There is a very strange neighborhood in Brooklyn named Williamsburg. It’s sort of like the old East Village was plunked down over the river in an industrial area sandwiched between one of America’s largest communities of Hasidic Jews to the south and Polish immigrants to the north. And then there’s the thriving Latino community in the middle and the old Italian community just to the east. Everyone in the middle is a “hipster,” part of the neighborhood’s ongoing gentrification. And when new businesses move into this kind of hostile market, it can be a public relations minefield. (Read more…)

When I was a journalist, I once wrote a negative news story about a major company, and unfortunately there was a slight problem. I was given a quote by the company, which addressed the issue at hand in a very roundabout way. I included the quote in my story, but it was subsequently eliminated during editing. (Read more…)

A PR Fuel reader writes: “How should a public relations department handle requests for competing media interviews? I had a very newsworthy author earlier this year. I was fortunate that several TV news shows wanted to interview him. But they all wanted to go first.” (Read more…)

A friend of mine called recently, looking for a public relations firm to handle a new project. He had already interviewed a few potential firms, and he wanted to know if I would sit in with him during a second round of interviews. What we learned should provide entrepreneurs and start-up companies alike with some helpful tips when they decide it’s time to take their public relations strategy to the professional level. (Read more…)

Ugly. That’s the only way to describe what happened on Monday, when companies across the nation announced that over 72,000 workers would be laid off. Caterpillar, General Motors, Home Depot, IBM, Pfizer, Sprint Nextel, and Texas Instruments were among those announcing workforce reductions. Even two National Football League teams — the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins — said they were paring their employee rolls. (Read more…)

The audience was small, just forty or so people. The venue was obscure, the cafeteria of a seniors center. The time was not prime, 7:15 on a Tuesday night. The speaker was an unknown to those in attendance, yours truly. But I was engaging in public relations, reminding myself that PR can mean community outreach as much as working for a big client or company. (Read more…)

Public relations disasters (and triumphs) come in all shapes and sizes, and from all corners of the country. Here’s a look at a few of each, along with a few tips to help you avoid the disasters — and repeat the triumphs. (Read more…)

A wave of relief washed over me after I called the customer service line of Dow Jones. After three months of paying for a subscription, I had only received two issues of the weekly publication to which I had subscribed. The customer service agent at Dow Jones was courteous, changing the delivery method and extending my subscription for three months, free of charge. This kind of excellent customer service is rare, which is surprising considering that customer service experiences are directly related to how the public views a company. Poor customer service can quickly snowball into a public relations nightmare, as evidenced by the snafus of two large corporations. (Read more…)

Improving your public relations strategy doesn’t have to be a time- or money-consuming affair. Taking on some easy tasks and implementing some simple ideas can lead directly to generating good publicity and improving your existing public relations efforts. Here are seven tips to get the most out of your public relations budget. (Read more…)

Event planning is a difficult process, whether you’re a layperson or a public relations pro. Schedules need to be coordinated, collateral material needs to be assembled, and presentations need to be prepared. Entertainment and catering services may need to be booked, and guests must be attended to. Securing a site for an event can prove troublesome depending on the budget, and setting an agenda can be a pain when too many people are involved in the planning process. But as I learned recently, sometimes the biggest secret to successful event planning is having a contingency plan. (Read more…)