Guest post by Susan Daniels

New research out in the PR space seems to favor the use of theory-based PR relations techniques. But by thinking inversely, like a person using a search engine’s reverse phone number lookup to stop businesses from doing solicitations, people can build great stories to capture any audience and build better brand recognition.

Catherine Sweet is one that disagrees with those perpetuating the theory-based PR. She says that “my teaching has made me realize the power of ‘story telling’ as being the best form of PR and communication there is. As humans, we are hardwired to listen and learn; it’s how we acquire language in the first place.” To her, storytelling is a much more effective communication technique for PR, and gives those in PR some creative expression to think directly or indirectly. Continue reading

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Languages evolve. New words appear, we start using them, they eventually make their way into the dictionaries, and are thus vouched for. Until that point, new words are o sort of mambo jumbo for a lot of people. We all remember when the very common verb ‘to google’ first appeared in the dictionary. It then continued with blog, blogger, tweet, woot, sexting, bromance, and other words that have recently made their way into our every day chats.

PR professionals and communication experts have an interesting position when it comes to these new words, especially when they focus on the online part of their profession. On one hand, we have netizens who expect us to address them in their own manner of speaking and writing, on the other we have serious business people that expect the utmost professionalism when being reached out to, which includes correct use of language and grammar. Officially, until they are introduced in the dictionaries and accepted as real words, what we’re using is not clean English (or what ever other language you address them in).  Continue reading

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The world of public relations is a very exciting one to be in. Something new happens every day and it very rarely is boring. It might be annoying, downright crazy, disappointing or fun, but bored is not a feeling you are likely to run across as a PR pro.

Of its many paradoxes, one that has always intrigued me concerns PR being or not something personal. If you think about it, a good PR pro is a person that gets involved all the way in the campaigns they run. They have to know the products or services they promote, they have to love them and they have to really put their soul into what they do. If they don’t get involved, it shows in the words they pick, in their nonverbal communication, in their inability to relate. So PR is a very personal affair.  Continue reading

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Trust is a rare and very valuable commodity in the world of public relations. It is what seldom makes the difference between success and failure for both PR professionals and the companies they represent. To better understand how trust capital impacts a PR career, read on for an analysis of three main ways trust defines your day to day work.

Journalists and trust

The way a journalist views a PR representatives and their clients often determines their angles on stories they pick up and write about. If you are trustworthy, they will also be more likely to pick up the topics you pitch and cover them. What trust means when it comes to a PR pro’s relationship with journalists is that a reporter or editor trusts the information you send to be accurate, believes you when you say you and your clients are available for follow up questions and any other background details they might need and also trusts you to let them know when something worthwhile is happening. Continue reading

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About 30 seconds. That’s how long it takes for a reader or journalist to decide if your press release is worth their time. And that’s of course an average! In other cases they get bored after 15 seconds. Unfortunately, it’s often not about the quality of the story you’re sending over email or publishing online. It is more often about the information overload we have to deal with everyday.

Hundreds and hundreds or emails, articles and newsletters are received by journalists, employees and business owners every day. For the unlucky ones, it’s thousands, including the 20-30% of it that’s spam managing to trick their filters. Getting 30 seconds of someone’s time is a privilege and you need to make the best out of it. If you succeed, they they will spend an additional minute on your news release and maybe decide to write about it or buy your product. Continue reading

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