. In social media, this can be hazardous to your brand. So what is the best way to react during a corporate catastrophe? Should your social media firm respond or not? It depends on the situation. Here is a brief primer on how a social media firm should react during an emergency.

Create the news to get you noticed

Not every day is jam-packed with breaking news announcements. Product launches, news conferences and mergers are the bread and butter of media relations. Having news to share makes the job easier. So what do you do in the absence of news? You create it.

Developing news stories is difficult for business people to understand, but in media relations there are techniques that can and do keep your name in the public eye.

Public recognition and trust are huge aspects of business success. By virtue of the stories they run, the news media can develop awareness, extend credibility, generate trust and motivate the audience’s responses toward a company and its products and services. Successful businesses often have solid working relationships with several news outlets, including bloggers, reporters, editors and producers. A recent survey indicated that the public considers news stories to be more persuasive and more credible than advertisements. A high percentage of business owners report that public relations – not advertising – is the most valuable investment for marketing dollars.

Get more exposure using media relations

Marketing and advertising are powerful tools for any corporation, allowing business leaders to spread the word about valuable products and services to a broad audience. Without a public relations firm providing media relations, though, these marketing efforts may fall flat.

Media relations is an integral part of any business, allowing professionals to distribute company news and product updates through traditional news outlets and popular social media channels. Because of their role in the marketplace, these outlets are regarded as credible sources of information, earning the trust of consumers.

It seems like every top brand has built an internal public relations staff and retained a PR firm – and before you decide whether you’d benefit from doing the same, it’s important to answer a simple question: What does public relations do for a business?

In general terms, it’s easy to say that a PR team helps manage your messaging and improve the perception of your company and brand. But what does this mean for the way you do business, how you sell and your bottom line?

Too often, corporations set out on ambitious new projects or marketing campaigns without taking time to consider media relations.

That may be because the task of spreading the word through traditional publishing channels and media outlets takes too much time, and the performance of each media hit is hard to measure. What many business leaders don't realize is that this arm of communications is vital to long-term success.

How to choose the public relations company that is right for you.

Public relations companies are a beneficial part of your growing business. Almost every large company has one. And, while it may seem pretty easy, hiring the right PR firm can actually be extremely difficult. Not all public relations companies you come across are capable of doing the job that you need. So, it's good to have some helpful advice when you're deciding on the firm that is right for you. Here are a few tips that could aid in your decision in choosing a public relations company.

Finding the top public relations firm for your needs can be difficult, especially if you aren't already familiar with PR.

Fortunately for you, reading this article is a good place to start. Let's talk about what you should be doing in order to select the top public relations firm to fit the needs of your business.

You wouldn't be human if you didn't register that all-too-human emotion: envy. And it wouldn't be unusual to feel professional envy over seeing a competitor in the news – once again.

With a product or service similar to your own, this competitor seems to have a knack for generating attention and grabbing headlines – sometimes capitalizing on the opportunity to merely comment or supply a rebuttal on some newsworthy event or crisis. You suspect, and with good reason, that one comment can trigger a cycle in which this competitor breeds a media following that could eventually lead to media dominance – and, worse of all, eventually be regarded as a go-to industry expert.

Even Saturday Night Live is getting into the Undercover Boss excitement.

Saturday Night Live kicked off its first episode of 2016 with an Undercover Boss comedy sketch. The sketch featured master of the Knights of Ren, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, going on Undercover Boss as “Matt, a radar technician at Starkiller Base.”

Appearing in the skit intro is Shoppers World’s CEO Sam Dushey, who went undercover on the Jan. 3 Undercover Boss episode. Axia Public Relations facilitated Sam’s Undercover Boss appearance, and we can help you get on Undercover Boss too.