The Public Relations Blog

4 ways PR is more than getting press coverage and dealing with crises

Think public relations is only about getting news coverage or cleaning up a public mess? Think again. Sure, two major goals of PR are to obtain media coverage and to prevent crises. However, that’s just the beginning. Strategic communications is so much more than that. Here is proof that public relations is broader than you may think.

October 30. To most it’s just another day of the year. However, in the public relations and journalism worlds, it’s a day to celebrate. October 30 is National Publicist Day.

(See also: What’s the difference between publicity and public relations? Hint: PR strategists hate when we call them publicists.)

On this day in 1906, well-known public relations pioneer and productivity consultant Ivy Lee wrote the first documented press release.

6 tips to help you obtain news coverage for your company

Public relations professionals should understand their clients aren't looking to put a news release in a frame on their wall. They want a cover story or great feature story to frame. So how do you make it happen? There’s no sure-fire way to earn that coveted feature story placement. However, there are some things you can do to help make the dream a reality.

How to attract more traffic to your social media platforms

 Many companies rely on their social media strategy to help grow their business. Social media spreads the word about your brand, establishes your credibility, gets you more leads and brings you convertible traffic. Obviously, you want to use social media platforms to their full potential. The question is how? Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. There are, however, certain key steps that work to maximize your social media efforts.

Public relations has historically focused on creating or transforming public perception. Today, in an era of heavily used social media and rapid-turn news, companies now have both unique communications challenges as well as limitless communication opportunities.

It’s no secret that client, employee or vendor opinions can make or break a business. Glassdoor, Indeed, BBB, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor and others provide fertile ground for opinion seeding. And opinions, even from strangers, drive sales. Once rooted in a solid handshake, the sales process has shifted somewhat in that companies can digitally seduce new business while driving more traffic to their website, blog and social media platforms. It’s within these digital locations where many relationships begin and often result in a sale. Here are a few tips to easily establish positive relationships with your visitors and turn them into company promoters through inbound marketing:

Less is more with your company’s Facebook posts

You’ve probably heard the phrase content is king. However, when it comes to company Facebook posts, context is the new content. While it’s important to know how often you should post to your Facebook page, you should also focus on what you’re posting. HubSpot, a developer of software for inbound marketing and sales, pulled Facebook data to see if posting more frequently reaches more people.

This is one post about company productivity. Read about the value of a daily huddle for more. 

In today’s multitasking society, it’s often difficult to stay focused. Distractions abound, and many of us think that the more we do at one time, the better. This may not be the case. There’s a method that works for our company, and we think it will work for yours too. The Ivy Lee Method is simple and achieves maximum productivity. Since we first learned about it from keynote speaker Verne C. Harnish, we use the method daily and recommend it to our clients and their leadership teams.

Instagram, like most other social media platforms, invests heavily in fine-tuning and further developing its platform. With many changes afoot, including the addition of new features and advertising options, how can your company stay ahead of the curve and keep its Instagram account effectively reaching followers?

4 tips a spokesperson can use to prepare for an interview

In the midst of an interview, sometimes it’s tempting to exaggerate to make your company look good. Perhaps you’re unprepared to answer the question, so you respond enthusiastically with a “fish tale.” Or, perhaps you’re attempting to “fake it before you make it.”

No matter the reason, you should never exaggerate or tell even the smallest lie. You’ll lose credibility and put your company’s future in danger. We’ve had one such client whose CEO embellished during an interview, and it didn’t turn out well. Learn from that company’s mistake so you can prevent it from happening to your company.

3 ways to minimize the risk and maximize the benefits of PR

When hiring a public relations firm, some companies and executives don’t realize that PR sometimes involves risks, while others actually assign too much prominence to those risks. It helps to understand more about PR and how it can benefit your brand before you hire a PR firm. Unlike advertising, you have little to no control of the timing, content, and context of a news story. Not understanding the risks involved in PR is mistake #4 from Axia Public Relations’ list of 15 mistakes companies make when hiring a PR firm. Here are three elements to pay attention to in order to minimize the risk of taking the plunge into PR: