The Public Relations Blog

Use PR to fully leverage this often-underused tool

Ah, the dreaded press releases. Over the years, we have come to rely on them, hate them and frequently declare their demise. Nonetheless, news releases remain a crucial instrument for media relations efforts. Since it is clear that you have to use them, you may as well get maximum impact and reach from your press releases.

If you’re not using PR to grow your business, you’ll soon be left behind

It seems like every day we are asked to embrace some new product, idea or way of doing business. Each time, we are promised that if we get on board with the new plan, we will change the world. Some things hold true, such as the microwave, the internet and social media; others, not so much. However, there is now a novel approach to handling public relations and marketing that we believe will stand the test of time.

It depends on how much you want to avoid (or survive) your next crisis

Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Indeed, it is much easier to safely extinguish a campfire with water and soil than it is to battle a raging forest fire. You can say the same for crisis management.

Learn why your company needs social media channels for effective crisis communication

General Motors CEO Mary Barra apologized for the disaster surrounding GM’s faulty ignition switches. Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle expressed regret after two employees created a disgusting YouTube video prank featuring nothing you would ever want on a pizza. But was this enough? 

Every available statistic proves that images are critical to social media and overall communications campaign success. Worthwhile images and video can stimulate a proverbial viral riot over a topic or product. Therefore, many businesses, bloggers and digital media mavens invest in beautiful photographs to add to their websites, blogs and social media posts to increase engagement.

Editorial calendars provide a roadmap for public relations professionals by outlining the content that media outlets will focus on for the entire year. With the right approach, editorial calendars can make a PR professional's job easier and could generate some great feature coverage. Here’s how to make use of editorial calendars.

Customers are already talking about you; learn how to use it to your advantage

Today, online customer reviews can literally make or break a business. When reviews are managed correctly and the information is positive, you can reap benefits such as an increase in customer engagement and profits. If you get it wrong, your company will be flooded with negative search engine results for years as your reputation plummets.

6 tips for getting better results with your pitches

How often do you get a call from someone trying to sell you something and the person begins by asking if you have a minute? This is an immediate way to shut down the conversation and end the call. In today’s busy world, no one really has a minute.

As you are pitching, you will discover that the same is true for journalists. You will find that it’s never a good time to pitch a journalist. Journalists may be working on several stories at one time and are often on tight deadlines. This means they are usually far too busy to speak by phone about your pitch idea, especially when others are bombarding them – often with pitches that don’t pertain to the area or topic that they cover.

If you find that your social media engagement falls by the wayside, as many people often do, you may think: “Is it even worth it if I can’t keep up with it?” Earlier this year, we talked about frequency of posts on Twitter and Facebook and provided recommendations for determining how often you should share content on these networks. In our blog posts, we didn’t address how those with extreme time constraints can make it work – or whether they even should. Say you only have time for one post a week, should you even bother?

Axia Public Relations provides a step-by-step guide for companies with multiple locations

Many companies that have more than one location may find it difficult deciding which address to associate with their Facebook page. Facebook used to require a separate page for each location; but recently, it realized the demand for one page that could display all of a company’s locations and now offers that option to users.

Companies such as Starbucks and Target are utilizing this new offering on their company Facebook pages.