Reputica

Managing your clients' public relations expectations is vital when directing a company's PR department or a PR firm. You must determine and guide each client's PR expectations. You must clarify for each client - What PR is and isn't - What public relations can and can't do - The benefits each PR program element you recommend will provide - The difference between publicity fluff and PR substance. By explaining the PR process along with PR's benefits and limitations before you start working with a client, you'll avoid huge misunderstandings and client dissatisfaction as the program unfolds. Here are key points you and your client must agree upon regarding PR program expectations: What does the client...

Perhaps you'd like to promote your organization's event. Maybe you're trying to publicize your cause. Or maybe you're trying to get media attention for yourself or your product. Sometimes it's difficult to have your voice heard amidst the cacophony of competing messages. The mainstream media often refers to today's information overload. After all, people get their information from more sources than ever before. There's broadcast news, cable news, newspapers, magazines, radio, online publications, bloggers, discussion boards, RSS streams, and more. It seems, however, that people aren't overwhelmed with information; they're simply customizing the way they receive information. As for the mainstream...

A brand is much more than a logo, tagline, colour and graphic elements. It often has a theme and an association to communicate to its customers without which the idea of gaining market share falls flat. One of the initial things that brand management firms will suggest to you is to decide on your brand message - something that you want to communicate or be associated with when users recall your name. It is then up to your marketing and public relation specialist to see that the right message is put forward to your stakeholders through the right channel. While some product launches may require a flamboyant marketing campaign with outdoor hoardings, some minor developments call for communication to...

Everyone's got an opinion. And in the internet age, everyone can and does voice their opinion online. A short search online will bring back at least one person's opinion about every kind of business under the sun, from eye doctors to painters. Restaurants are particularly targeted by the masses of opinion makers out there, since the very nature of making and serving food is so subjective. So do you have any idea what people are saying online about your restaurant? I have talked about Yelp in previous posts, the restaurant review site that has had a tenuous relationship with restaurant owners at best since its inception. But Yelp is only the tip of the opinion iceberg, and the restaurateur who...

The Web gives disgruntled customers the power to destroy your business. Right or wrong, negative information about you or your business never goes away. Thanks to data distribution technologies such as RSS (just a form of XML), negative information posted in a single location can be spread to hundreds or thousands of other sites instantly. One bad review can be disastrous. The first step in fixing your search engine reputation is to try and make your customers happy. Do they have real reasons to be unhappy? If so, fix the problems. The problem is that even if you fix the problem that is causing your customers to be angry, those web pages that contain bad reviews still exist, damaging your reputation...

What do you do? You have given birth to a great idea, a great big baby with massive potential. The problem is turning potential into genuine success. Where do you begin? Frustration can easily manifest itself if you hit a brick wall when it comes to marketing and PR knowledge. You yourself are convinced your idea is a good one but how do you let the world know about it when the market place is already drowning in all singing, all dancing products. A little bit of glamour and a little bit of carefully crafted polish can go a long way in promoting something that while showing undoubted quality, is really struggling to get off the ground. An informed nudge in the right direction can send your idea into...

Many companies -- big and small -- view public relations the same way a person suffering from a head cold views the curative potential of a bowl of hot chicken soup. Will it help? Who knows? But it can't hurt. Executives remain unclear of their organizations' PR effectiveness because they don't engage tools to measure PR program impact on desired audiences. But they soldier on anyway because they consider "getting good PR" a desirable objective.  Typically, PR programs use press releases, media interviews, newsletters, seminars and a wide variety of other communications vehicles to deliver positive messages to key audiences via print, broadcast and digital media. Measuring your PR program's...

id #CCCCCC; background-color: #ffffff;" /> Many times, companies face problems that may threaten their reputation if not dealt with correctly. Such situations are declared as a ‘PR crisis’ and must be handled by professionals so as to assure minimum damage. A few companies that have faced major PR crises in the recent past are Pepsi Corporation, Johnson & Johnson and Firestone. At the time of a PR crisis, the involved company attracts a lot of negative attention from consumer organizations, shareholders, investigation agencies, government bodies, media professionals, consumers and other related parties. So, it is important that the organization handles the situation subtly. A...

Becoming a public relations consultant is a career that is definitely on the rise and over the last few years pr has become somewhat of a buzz word in the business world. Especially with it's relation to the internet and advertising it is just one of those industries that everyone hears about and wants to be involved in. It's exciting, challenging, and you get to deal with people everyday. If you are a person looking to get into consulting then the public relations sector might be something that could interest you. If you the sound of writing press releases, updating blogs, sending out email campaigns, and speaking to media sound interesting to you then maybe this is the industry that you want to...

aware of the importance of public relations. Through PR, we are able to establish a good name for our business. A credible name is an important factor in the success of our business. Through it, we entice investors. It also allows us to generate the trust and confidence of potentials customers. This eventually leads to more sales. Public relation pertains to activities that enhance the reputation of a product or the business. This is also applicable to famous personalities and politicians. Since it is very easy for the public to spot any wrongdoing of popular people, they need the help of PR professionals to assist them in showing their best at all times. There is a PR expert for your specific need...

When I needed website changes, I additionally paid a web programmer. When I needed direct mailers created, I had to commission a graphic designer. It may seem unlikely that a doctor's office needs medical marketing, but even medical professionals are business owners with goals for growth. Eliminate the Cost of Full-Time Staff Members Keeping my marketing, design and web programming staff in-house did not make sense when I used the services approximately once a week. I was finding ways to make use of their time rather than needing them each day. Beyond paying a salary, because these people were full-time employees, I was spending thousands of dollars per month to offer benefits. In return I was...

Does hiring a PR firm even make sense today with the world changing so much? Has the whole game of PR been altered forever because of 800 TV channels, satellite radio, Facebook, Twitter, blogging and other social media? Is the world so obsessed with 'reality' that actually creating public relations becomes impossible for even the best PR firms? Can a firm even grab the attention of television, radio or newspaper producers long enough to pay attention to the PR company's pitch? I am writing this after hiring three different PR firms and not getting the results that either the companies or myself expected. Yes, we got some results and yes I gave each company most of a year to produce results. Each...

In our previous article in our public relations series we discussed how to land you first job in the field of public relations. In this article we're going to briefly touch on what exactly public relations is and how complex it has become in our modern world. If you were to look up public relations in the dictionary you would find one of the following definitions. 1. The art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public. 2. The methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public. 3. The degree of success obtained in achieving a favorable relationship with the public. 4. (as a noun) a promotion intended to create...

As this year fast comes to a close, it's time to determine your top three, high-return lead generation methods and evaluate how consistently you apply them. So often, we make single attempts at any variety of marketing or public relations tactics, only to abandon them before giving them the benefit of consistent application. Let the New Year be the year you apply focus, discipline, and consistency to the top three high-return lead generation methods in your business-building toolbox so you can reap the greatest rewards. To that end, here are ten powerful media relations tactics for growing businesses serious about generating quality leads. 1. Write how-to articles for the media that have the...

In the event a high profile organizational setback or emergency occurs, what is know as the crisis communication mode takes over. At these crucial times, the corporate communications office immediately becomes the face and voice of the organization, especially when dealing with the media. Corporate Communications blends the roles of public relations, advertising and marketing into a single, highly focused campaign. This involves carefully managing talent. A corporate communications consultant will accurately assess each person, with a goal of utilizing of their relative strengths, weaknesses and personality traits. Under the old model in which outside firms were contracted for PR or advertising help...

Corporations need to be highly skilled at public relations, especially in today's age of social networking sites, twitter, corporate blogging, and the Internet information generation. Corporations and companies all have anniversaries and they also have anniversaries for all of their brand names, and major product lines. It sometimes makes sense to use an anniversary date to launch a public relations campaign, or to promote a new product or service that you will be offering to your customers or clients. Consumers love this stuff, and it gives them something to think about and talk about, plus it adds one more impression of your brand name imprinting in their minds. For instance, Kellogg's Corporation...

Whether you have an in-house PR department, hire a public relations freelancer part time to work your campaign, or are trying to launch and implement your campaign on your own, do yourself and your company a favor and do an outside PR assessment on your campaign, objectives, strategy, game plan and implementation. Public Relations is a very refined and subtle process. You can have the right stories, but be implementing them the wrong way, or presenting them to the wrong media contacts. You could have all the elements for a successful campaign in place, but not be utilizing them correctly. There are several aspects to consider and review, including: 1. Are your press releases written in a way that...

Public relations is really a broad category of free promotion you may do online. It includes press releases as well as any other newsworthy type of communications you may create about your business (i.e. video, radio, TV). The best part of using public relations to promote your business online is that it gives you a lot more credibility than traditional advertising because it is perceived as being newsworthy. This is the element of your business you really need to focus on in order to be effective here: the campaigns you are creating are news; they are newsworthy. The first thing you need to do is ask yourself: What is happening in my business that the press or my potential customers want to know...

Advertising   Paid for by a business to be submitted and published Advertorial   Similar to advertising but it looks like a piece of editorial Bills    The day's headlines on the board (or bill board) outside a newsagents    Brief (or nib or even fudge) Small item of news, one paragraph only, in a newspaper By-line    Carried on a story, to identify who wrote it Brand    Your company's name and its identity - more than just its logo CIPR    Chartered Insitute of Public Relations Copy    The words that make up a piece of writing Corporate communications The company's messages (such as press releases) to the outside world Crisis Management  Coping when the proverbial...

Creating a successful public relations campaign is not an easy task by any standards. There are many domains for which such a project can be developed and each one of them requires a completely different approach. In the last couple of years, more and more PR companies have started to focus their attention on a few areas alone, such as food and travel. Food PR is usually revolving around the immediate need of the consumer, but more importantly around the problems which can appear in certain situations. Nowadays, more and more serious diseases have started to be transmitted through our food supply and getting ill after consuming any type of food is not uncommon. This means that you'll never know...

A public relations campaign informs the public about change within the company. It builds awareness of your business to potential customers. The way this is being accomplished however, is rapidly changing. Press and news releases are still being used, but there is a much larger focus on social media. With social media you reach potential customers that can be missed with traditional marketing. Social media public relations campaigns allows you to really connect with your targeted audience. You can open the lines of communication and see what the public has to say about your business. Ways to improve what your doing or offering, even if a certain product is just not picking up that well, the public...

Before you ask, the title of this post is grammatically correct. "Public Relations" is now a recognized field of study, employment and specialization, which is used to help companies expand their customer bases through methods other than traditional advertising. Public relations, commonly referred to as PR, is the entire process of creating and maintaining a brand's reputation with the public. The primary task of a PR professional is to ensure that a company's central message gets across to its target audience. PR can be used by anyone - individual, small business or corporate. The student lobbying for a classmate's attention is engaging in PR, just as a presidential candidate campaigning for...

As competition increases for online market space B2B marketers need to ensure they attract as much qualified traffic to their websites as possible. One of the most cost effective strategies for search marketing is positioning your products and services within the search engine results pages through optimizing web pages for the best (most profitable) search terms - otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. So, why is Digital PR so important? Issuing optimized press releases for the digital realm creates opportunity for a news story to be picked up in the blogosphere. The more compelling a story the more chance it has in achieving 'tipping point'. How to Create a Digital PR Programme Here I'll...

Not every company has a fantastic public image, but that can change with the help of public relations. This tool is especially important that it can sometimes make or break a business. This is because it allows your business to stand out in the B2B market, which is crowded with competitors. You can expose your company to more potential clients and make them think positively of your products and services. Public relations can be handled using several different techniques. Combining them helps you affect the public opinion of your company for the best. Some of the most common tools include media tours, press releases, brochures, special events, press conferences, trade shows, direct mail, and...

The aim of Public Relations is to maximize support and minimize opposition for your enterprise among the various stakeholders and general public. A PR campaign consists of two distinct elements -- strategy and execution, i.e. what to do and how to do it. The role of a Public Relations Counselor is to suggest strategy, i.e. advocate âwhat to doâ. A Public Relations Counselor would typically be involved in defining the PR policy of your enterprise, analyzing problems and opportunities, identifying the stakeholders or publics you need to reach, recommending the key messages for each public, and allocating responsibilities to the team. Given the criticality of this position, here are some...

Effective public relations management depends upon developing and executing well structured plans and achieving specific goals. Plan your work then work your plan. Stay focused. However, I'd bet most public relations professionals responsible for managing a department or just an individual program must constantly deflect requests to take on arbitrary projects that may be well intentioned but only drain staff time and deplete valuable resources. In my experience, when managing organizations' public relations activities, many random requests came shortly after various departmental or even board meetings where someone decided that a certain activity or project would generate "great publicity." I can...

Law-enforcement agencies, especially police departments often get a bad rap and a bad reputation due to negative publicity or mistakes that might have been made in the field. Sometimes these stories get rather embellished and it is not the Police Department's fault. Sometimes perfectly honest police officers are made to look like the devil and the mass media hysteria runs away with a story based on a short clip of a video, which is limited in length and does not show the whole picture of what happened. It is important for law enforcement agencies to be out and about and respected by the public. Whereas some people who receive a speeding ticket are angry at the Police Department, the first time...

Companies commit huge amounts of time, manpower and money to conduct effective public relations programs and maintain their positive reputations. However, many fail to engage, potentially, their most powerful public relations engines available -- their own employees. Too many companies fail to recognize their employees' ability to provide support as their organization's best ambassadors. Every public relations initiative -- and especially every crisis communications plan -- should include a sup-plan to inform employees and other internal audiences prior to going public with news and important information. In-person briefings show your concern for employees more pointedly than a memo or newsletter...

It appears as if is promoting an online public relations campaign to get young people to vote. This is a nice service and proper good online community good will. But will this hurt Republicans because most young people are still in school and being brainwashed by liberal teachers? Some think it will and others believe it will get some students who are not old enough to vote to register illegally? Interesting issues since both parties are known for registering dead people to vote and the California Democrats have active campaigns to find ways to get illegal aliens registered as well. Nevertheless, this strategy could back fire on MySpace and the liberal intent to register a new base of young voters...

A poor reputation online can be enough to sink the best laid marketing plans in an instant, not to mention the amount of money in marketing dollars that can be lost trying to over-market poor PR. The wrong thing to do is nothing. This is where having a system for Reputation Management comes into play. In today's world it is vital for businesses of all sizes to have a strategy in place that can predict and address reputation issues, create a positive image and foster better customer relations. The Internet is a fast paced and uncaring tool for communication. It does not care if what is posted about you is good or bad. The search engines don't care either; they only care about making it findable. With...

The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) had a story recently on the front page of the business section screamed the headline, "Violations Briefly Close BowTech." Yikes! Any disruption of normal business operations is considered a crisis. So, this, my friends, was definitely a crisis. Apparently BowTech had some major building and fire code violations to correct to ensure the health and safety of employees. The facility was shut for an entire business day. The problem with this article wasn't the violations, per se. While BowTech likely should've been more vigilant about its facility, the major problem from my perspective was the clear lack of communication planning the company had in place. BowTech...