There was a time when simply creating and sharing an infographic would net you a ridiculous amount of attention. Those days are long gone because now everyone has figured out the importance of visual content and therefore infographics are used much more frequently. Now, the space is competitive.
Your infographic has to be both more compelling and informative than the next. That’s not the easiest thing to accomplish, especially when you’re working with a particularly boring or dull topic. Continue reading →
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Temperatures are starting to get cooler in areas of the country. Do you know what that means? You are behind on your Christmas PR plan!
If you are buried under in your daily to-do list and Christmas seems like a million years from now….snap out of it. You may have missed the majority of the Christmas spreads in the most desirable magazines but you can still pull it off. Continue reading →
We have all heard of Spring cleaning and in the South, where I am from, we have freezer cleaning when it is hurricane season.(This basically means you use all of the items in the freezer so in case you lose power you don’t lose a lot of frozen items). Either way they are both dedicated times that you stop each year to focus on clearing out the clutter and reorganizing yourself.
While it is hard to stop in the PR world, summer is the perfect time to stop and clean up the shop. Add it to your Outlook calendar to save time for cleaning. Tackle those things that you wish you had time to do that would make life easier but you don’t have time to stop. Continue reading →
PR pros plan for the worst and hope for the best. It is our job. I asked about 50 PR pros what is in your PR Event Toolkit. You know, the go to box that you bring to every event that is stashed with a solution to just about any event crisis except the weather.
With this box you can either save the day or survive on a deserted island. Here is what they said are the necessities to have on hand: Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
In the daily juggle it is sometimes hard to remember to do it all. If you didn’t know it, PR pros are human too. I know that I cross my fingers and hope that when I do forget to do something it is more minor than missing a TV appearance or forgetting to meet a client deadline.
“Organization is critical for success in public relations,” says Michael Hanson, Director of PR at The Modern Brand Company. “PR people are always on the go, juggling multiple pitches, refining infinite messages, brainstorming at all hours of the day, and so on. Sometimes the small things, do make a difference.”
PR pros are constantly focused on big things such as a big media interview, a big event or a big client prospect. Sometimes the smaller things are the tasks that are easier to forget. Continue reading →
We all know there are good PR Pros and there are the “other” PR imposters. These imposters go around selling our profession short of what it is and throwing mud on the industry name. It is hard to show that you are not one of “those” to a reporter, client or boss who has been burned.
“Professionals have credentials and others merely have titles such as Vice President,” says Jeffrey Geibel, APR, Principal of Geibel Marketing and Public Relations. “An APR is a transportable credential such as an MBA. It goes with you, unlike a title.”
The APR is a hit or miss topic for PR pros. Some are die hard that you have to have it and others are waiting for the raise and the promotion to come along with the hard work that it takes to be accredited. Continue reading →
Having come from a large agency background, I’ve grown accustomed to working on sizable account teams. This also means that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great, young talent throughout the years. I’ll never forget when I first started out in agency life. Fresh out of college, I landed my first gig in healthcare public relations and haven’t looked back since. Throw in some traditional media relations, thought leadership and a bit of crisis communications, and I was well on my way to using the skills I had learned in college…right?
Sometimes, probably on our worst days, being a publicist can feel like being a glorified telemarketer. And, on those days, it seems that journalists feel the same way about us. In fact, many of them have posted diatribes on their personal sites about us and how to properly pitch them. In fact, I have seen whole sites devoted to just that topic.
However, there are many of us publicists out there that do the job right. (Hopefully more of us than the bad ones, but I guess I’ll never know.) The good ones make sure to create targeted lists of journalists and outlets that will care about our story, read/view/listen to journalists’ work before pitching and create short, well-written pitches to hit the mark. We are actually an asset to journalists, if only they would see beyond the words “public relations.” To get the most of out of us, journalists could actually use a few tips of their own for dealing with PR people. Continue reading →
I don’t mean the hit song by Kelly Clarkson. I mean YOU—the PR pro, publicist, idea peddler, creative genius, whatever you want to call yourself. You’ve got clout and Klout. You are in a position to make a difference.
What I’m talking about here goes beyond securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in media placements for a client (although that would be the icing on the cake). It’s about making a difference in people’s lives by counseling your clients to roll out a cause-related PR campaign. If they haven’t tried it, I believe it’s time that they do.
I’m so psyched about penning this piece on cause-related PR because I’m a big believer in its merits. And I’ve seen it time and time again on how media outlets are much more open to covering your news if it’s tied-in with a reputable charity. The question is why haven’t you gotten buy in from your client. Continue reading →