The Public Relations Blog

Before your next public event or speech, consult with PR

Dr. Ben Carson is widely considered to be one of the more likeable and honest of the Republican candidates running for president. Nonetheless, his ride has not been completely smooth. The media is now accusing him of lying and exaggerating his credentials.

This kind of allegation is damaging, whether you’re a candidate for the country’s top job or CEO of a corporation. Using PR tools and tactics can help get you out of this type of crisis, but only if they are done correctly.

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.

Late Friday night, when gunfire and blasts took the lives of at least 128 people in Paris, the world turned to social media for updates on the tumultuous situation. Among the tweets of condolence, sadness and worry, there was the occasional corporate tweet about products, the sporadic blogger pushing his posts and some of the usual whimsical content you find on Twitter.

While social media is a fun way to connect with consumers and prospects, it’s also a source for news and community-building during times of tragedy.

How Turing Pharmaceuticals’ Martin Shkreli and others can climb out of a PR nightmare

Imagine this: A crisis is brewing over your company’s perceived lack of compassion for your customers. To make things worse, a top executive is quoted in major media outlets saying that the company will do little (or nothing) to change.

You don’t need to imagine it; you can read all about it in the news coverage of Turing Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, Martin Shkreli, who decided to drastically increase the cost of a life-saving drug from $18 to $750 a pill. However, there are ways for this company – and others in a similar situation – to recover from such a fiasco with help from PR.

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.

You won’t win true customer loyalty with flashing lights and shiny objects; your values and your brand identity are what will attract and retain consumers long-term. Keep an eye on the next generation’s habits and favored platforms in order to better connect with them. You don’t have to look far to find templates to model your business’ success after.

When used regularly and wisely, blogs are useful tools for driving two-way communication with audiences. Over the years, Axia Public Relations’ team members have fielded questions about the relevance of blogs and whether businesses should even bother, given concerns surrounding time investment and lack of topics. In short, it’s important to view your blog as an active extension of your business. To help with content creation, we’re sharing another short list of ideas to inspire blog neophytes.

You probably already understand the positive attributes of creating and maintaining an active and unique blog. The most successful and followed blogs often focus on a particular theme (cooking, parenting, etc.) or are oriented toward a specific area of expertise (public relations, scientific discovery, etc.). Followers value the useful nuggets they are able to glean from each post.

But how can you constantly keep things fresh, especially if you have limited resources and time to consistently create posts of interest to key demographics?