Public Relations Tips: October 2009

This article is about crisis communications: what they are, and tips on how to deal with crises in a productive way.

Any publicity is good publicity, right? Well, if you've just been hit by a major scandal, whether it's about something true or if somebody is publishing misinformation about your company, you could be shaking your head. You're probably wishing that the whole nasty thing would just go away, and that you could go back to where you were before. You're wishing that there didn't have to be such a thing as crisis communications.

Well, the bad news is that scandals hit, crises come, and people will spread rumors. Even if your products are fool-proof, your accounting is impeccable, and all of your employees are of the highest ethical and moral standards, you still have competitors. There will always be people out there who want to spread rumors and give out misinformation. You'll have to deal with these rumors too, and you'll have to deal with them quickly. Because if the news media has no idea that the rumors are wrong, they'll publish them. And as the story spreads, your situation becomes more desperate.

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So what exactly is your corporate image? It's a term that you hear thrown around a lot. "Bad step on Microsoft's part. It's really going to hurt their corporate image." Things like that. Hopefully, reading stories in the news about corporations or businesses and how their actions affect their corporate image will start you thinking about your own corporate image.

Your corporate image is how people outside of your corporation (or inside your corporation) see your company or corporation. Corporate image can thus mean a lot of things, and it doesn't just apply to corporations. Any sort of organization, like hospitals, the government, religions, non-profit organizations, charities, and universities have to know what their corporate image is, what they'd like their corporate image to be, and how to change their corporate image.

Generally speaking, your corporate image is how people see what your business stands for. It's your business' or your corporation's identity. For example, most people see oil companies as being money-grubbing, air-polluting, unfriendly companies that only want to make money. Similarly, the public usually sees tobacco companies as being family-unfriendly, kid-using, air-polluting, human-killing companies that are just out to sell their product no matter what it takes. Recently, several major tobacco companies, like Philip Morris, have made an effort to change their corporate image through carefully planned publicity and public relations campaigns.

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Community relations in reference to public relations refers to a company, organization, or other entity's relationship with their community. Community relations involves cultivating positive relationships and images with a company or organization's neighboring public. Positive community relations are a crucial aspect of corporate public relations. Community relations have the ability to make or break neighborly support or understanding of a company, and if positive, allow the company to make excellent strides in their public relations marketing plans. Community relations also allows the community and neighbors to understand the role and function of the corporation, and therefore be more encouraged to support it.

In order to cultivate positive community relations, it is vital for a corporation or entity to reach out to their state and city-wide community. Doing so can encourage corporate support, mutual understanding, and good corporate citizenship. The two most important steps in promoting community relations are: 1) Support, and 2) Participation.

Neighbors and communities respond to corporations that actively participate in and support local occurrences. Such involvement positively influences public relations and opens the doors to increased relations and/or exposure.

The cultivation of positive community relations involves multiple actions:

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What Is a Clipping Service
A clipping service is a tool generally used to by public relations firms to monitor their client's coverage by other publications. The user puts in search instructions into the service, and people within the clipping bureau read printed materials and articles for references that match the search terms provided. The clips are then gathered and sent to the client along with information about the publication the articles have appeared in.

Many clipping services also find relevant articles on the website by getting into newsgroups and online forums. These are informal sources of information, but they often provide a unique angle on how a company is perceived. In addition, some clipping services analyze the clips as well as provide them, telling their clients the editorial opinion as well as circulation of the material concerning the client's company.

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Headlines catch readers' attention and give them a hint as to what news stories, articles, and advertisements are all about. Most headlines use conciseness and well-placed verbs to provide a succinct article synopsis. Others allow a little ambiguity in an attempt to peak a reader's interest. Clever headlines should contribute to an article or story, but are frequently used to exhibit the writer's wit, convey a sense of playfulness, and even make the reader feel witty. The rare newspaper, magazine, or other publication that regularly makes use of clever headlines usually have strong followings.
The problem, however, with clever headlines is that they are not always clever. Many writers create a headline or title only to have it berated or dismissed by the public. Puns, culture references, or double entendres may not always be easily understood, therefore the message the headline was attempting to relay becomes lost. Plus, dreaming up a witticism is not always easy to do.

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A brief is a short, concise, article or written statement. The term brief is frequently associated with the law profession, where trial briefs, appellate briefs, and legal briefs are utilized. Briefs however do not apply solely to courtroom and law related functions, but are utilized in many industries

Briefs are regularly used in public relations, where they serve a variety of functions. Any public relations situation that requires a clear, succinct delivery of information will require a brief. Public relations action or strategy plans are frequently presented as briefs. Briefs may also be used by companies, corporations, or organizations as a form of personal publicity. Briefs as a tool for generating publicity are frequently published in trade-related media and are effective because:

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When you read about or research advertising and marketing, the word "branding" will often come up. What is branding? How is it used? How do people use branding effectively? Can branding positively or negative change the way people see things? How can I best apply branding to my own business? Below are some simple tips and points about branding.

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So you have written a book and you want to publish it. In order to do well you are going to need very good publicity. The question is how to get this publicity. You need to work very hard in order to get the publicity you need. Otherwise you could miss out on making a lot of money from all your hard work that you put into your book.

You thing you will want to think about is your audience. You probably are not going to try and reach the public at large because it would be too hard to get to everyone; especially since not everyone will be interested in the topic of your book.

If your book is on science you do not need to worry about getting good publicity amongst dairymen. If it is on dairy you do not need to worry about getting good publicity amongst scientist. You need to decide who your audience is and then direct your publicity campaign towards your intended audience.

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Blogging has recently become popular amongst groups of teenagers and single adults looking to meet other people with they're same interest. A blog is simply a page that once formatted allows you to post information to the web with one simple click. In the case of singles meeting singles, their blogs are generally information about themselves and their interests.

Blogs however popular amongst the singles and young adults of the world, can be used for businesses, and is a great way to immediately publish information to your companies web site with the click of a button. You can have more than one blog on your web site and therefore make them accessible to individual employees who can then be in charge of making sure different aspects of your company (i.e. products releases, success) our continually updated and reported. Someone with little knowledge of building a web site will find this a simple way to keep information on the web.

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The blacklist is a death sentence for your publicity campaign. Here's the scenario: You need publicity. We all need publicity. Movie stars, TV stars, radio personalities, and fashion designers need publicity or nobody would watch their movies, watch their TV shows, or buy their clothes. Ultimately, nobody would hire them, and their career would be over, without good publicity, and lots of it. Athletes need publicity so that they can continue to get marketing contracts and so that teams will be interested in them. Businesses need publicity so that people will come to their store and buy their products. Suppliers need publicity so that businesses will buy their products and then sell them. Even people who have professions that don't deal in the actual selling of physical objects need publicity. If you're an accountant, and nobody knows who you are, how are you going to get clients? This isn't just a problem around April 15th, but publicity is an issue throughout the entire year.

Because publicity and public relations are so important, a huge industry has grown up around publicity. You can hire a public relations specialist, or publicist, and design, with their help, an enormous and expensive publicity program. This would entail the use of TV ads, newspaper ads, billboards, and tons of other stuff. The problem is that most of us just don't have the money that you need to run such an enormous publicity campaign. It takes a lot of money and a lot of people to do something on that big of a scale. The good news is that you can save your money to fix your fax machine. There are tons of ways to get free publicity.

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So you have finally achieved your dream of becoming a pilot. That's great. It takes so much work to become a pilot these days, and for good reason. You know how dangerous flying a plane can be, how many things can go wrong quickly. You need expert training to be able to fix whatever situations might come up. You probably also love flying, either for recreational purposes, or you work in some way as a pilot. But what about the option of charter air services? You've probably heard of charter air services. Rather than buying a single ticket on a large flight, as people do with major commercial carriers, when someone charters a plane it means that they have essentially rented that plane for an entire trip. It is their trip for the time that they rent the aircraft, and you work for them as their pilot for the time being. Charter services are becoming increasingly popular as airliner travel has become both more dangerous and more inconvenient. We've all been through those endless lines at ticket counters and at security at the last few years. People just don't want to go through with that type of travel anymore, and especially people who have to travel frequently. You might spend hundreds of hours of your life just waiting for planes that you have spent good money to ride on.

Continue reading "I have a private pilot's license. What certifications do I need to fly charter aircraft?" »

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Becoming a columnist is a career goal many writers and journalists aspire to achieve. Columns are usually magazine and newspaper staples, written at specific intervals such as daily or monthly. Columns consume little of a publication's precious space and devote themselves to a single subject. Columnists usually write a column devoted to their area of expertise, be it fashion, food, relationships, manners, dog training, knitting, health, or humor. A columnist must be able to write columns that are clear, accurate, compelling, interesting, and concise. A columnist must also be able to use their writing voice and point of view to write appealing columns. It goes without saying that a columnist must have excellent writing and communication skills.

Becoming a columnist is not an easy career to break in to, especially if a writer wishes to become a magazine columnist. However, given the number and popularity of newspaper and magazine columns, it is apparent that there will always be a need for columnists. Writers should not be discouraged by the associated difficulties of becoming a columnist, but should focus their attention on perfecting their craft. With diligence, a writer may be snapped up by a publication and become the author of their own column.

A writer will do well on his or her mission to become a columnist by keeping several pointers in mind:

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Astroturfing. What is it? If you are thinking it has anything to do with space and surfing, think again. Do you think astroturfing has something to do with that fake grass they use on sports fields? Well, you're closer.

Astro turf is the artificial grass they use to put on sports fields. It was first used in the Astrodome, thus the name astro turf, but astroturfing is used as a metaphor.

Astroturfing is actually a metaphor referring to actual astro turf used on sports fields, but astroturfing isn't used in field sports at all. At least not sports like football and soccer. This type of astroturfing is used in the sports of advertising and politics.

Astroturfing in this sense, is used as a verb, an action word.

• To astroturf, is astroturfing. It is something one does.

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"Astroturfing" is the art of getting the public to believe that something is spontaneous and natural when in fact it is orchestrated and designed. Why would this be important? Well, the public is more likely to get behind something when they think it's important to their fellowmen. If something's important to a celebrity, or a big business, or a politician, the public often reacts cynically, that is, they think that the celebrity or business or politician has some secret motive for advertising what they have to say. But if it appears that what's being advertised is being generated and receiving its energy from "the man on the street," it's much more likely to interest and move other "men on the street." Astroturfing is a difficult, subtle art; it's the art of making what's actually very complicated and planned seemed out of the blue; a revelation.

Let's take some examples of astroturfing and see exactly what it is that astroturfing attempts to do.

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The Associated Press was founded in America in 1841. The purpose of the founding of it was to combine the efforts of the five largest New York newspapers to bring about more news of the going on's in Europe. To this day Associated Press remains a large combined effort of some of the United States most influential news paper companies. People seek out news from the Associated Press from all over the world.

With the rise of the Internet back in the early nineteen nineties the Associate Press has struggled to maintain a standing in the news and information world. Their ability to make history over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has not helped their case, as their technology is not necessary since news and information is so readily available to the reporter and the everyday person.

Some ways in the late nineteenth century that the Associated Press made history was their coverage and ability to get exact quotes from overseas wars. In the early twentieth century, in 1914, the Associated Press was the first to come up with the, "Teletype," which was a technological advance that allowed the Associate Press to transmit directly to printers over telegraph wires. They were also the first to send photo's over telegraph wires.

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When you hear the term article, what do you think? Most of us think of exactly what an article is: an informative piece that we read in the newspaper or in different magazines and journals. Articles are things written by other people who are experts in their field, good at what they do, and successful. Articles are written by journalists or non-journalists experts. So what do articles have to do with you, other than the fact that you read them?

Even though most people don't have any idea about this, articles are actually one of the best ways for you to get free publicity. That's right: articles, not advertisements, not press conferences, not news releases. Your public relations and your publicity can be helped out a lot by writing articles for your local newspaper, for magazines, and for trade journals and academic journals. And let's admit it: you need publicity. Anyone who depends on the public in any way needs publicity. Obviously this means celebrities, athletes, and politicians. But the life of a business or a firm depends on publicity. It's easy to see how electronics companies, sporting goods companies, or any other company that releases products need publicity. But everyone who depends on customers needs publicity. This includes medical firms, accountants, hospitals, universities, you name it, they need publicity.

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Advertising, in public relations, is the process of bringing a particular product or service to the attention of the public through television, print media, brochures, signs, direct-mailings, emails, commercials, and other means. Advertising is an expensive corporate necessity which requires strategy and complete planning in order to be effective.

Publicity, in public relations, is media mentioning of a company, organization, or entity. Unlike advertising, publicity is free and is generated by members of the media through articles, event coverage, interviews, stories, and other media. Companies and organizations have very little control over the type of publicity they receive, as journalists and reporters ultimately decide what is said. Publicity can be either positive or negative, and can have strong effects on a company or organization.

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For any business or person trying to promote their products or services, advertising is key. You have to advertise so that people know who you are, what you have, and one it does. If they do not know anything about you, your product, or your services they will not trust you enough to try you out.

By advertising you can get your name out, allow people to start becoming familiar with you and show them how great your product are services are. You can start to build trust there and start to allow people to become more aware of you and what you do.

Advertising can help to establish you as an expert. Being established as an expert is extremely important. People are a lot more likely to use your products and services if they feel that you are an expert in your field. On the other hand, if they feel that you are not an expert they will not be so trusting when it comes to using your product or services.

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Here are a few things to keep in mind, a few simple, precise things, when considering how best to go about the business of advertising.

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PR Web is an online news service that post news pertaining to small business and corporate communications. It is similar to associate press newswire and Pr newswire online. Associated press newswire and PR newswire differ from PR Web.com mainly because they are not only online sources.

The Associated press newswire has been in production for over a hundred years. They started a community of large newspapers who could report on different aspects of World War 1 and report to one portal for the information to be published. The information was published world wide. The associate press was the first to send out multiple wire services at once through the telegraph machine. They were also the first to send pictures through wire services that joined with their stories. The Associated Press is a worldwide newspaper organization that is based in the United States.

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Like many other industries, the public relations field goes through a number of trends in the way information is reported and publicity is used. In order to be successful as a professional in public relations, it's important to keep up with the trends.

Blogging
A blog, short for web log, is a combination of a person's personal life and things that are happening on the web. They are online publications that take on the form of a journal, and many of them function as informal sources of information on a particular subject, such as public relations.

The popularity of the blog has skyrocketed recently, with about 30,000 new blogs added each day.

Blogging has become a trend in public relations for a number of reasons. First of all, some blogs are more famous and more widely-read than publications, so public relations personnel no longer have to rely on media pitches and press releases as a sole means of getting messages or information out in the public. In addition, creating a blog is easy and an effective way of communicating with customers as well as the general public.

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A public relations strategy can make or break the promotion of a company or the handling of an issue. A well-executed strategy can promote an organization or event in a favorable way with a low overhead, or it can take a company that has experienced a scandal or unfavorable issue and turn it around, restoring the reputation of the company and increasing the public's confidence in it.

A winning and effective public relations strategy will aid in accomplishing the following, and much more:

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The PRSSA has lots of different publications and ways to communicate with the different members of the PRSSA. These communications tell you about new opportunities that are available for leadership, different internships, ideas for finding jobs, tips for understanding the public relations industry, and more. Here's a list of different publications and communications produced by the PRSSA.

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What is the PRSSA, and what can it do for you? The PRSSA stands for the Public Relations Student Society of America. The PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) is a student organization that is part of the PRSA, or the Public Relations Society of America. The PRSSA is an organization that was founded by the PRSA in 1968 in order to help students who are interested in following careers in public relations.

The way that the PRSSA helps students who are interested in pursuing careers in public relations in by cultivating relationships that are helpful and advantageous to both students interested in public relations are public relations professionals. The PRSSA has over 8,500 members who belong to individual chapters on college campuses.

The PRSSA works to accomplish the following goals:

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What is the PRSA and what can it do for you?

Well, the PRSA stands for the Public Relations Society of America. Have a clue now? The PRSA is an organization that is made up of public relations professionals. And public relations involves you. You need good public relations and good publicity. Everybody needs it, from celebrities down to the most local companies and organizations. But getting good publicity can be a complicated and a somewhat frightening process. Publicity and getting it is scary especially for people who don't know anything about it. If you just want to focus on getting your job done, but you still know how important publicity is, then you might want to think about hiring a publicist or a public relations specialist.

Publicity is obviously a big deal, but you probably don't have the time to really deal with coming up with an enormous publicity campaign all on your own. What's more, you probably don't have any expertise in the area. How could you? You're a computer programmer, not a publicist! Fortunately, there are lots of people out there who can help you. The job of a publicist is to get you publicity. Your public relations specialist, or publicist, will be the one who contacts and interacts with the media on your behalf. They're the one who will write your press releases, take care of organizing your news conferences, be in charge of crisis control, and will generally direct and preserve your corporate image. The benefit of a publicist is that they know how to write that perfect pitch letter, and they know how to create a great media kit.

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What do you think of when you hear the term "propaganda"? If you're like most people, you immediately think of totalitarian regimes and brutal dictatorships. Most people tend to associate propaganda with something bad. Most people think of Communist propaganda posters, Nazi propaganda movies, and other similarly sinister things. If you take a step back, you might also think of propaganda as being posters like the "Uncle Sam Wants You!" recruitment posters for the Army. Propaganda can also be seen as ads that play upon emotions to get you to think and act a certain way. A most common current example would be election ads. Politicians run ads which paint their opponent as evil while painting themselves as bringers of good. If you vote for their opponent, then you're making sure that your kids won't get education, your parents will starve in the streets in their old age, and you will end up giving all of your money to the government as you watch them take away your house.

Now, these are extreme examples of propaganda, but they give you some sort of idea of what propaganda does. Propaganda tries to make us think and feel in certain ways. We can see propaganda as acting the opposite way of how news casts supposedly do. We generally think of the news as providing us with totally objective information that isn't biased one way or the other. Whether or not the news actually does that is another matter, and depends on who you talk to, of course. Propaganda is aimed directly at manipulating your emotions, your opinions, and your behavior. Propaganda wants to make you act in a certain way.

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There are two main avenues you can when promoting your special event: advertising and publicity. Ideally a company will utilize the best of both worlds, combining free media coverage and paid advertising leading up to the event.

In an effort to save money, some companies would like to rely on the media alone to promote their event. This is a mistake. Media coverage of your special event is most helpful, as well as most likely to occur the day before or day of the event. You want people to have made up their mind to attend before the actual event. Paying for some advertising time or space beforehand will hopefully help attract a larger audience.

So, you know that you have a message you need to get out through advertising as well as various media outlets.where do you start? You need to choose what means you will use to convey that message. The best starting place is a simple one-page article or news release.

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Product publicity is when an organization attempts to attract public interest about a product that it offers. Publicity falls under the giant umbrella of promotion, which is a component of marketing. Other elements of promotion include advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling.

Product publicity will happen through a planned and organized campaign, often known as a publicity plan, that has be created in order to launch a brand new product or else provide further information to keep continuing interest in an already established product. The publicity plan is aimed at obtaining positive media coverage for an organization's products. The main purpose of product publicity is to inform rather than persuade, but the ultimate goal of product publicity is to promote the product and create interest so that people will buy it.

The public relations team for a company, either an in-house department or a hired agency, is responsible for product publicity. The public relations team, or publicists, wants to make their products look as appealing as possible to the public through the different mass media channels. There are several different promotional tools through which a product can be publicized:

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It is important when trying to advertise and sell a product to get the right picture of the product to use in the advertisement. A simple photograph can sell a product all by itself. A photograph is also a great way of enhancing your products ability to sale.

A professional photographer is usually knowledgeable on the taking pictures of inanimate objects and the specific lighting and set up that is needed, however there are times when a professional photographer cannot be afforded during these times it is important for any person involved in the sale of the product be able to take the picture.

The picture taking process can be quite simple, have an object, a setting, and a camera, place the object, point the camera, and click the button. But then again, if a person is looking to make their product attractive to everyone who sees the picture, there are some things to take into consideration before pointing, setting, and clicking.

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Pr Newswire is a news service that combines sources from thousands of different media outlets into one service to provide minute to minute breaking news to the world. PR newswire is also a leader in taking your companies press releases and making sure they get where they need to go. PR newswire has offices in 14 different countries, delivers news in 30 different languages, and sends out news to 135 different countries. (See www.PRnewswire.com.)

As a press release news service you can depend on PR newswire to get your information where you need it to go. There are many press release services now in operation but they do not have the credibility, the size, or the history or PR newswire. PR newswire was established in 1954 and was the first business of its kind. Because they founded the news wire services you can count on them to be leading in technology and sources as the forge ahead trying to remain one of the best.

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In the world of public relations, the press secretary plays a vital, complicated, exciting role. The press secretary is front and center all the time, right in the spotlight, as it were. The press secretary usually speaks for some powerful person - an important politician, for example - and basically molds their public image, offers them advice on how to relate to the media, and teaches them important techniques on how to control (as much as they can in a topsy-turvy world) their news coverage.

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