The Public Relations Blog

2 reasons why you shouldn’t hire a PR firm that guarantees sales

As a CEO, you know that sales are the lifeblood of a company. Using public relations to increase your company’s share of voice within the media is one way to improve your sales. However, if your company hires a PR firm based on its offer to guarantee sales, you're making a mistake for two reasons:

It seems some companies never learn. They continue to create situations that become public relations disasters. No company is perfect, and we all goof up from time to time. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. Even better, learn from the mistakes of others to avoid making them in the first place. This year’s list of avoidable PR goofs, in no particular order, should be enough to keep your company out of trouble for a long time.

How to avoid losing your social media followers

A successful social media strategy requires commitment and consistency. Posting original, entertaining and useful content regularly is essential to success. Sometimes, in spite of your efforts, you see a drop in your social media key performance indicators. This might be a sign that you’re posting too much.

6 steps to grow your client base using livestreaming on Facebook

FacebookLive is a great way to build relationships with your key audiences. You get to know your target public and tell them about your brand. It’s easy to stream live on your company’s Facebook page and connect with your followers. Here are six important steps for you to succeed.

Whether you’re preparing your team for an influx of media interviews or planning to launch a new marketing and communications campaign, getting everyone in your company on the same message is critical to the success of your efforts. Your company’s representatives are often the biggest influencers for your company and brand, after all. It’s critical to make sure this vital audience is helping – and certainly not hurting – your communication efforts. Here are five tips to help you.

Plenty of media outlets – digital and print – leverage individuals with special expertise, large followings or authoritative diatribe to round out editorial coverage in the form of columns. In fact, prior to YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, columnists were the key influencers. For example, there was Pauline Friedman Phillips who, under the pen name Abigail Van Buren, wrote the syndicated “Dear Abby,” until her death at the age of 94. Walt Mossberg earned fame amid the pages of the Wall Street Journal for uncovering and demystifying technology. Herb Caen riveted readers of the San Francisco Chronicle with his daily column, which many considered the “voice and conscience” of San Francisco.

8 items to include in your company’s online newsroom

Seasoned PR pros may remember printing countless press releases, fact sheets and biographies to include in perfectly curated media kits. Media kits of yesterday were helpful leave-behinds, however, today they’re dinosaurs. Digital media kits – or online newsrooms – are an easy way for media to access key information and assets.

As a professional journalist, I’ve received my share of calls from unhappy sources complaining I excluded them from an article. These calls come because some companies believe if their competitors receive media attention, they deserve attention too. Realistically, the news cycle doesn’t work that way. Even with the highest degree of professionalism, there are plenty of editorial cracks through which information can fall.

Someone has invited you to join the Forbes Council and you’re very flattered. Your immediate thought is that you should promote this honor and leverage your achievement to the hilt. However, let’s take a deeper look. Is it really an honor? Or, is it just another paid membership?

Why the distinctions matter to your company and bottom line

In some companies, public relations and marketing share the same space, with their goals and functions used interchangeably. At other companies, they’re separate, with different reporting structures and a constant battle for budget dollars between the two. Some organizations have one function reporting to the other. How does your company handle these disciplines and, more importantly, are you using them correctly?

This was just one of the topics at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s highly anticipated 2017 Global Communications Study. How we structure and utilize PR and marketing is a major issue facing the PR industry and one your company must tackle to ensure you’re getting the maximum benefit and profitability.