Bookmark This! New and Improved PR Tools

Searching the web high and low for effective tools to help public relations professionals, I found a number of new and improved resources that can be of benefit even to the most veteran flack. The one thing all of these tools have in common? They’re free. (Read more…)

PR Fuel Mailbag

It’s once again time to reach into the old PR Fuel mailbag and answer some of reader questions. This time around we look at global public relations, the key differences between PR and advertising, crisis management in the public relations industry, and dealing with clients in tricky situations. (Read more…)

A Week on the Other Side of Public Relations

The following is a look at one week in the life of an ex-journalist–i.e., me–and the public relations headaches and hurdles I had to deal with. There may be some happy stories in there as well. Think of this a little look behind the scenes for public relations professionals wondering how their work truly impacts those writers and reporters they spend their workweek wooing. (Read more…)

A Public Relations Guide to Dealing with Layoffs

Dealing with layoffs can be a draining experience for public relations consultants. The distraction of your own job being on the line — and the internal climate change that follows such announcements — make it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand: making sure your organization’s public image remains intact. (Read more…)

The Public Relations Upside to an Economic Downturn

An economic downturn is something that no one — save pawn shop operators, repo men and payday lenders — wants to deal with. The situation, however, does not have to be a negative. Economic downturns can present opportunities for many businesses, including public relations firms. (Read more…)

Trendspotting

After recent conversations with public relations professionals, journalists and others in the business world, I’ve identified the five trends that people say will help you get the ink you’ve been looking for - or that will help you better understand how the ground under public relations continues to shift. (Read more…)

Learning from a Century of Press Releases

On October 28, 1906, the Pennsylvania Railroad issued what is believed to be the first press release. The release was the idea of the company’s outside public relations counsel, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, and it revolutionized how companies and organizations delivered information to the public. And modern-day public relations professionals can still learn plenty from the story of that very first press release. (Read more…)

Disturbing News Cycle Has Its Lessons

The news cycle over the past week or so has been disturbing, to say the least.

The unraveling of Don Imus’ career showed the power of advocacy groups, the 24/7 media and the free markets. The dismissal of charges against three Duke University student-athletes proved how people can manipulate the media and how the media can rush judgment. Meanwhile, the senseless mass murder at Virginia Tech University has brought up questions about insensitive over-coverage and the role of citizen journalists. These events have many things in common - race, class and age being the most obvious. These events also have the worst common denominator — victims. (Read more…)

A Day Without PR People

Did you hear the news? Friday is Public Relations Appreciation Day — in Tucson, Arizona.

Mayor Bob Walkup made the declaration earlier this week to help celebrate a conference being held in The Old Pueblo by The Public Relations Society of America’s Western District. (Read more…)

Cast a Positive Spell with Your PR Magic

Twenty teachers in Hoboken, New Jersey could be out of jobs if the city’s Board of Education doesn’t find a way to pay their salaries out of a $56.3 million annual budget. At least one of those teachers could be spared the unemployment line if the Board wised up, took the $75,000 allocated for public relations spending and put it back into the general budget. (Read more…)