My forte as a journalist was reporting bad news. Whistleblowers, inside sources, gossip–I loved it all. I got a tip, tracked it down, and then the newspaper splashed a big, nasty headline on my story. Sometimes, even my editors would have been surprised about how I got my scoops. Read More
A corporate motto that says — in as few words as possible — a lot about your product or service is key to strategic image management (SIM). SIM demands that you choose a motto that telegraphs your values and prompts people to respond positively to whatever you sell. (And ultimately, to buy it.) Read More
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 “magic bullet” theory of public relations — that one press release is all you need to grab the attention of journalists — is easily debunked. A single press release will rarely, if ever, do the trick. Read More
Last week, I thanked my customers in a special Thanks-Valentine’s message. The response was very positive. I received dozens of messages that had a common theme: people were responding to my message on a very personal level. Read More
Marketing is a dirty word for many mid-sized or community-based nonprofits. Activists often see marketing and public relations campaigns as tactics corporations use to dupe otherwise respectable consumers into buying junk they don’t need. Nonprofits, with their purer motivations and lofty goals, tend to spurn a lot of traditional public relations strategies. Read More
Gone are the days when members of the media are the only people reading your press releases. Thanks to the online distribution model, press releases are now transmitted to thousands of web sites and millions of e-mail inboxes. Read More
A PR Fuel reader writes: “With the CAN-SPAM Act in place, does a massive press release email blast to the media constitute spam? Read More
So you have a fine press release written, but you don’t know quite what to do with it. You decide to blast an email to your best contacts. You get no response. You pitch some people over the phone, but they’re not interested. So it’s time to go to the newswire or wire. Read More
If you want your press release to get an editor’s attention, you need to get to the point as quickly as possible. Dozens of press releases stream into a newsroom every day. Most of them end up in the trash because an editor simply didn’t have time to read through the whole release to grasp the writer’s point. Read More