The Public Relations Blog

Let PR show you how to help your company while helping others

You have done a good job of fostering a company culture that encourages and celebrates charitable giving. Of course, you did not do this just to receive recognition, but it would be nice to get some anyway. The trick is to promote your corporate social responsibility efforts without sounding like a showoff and possibly alienating customers. With help from PR, you can reap both the internal and external benefits of your charitable giving efforts.

Ways to use PR to grow your company

McDonald’s is one of the largest chains of fast food restaurants in the world. Founder Ray Kroc had the idea to create McDonald’s in 1954 when he visited a San Bernardino, Calif. restaurant. A year later, Kroc started the popular fast food chain and it only required three years for McDonald’s to sell its 100 millionth hamburger. Today, the company has about 35,000 restaurants worldwide in 119 countries, serving about 68 million guests per day. How did it get so successful? A well-managed PR strategy.

We live according to our own moral standards and beliefs and we run businesses in the way we believe is ethical and appropriate. Unethical business practices can not only damage your business reputation, but can also completely ruin the business itself. When it comes to dealing with your public either in person or on social media, it’s important to know which behaviors are ethical and which are not.

Of course, ethical norms vary from business to business and from culture to culture, but some are more or less standard for most business practices.

The journalists you pitch a story to matter more than you may think

A PR industry pro recently shared in PRWeek that it is better to focus pitching efforts on local media with the hope that other outlets will subsequently pick up the story. While local efforts are a great start, it isn’t always the most efficient way to pitch a client or a story.

Ethical implications of using this favored PR tool

Several Axia Public Relation team members, including me, began our communications-based careers as journalists, serving as media gatekeepers. This added expertise often comes into play when counseling the clients we represent as public relations practitioners. We’re bound not only to the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics, but to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. Each derivative, interestingly enough, shares a multitude of overlapping guidelines – one of which focuses on the use of the phrase “off the record.”

To those unfamiliar with the parlance, “off the record” is a public relations tool used by any individual (source) who wants to share information strictly as background or context when speaking with a member of the media.

Speaking at conferences, community meetings and expert seminars is a wonderful opportunity to get in front of your key audiences and grow your business. How does your company benefit from such speaking engagements?

PR can help pave the way to industry stardom

TED is a nonprofit organization whose wildly successful conferences are the holy grail for innovative and enterprising individuals looking to gain publicity and disseminate their ideas worldwide. Conceived in 1984 as a conference for ideas in technology, entertainment and design, TED is now the paramount platform for visionaries seeking a global audience to discuss virtually any topic.

Let PR show you how to handle the issue and still have a great event

Are you worried about members of the media attending your next event, shareholder’s meeting or public presentation? You should be; the media are a powerful component of our society. However, while you should be aware of them, you don’t have to fear them.

If there are media in the room, you should be thankful! They are trained and credentialed journalists who are there to get the story right. The truth is that, these days, there’s always media in the room – social media.

Media fame, whether or not it’s the result of a scandal, acts like a proverbial carrot dangled before business owners and investors who flock to it like moths to a flame. Intense paparazzi-style blitzes follow, especially when an ordinary organization takes on a high-profile staff member. Many companies fall prey to “hiring stunts” with very little actual return on investment beyond initial get-it-quick publicity.

Businessweek magazine is one of the world’s top business publications, preparing its readers to succeed in today’s complex economy. The magazine focuses on the most important news in finance, technology and economics.