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…)

Time to peek into the PR Fuel mailbag. This time around, readers wanted to know how to handle tricky media interviews, how to find a public relations firm at the right price, and more. (Read more…)

Recently I appeared on the CNBC show Kudlow and Cramer. I’d like to use that on-camera experience to offer up a little advice for any public relations pros who suddenly find themselves (or their clients) booked for any sort of televised media interview. It’s not as scary as you may have thought. (Read more…)

PR giant Edelman and market research firm Inteliseek released a white paper entitled “Trust MEdia: How Real People Are Finally Being Heard — The 1.0 Guide to the Blogosphere for Marketers & Company Stakeholders” (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…)

It’s become a public relations mantra: build relationships with reporters. But journalists don’t want relationships. They deal with dozens of contacts and demanding deadlines each day; they don’t have the time or energy to “do lunch,” especially with public relations people. But it’s not impossible to build relationships with reporters, provided you can meet two or three of their basic conditions. (Read more…)

When speaking during public relations presentations or media interviews, it’s easy to make any number of rookie mistakes. You may not have prepared enough in advance. Try too hard to appear confident, and you may simply look like you’re showing off. You can confuse listeners by overusing unexplained technical jargon. You can speak in a flat, affectless tone that makes you seem cold and unemotional. Any or all of these mistakes may lead to an audience so bored that it misses your key messages completely. Here are five tips for adding a human touch to your next presentation, speech, or interview. (Read more…)

Congratulations! Your start-up company’s ready to announce its first product. Or maybe you’re handling a competitive announcement from one division of a huge corporation. Or maybe you’re somewhere between big business and entrepreneurship. Whatever the size of your organization, you’ve moved into the public relations stage. Let’s assume everything is ready: press list, press release, booth reserved at key trade shows. You’re good to go, right? Wrong. Because unless you and your staff are prepared for the series of media interviews that are (hopefully) about to ensue, you could be setting yourself up for disaster. (Read more…)

It’s not difficult for a company with a small public relations department to attraction attention from local media. You might not think that same small company –- or even a small company without an in-house public relations department –- could also also attract attention from regional, national, and even international media outlets. But it’s easier than you might have assumed. The following tips can help you –- or your outside public relations firm — launch your company into the national spotlight. (Read more…)

If you want to maximize a public relations client’s chances for good publicity, you may have to ask them them curb their sales pitch. A client’s desire to push a product or service in a press campaign is often the most effective way to get press releases ignored by journalists. Public relations consultants can ruin relationships with editors and producers, and your client’s credibility may become suspect. (Read more…)