Darby writes:

Times are tough. Money is more than tight. Can a press release save my company?

Mickie responds:

I’m not going to sugarcoat this. A single press release is unlikely to save your company. I can’t give you Vegas odds. They’re probably better than a state lottery, but reality is that a single press release is simply a start. (Read more…)

It took me a few months to figure out her modus operandi. For four years, she called me once a month. It was always on the last Friday of the month, and always before lunch. We would chat for a few minutes I would ask a few questions; she would skirt around the answers. She would pitch me a story or two; I would sigh and act disinterested. Maintaining relationships with journalists is critical to long-term success in public relations. The journalist/public relations relationship must be fostered with trust and then fueled with consistent communication. Here’s a case in point. (Read more…)

Several years ago when I was covering the dot-com bubble, a German magazine featured me in a story. “The Harbinger of Death,” the writer called me, noting that if I wrote about a company there was a good chance that said company was on its way to the grave. “The Harbinger of Death” is back, but these days I’m an analyst, studying corporate executives who disastrously borrowed money against the stock they own in their company. (Read more…)

Recently I attended an interesting investment conference at Columbia University. The occasion brought together some of the world’s most respected money managers and financial industry professionals. I marveled at the fact that men and women who represented over $100 billion stood on stage at one point. I was more impressed, however, by the way the speakers and panel participants conducted themselves. Confidence is the key to public speaking, a major part of any public relations strategy. And confidence in public speaking was the message that Leon Cooperman drove home at the conference. (Read more…)

Lately, I’ve been taking time to reflect. Part of this reflection has concentrated on my career, and more often than not I’m dwelling on my failures, rather than my successes. More than a few of those failures are related to public relations, and considering they say you learn more from your mistakes than from your triumphs, a look at some of my public relations blunders should provide a little insight in what not to do in the future. (Read more…)

It’s time for another dip into the PR Fuel mailbag. This time around, readers have questions about job interviews with public relations firms; the pros and cons of media training courses; the potential public relations pitfalls of Facebook; and more. (Read more…)

Small or large, all companies hunger for feature stories highlighting the positive elements of their businesses. Feature stories in newspapers or magazines make for great calling cards when trying to close a deal, hire employees, attract investors, and draw consumers, clients, or customers. Getting the story published, however, can be a gut-wrenching and lengthy affair. Getting the story to read how you want is even more difficult. Here are five tips for pitching a feature story and making it a public relations winner. (Read more…)

I recently celebrated my first decade working in the public relations industry, in one capacity or another. As I looked back on ten years in public relations, I realized I have many fond memories and plenty of regrets. I had some big successes, and some terrible failures. I got publicity in a newspaper read by more than one million people everyday, and a write-up in a high school newspaper read by a few hundred students and parents. More than anything, I realized that I’ve learned a heck of a lot about public relations in that decade. Here are just a few of the tips I’ve picked up after ten years in the belly of the beast. (Read more…)

Half-day Fridays, long weekends, longer lunches, ducking out for “getaway” day baseball games, early afternoon drinks, meetings that last 18 holes. Summer is great fun, but some people in the public relations industry seem to be on a permanent vacation. Are you one of these PR slackers? (Read more…)

Late last week, I received “the freak-out call.”  Back when I was a journalist, one public relations rep or another would call, frantic about a client I was about to portray negatively in a column or story. As a journalist, the freak-out call was a guilty pleasure; sometimes it even provided information for a story that I might not have gotten without the freak-out. The call I received last week revealed what it was like to be on the public relations end of a potential negative news story, and a self-made crisis was narrowly averted through careful crisis management. (Read more…)