PRBreakfastClub

Being in PR means that you plan and execute events to perfection and no detail is forgotten. Each PR pro has their style for planning and how they work to get it all done. There is a recipe for event planning which includes a little creativity, a little OCD, a little leadership and a dash of caffeine. When you put it all together you get some pretty stellar events that PR pros pull of every day.

Behind the scenes of the seamless event that you have produced there is an army of details that get you through. Here are some of the secret ingredients that help PR pros pull off perfection: Read the rest of this entry »

Speech Bubble © by Vectorportal

I recently had a discussion with a man who is building a business that is aiming to help PR professionals with their biggest workflow issues.

He was very kind, and was asking me informed questions regarding the common issues I have and have seen coworkers deal with, when he said,

“We want to help press release… I mean PR professionals…”

Before answering his question, I clarified,

“PR does not stand for press release, it stands for public relations.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last night’s #pr20chat was on the subject of integrating offline marketing tactics with those being used online. More to the point, ensuring “real world” tactics are still playing a large part in the strategy for your organization or client(s).

I’ve been wanting to write about Klout for a week or so now, and why I think Klout is a good starting point for a lot of things, but in the end doesn’t mean anything. This all started for me with the infamous Wired article a few weeks ago where an executive’s job interview essentially ended after his Klout score was deemed too low. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, posts were written about how much Klout sucks and how it is making those in the PR and marketing industries lazy. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many articles out there on how PR professionals should seek, contact and engage with bloggers. We are focused on building a relationship with bloggers and converting them into brand ambassadors for our client. We hope that they will write amazing posts about our clients and it will spread through the blogger world like wildfire.

But as PR pros have we stopped to think about what the bloggers want from us?

I am a mom blogger, crawfishtales.com, and I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of the pitch. This has given me insight that I have used to mold the way that I, as a PR pro, engage bloggers. I constantly remind myself that bloggers are receiving multiple pitches just like a reporter and that I need to make my pitch stand out from the others. The best pitches are the ones that are thorough and have thought through the pitch from the bloggers prospective. Read the rest of this entry »

Half empty or half full?

An article recently published over at the MIT Sloan Management Review blog caught my attention. Essentially, the article asserted that in a world where optimism reigns, a little pessimism is a good thing.

In our culture, pessimism is generally perceived as a state of mind where one anticipates negative outcomes. We often classify individuals as either optimistic or pessimistic based on the age old question, “Is the glass half empty or half full?” We tend to classify those who answer “half empty” as stewards of a pessimistic outlook, always focusing on the negative and what’s likely to go wrong.

Despite the stigma that pessimism has, can it be interpreted as an undervalued asset and a valuable tool in PR? Read the rest of this entry »

Worried! © by photoloni

For the most part, I find the PR industry’s trade publications — PRWeek, PRNewser, PRNews, etc. — to be good standard-bearers for effectively covering the ins-and-outs of this diverse and growing industry. Sure, they tend to focus too much on AOR announcements  — the old-time stock ticker-tape reports of PR — but they do the job.

So I try to do my best not to critique. Look, reporters and editors have a tough job at those publications. They are reporting on the very people — PR pros — who know how to promote a cause or a person better than anyone. So I imagine there is quite a lot of pushback and calls for fluffier fluff pieces than at your standard trade reporter’s job. Read the rest of this entry »

PR professionals comment on blog posts for a number of reasons. We might seek to correct information, share additional resources or simply thank the author for the original post. We may recommend that our clients’ spokespeople participate in the blogging community to build their reputation and credibility, leverage SEO opportunities or help manage customer relationships. However, a poorly planned and irresponsible comment from a PR pro can lead to an unpredictable and often damaging response from the blogging community. Read the rest of this entry »

Blogging is no longer just an online pastime, simply for teens and adolescents. It has evolved into a major medium for individuals to express themselves on a variety of topics and opinions. The anonymity of the Internet gives each individual a powerful voice and the ability to speak to a fairly large audience.

Given this power, PR agents would do well to tread lightly around the toes of bloggers. However, there’s no reason why public relations professionals cannot use blogging for their own benefit. There are a variety of ways in which PR managers and representatives can utilize blogging. The following are different ways in which PR agents can take advantage of blogging: Read the rest of this entry »

In 1897 an eight-year-old girl namedVirginiawrote to theNew York CitySun newspaper with the question, “Is there a Santa Claus?”  The resulting editorial promising that such an idea of goodness and possibility did really exist became the most reprinted editorial in the history of the English language.

Flash forward over a hundred years — many small business marketers and PR Pros look at their press release distribution and wonder in Virginiaesque fashion, “Do journalists really want my press release?”  The answer is happily a resounding “yes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Help a Reporter, as it says was designed to be helpful to both the PR pro and the reporter. I know that as a PR pro I have scored many cool PR opportunities for my clients by answering queries. As a contributing writer for PR Breakfast Club, I have often used this service to get quotes and answer topics for stories that I am writing.

Being the recipient of pitches has been very interesting to say the least. I have quickly learned that there is a huge difference between the helpful query response and the annoying query response. Read the rest of this entry »