Tag Archives: public relations

Rebecca Denison

How to: Keep Your PR Measurement Resolutions

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It’s that time of year. Everyone is making New Year’s resolutions, and if you’re like most other PR or marketing professionals, measurement is on your list initiatives for the year ahead. If not, it’s likely that you want to continually improve and be able to make a greater impact with the same budget, for example. And if you’re like most other people in this world, you’ll probably lose some (or all) of your motivation as the year goes on.

One of the most important ways to ensure proper measurement is to set benchmarks. It’s hard to measure if you have “moved the needle” or made an impact if you don’t know where you started.

The tricky part about using benchmarks to measure, though, is that you have to measure or set the benchmarks in the first place. And as new clients and campaigns emerge throughout the year, sometimes setting the proper benchmarks gets lost in the shuffle. Below are a few tips to ensure measurement will be a part of your New Year. Continue reading →

Keith Trivitt

The Media World is Changing — PR Pros Should Rejoice

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As a media junkie, I follow news from the media universe (whether it’s PR, advertising, newspapers, digital publications, etc.) religiously. It’s a bit nerdy, I know, but it’s what I enjoy. At any rate, the past several weeks have been especially exciting, and not just because we’re only a few days away from Christmas.

No, the last several weeks have seen a slew of important shifts and announcements among major players in the news business, especially those that appear to a) actually have some money to spend; and b) among those media outlets that are poised to grow exponentially in the coming years, and thus, provide a lot of high-level media opportunities for PR pros and their clients. Continue reading →

Jeff Esposito

Top 10 PR Resolutions for 2011

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The 2010 calendar is running out of daylight and the liquor stores are stacking up the bubbly. So that can only mean a few things are going to come into high fashion and range in levels of greatness.

Some of which will even be trending topics on Twitter including the funny glasses, hangovers, kissing at midnight and the ball dropping in Times Square, but those won’t make their way onto the page. Instead we’re going to take a look at some resolutions that will help us professionally as PR folks. So break out the Pepto because these resolutions may be a tough pill to swallow. Continue reading →

Elizabeth Sosnow

How to Prepare for Your Performance Review: Top 10 Review Mistakes & How to Fix Them

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After 20 years in Public Relations leadership roles, I have been involved in more performance reviews than I can count. And while I wish that every meeting was a jubilant, high-five frenzy…some are not. Why?

To be truthful, themes emerge over time. Here are the top 10 review mistakes I’ve seen:

  1. Poor explanation for mediocre outcomes
  2. Defensive posture on mistakes
  3. Lack of self awareness, particularly regarding weaknesses
  4. Modesty prevents appropriate horn tooting Continue reading →
Keith Trivitt

Good PR is Good PR. Period.

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If you had asked me three years ago what type of work I was in, I would have told you something along the lines of, “Oh, I work in social media PR,” or, “I’m in digital PR.” Like many others, I, too, was caught up in the catchphrases of the day to describe a new line of thinking for our profession.

But I’m starting to shift my thinking back to a simpler, more clear thought on the profession: Good PR is good PR. No matter how you slice it or dice it.

I was reminded of this the other day while reading yet another “This is how we can save PR”-type blog post. You know the type –10 tips for saving the profession, or five ways that social media is transforming PR. Continue reading →

Rebecca Denison

How Do You Plan for Measurement?

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Now that PR measurement (and social media measurement) have become buzzwords, I would hope that all of us are measuring at least to some extent. I know that it’s still going to be a while before every single campaign includes measurement, but it’s about time you start planning for it.

While it’s encouraging to know more folks are starting to think about it, sometimes measurement is just assumed, but not logically thought through. This only leads to last minute scrambling and lower quality work. Just like the best campaigns, the best and most accurate measurement requires planning.

If data collection and analysis is something you’ve never had to worry about before, working it into your schedule can mean a lot of guesswork. Take it from someone who knows, it will take more time than you might initially think. Continue reading →

Manny Otiko

What Every PR Rookie Ought to be Doing

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Both the PR and media world have undergone great changes since I first got started in the field in the mid 1990s. When I first started off as a reporter, I spent several hours learning how to use the flywheel to resize photos. And just when I had that figured out, along came Photoshop, which made all that knowledge useless.

Today, change seems to be happening at lightning-fast speed. The advent of social media and the rapid demise of the print media have caused huge strains on PR practioners, who have to keep up with these developments.  I am a technophile, but even I admit that sometimes it gets exhausting trying to keep up with the latest press release platform, social media fad or cell phone app.

Having said that, here are a few things that all PR rookies (and some old pros) need to be doing: Continue reading →

Keith Trivitt

The Impending Data Deluge

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(CC) Courtesy akash_k

I recently returned from the PRSA International Conference in Washington, D.C. (full disclosure: I am employed by PRSA), where much of the focus was on social media and enhancing the strategic value of public relations. What struck me most about the sessions was how few of them were geared toward the once-hot topics of “Social Media is Great!,” or “This Social Media Thing is A Fad.” Instead, a majority focused on a similar theme: “Social media has revitalized the PR profession . . . now what do we do with all of this data?!

That strikes at the heart of the next great movement for public relations. The need to understand, analyze and utilize the vast array of data, sentiment analysis and other metrics gathered from social media. Continue reading →

Jennifer Cosgrove

Stop, Drop and Roll

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Businessman crossing his fingers behind his backI sit here today a recently unemployed public relations professional who is giving serious consideration to a career change.  I graduated college in 2005 and immediately entered the biz.  I had high hopes for myself and took every experience for what it was worth, learning every moment and dedicating myself and my career to the agency and clients at hand.  I loved it and have loved working in this field for over five years.

Recently I’ve made a few career moves to learn more, give myself more opportunities and resources, and also to make more money.  I’ve gone from a small agency of two, to a mid-sized agency of 25+ and I’ve noticed a few things along the way that I thought I’d share from my perspective.

I want to make more money, we all do.  But, I don’t want to make more money and love my job less.  Sounds like a simple statement that we can probably all share and support but in the public relations business, I’m not sure at my ripe age of 28, that I can see this as a reality.  With every agency move, I have indeed made more money.  But I also see things happening within the larger agencies that I strongly disapprove of and disagree with. Continue reading →

Jeff Esposito

What does PR mean to you?

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Girl using cookie cutterOver the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get a handle on what PR had become to me.  The industry is in a state of flux and evolution. Instead of the old fare cup of coffee industry that we grew up in the current state is robust with flavors that would make Starbucks blush.

With many PR folks taking the helm of social networking (SN) activities, I’ve also wondered if PR was the correct term for the industry as the space blends PR with many other disciplines like customer service, sales and word-of-mouth marketing.

I asked folks in the #PRBC discussion what PR meant to them and really just got back a handful of generic cookie cutter answers that reflected what the industry used to be. Continue reading →