With the New Year upon us, it’s time again for industry insiders and gurus to come out with their predictions for the upcoming year. Traditional media and blogs are peppered with predictions stories, from technology trends to outlooks for the U.S. economy. The PR industry is no different. PR practitioners have already begun to hit…
They say that pitching is 90 percent of baseball. I would argue that the same is true for public relations. Securing meaningful coverage is the bread and butter of a successful PR campaign and the most straightforward way to showcase results. However, as any PR pro knows, getting the story placed takes a lot of…
The pace of change in public relations is so fast and furious that it’s easy to get blinded by the latest shiny new object in the communications workshop, and lose sight of why a corporate executive risks six figures of their company’s precious resources to hire a PR agency. Oftentimes tactical-minded PR pros are like…
This week, many Americans will participate in the annual tradition of joining family for Thanksgiving Dinner. Dinner will be shared with parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings and in-laws. If you are putting on one of these get-togethers, dealing with the logistics of preparing the meal can sometimes be challenging, but quite rewarding. For…
The U.S. healthcare system is going through monumental change and criticism. On October 1, one of the pivotal components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect in the form of public health insurance marketplaces. And like any highly anticipated consumer product launch–think Apple iPhone, Madden NFL video games or Microsoft…
How do you get good PR for winning a spot on a major government contract when you don’t know whether you’ll win as a prime or a subcontractor, whether you’ll win at all (of course), when the awards will be announced, and whether the subs will be amenable to publicity? You can play it by…
Survey data, new products, videos, infographics, press releases – these things are a surefire way to be mentioned in the news. You distribute it, media picks it up. We collect PR assets like we do dirty coffee mugs around RH. We pick them up from our clients almost daily and then we are challenged with…
PR pros pride themselves on mastering the art of the written word, but it’s time to get into a new mindset. Pounding out prose to populate press releases, fact sheets and talking points can be all consuming, client-pleasing and often mentally rewarding (“I nailed that lead”). No matter how perfectly fashioned, words on paper sometimes fail to…
The revelation that the same background-checking firm vetted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis has made me think about the importance of support and trust in a process. Trusting a team, and each individual member, to do the right thing without much supervision is something that most employees…
A couple of weeks ago I had a really straightforward, but smart question from someone looking to hire a PR firm. He asked, “What should I watch out for when interviewing PR firms?” I thought it was a great question to ask and I find it a little puzzling that I don’t hear it more…
It’s the dead of summer. School is out for another month, traffic is “Friday light” on a daily basis and most us feel the urge to leave the office promptly at 3:00 p.m. But for public relations professionals, the dead of summer is no excuse for lacking media results for our hungry clients. Our biggest…
This week the biggest advertising company merger in history was announced – between Omnicom and Publicis. The combined stock market value is $35 billion and there will be 130,000 employees in the newly formed entity. Those of us in the public relations industry are familiar with the two, as they are also the holding companies for a…