Public Relations Tips: December 2009

Delegation is a good business practice and it is also a skill that has to be learned. To do well in public relations, you will have to learn a little about delegation. Part of being a good delegator is knowing who to assign to do what. The key to this is getting to know your staff and the human resources that you have access to. If you know the people on your staff personally, you will know each persons strengths and weaknesses. Try to delegate jobs based on strengths so that everybody has a pleasant experience.

Continue reading "Be a little bossy" »

Posted by DK at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Part of knowing what to say is knowing what not to say. If you are in public relations, it is important that you never say anything that will offend anybody. You don't even want to say anything that might be misconstrued as offensive.

Continue reading "Keep your foot out of your mouth" »

Posted by DK at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After all, practice makes perfect right? So, what is it that you should practice? How about starting with press releases? You may have never had to do a press release because your company is not in the public eye.

Continue reading "Practice, practice, practice" »

Posted by DK at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In your job, you will spend a lot of time on the computer and on the phone making connections and communicating. Every once in a while, or hopefully more often than that, get out of the office and have the conference face to face. In this day and age, it is so easy to handle business electronically that face-to-face interactions have lost popularity. This is good news for you if you want to make the effort to have personal meetings because it will mean even more. Just like a hand written thank you note is better received than an email thank you, a personal appearance to promote some new idea is better received than a video.

Continue reading "Get up close and personal" »

Posted by DK at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this high stakes, image driven profession, it is important to always be professional. When you are representing your organization, you need to constantly think about how things you say and do can be misinterpreted. As you make public contacts through out the day, always be courteous and personable but don't get so friendly that you let down your professional guard. A few random comments after a couple of drinks and you might find yourself, and your company, in a deep hole that you can't get out of.

Continue reading "Always wear your game face" »

Posted by DK at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Your job is primarily to present the company's image (as positively as possible) to the public. To do this, you need to weight the companies needs with the needs of the public. This balance gets even more complicated when you take stakeholders into consideration. Stakeholders are the groups or people that are directly affected by what your company does. If you work for a laboratory that sterilizes medical equipment, you want the public to be aware of your company and have a good feeling about the company.

Continue reading "Strike a balance" »

Posted by DK at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's sad but its true, your organization is going to have some enemies. The best thing that you can do to help insulate yourself from enemy attacks is to know as much about your enemies as possible. Maybe you represent an environmental company. Find out about the conservative right. How have they fought against environmental companies in the past? How did the companies respond and which response was the most effective? You will need to find he answers to these and similar questions before going into battle with any group.

Continue reading "Know your enemies" »

Posted by DK at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whenever a request for anything comes across your desk, get on it right away. You should be thinking "image" all of the time. A great way to project a competent reliable image is to always be quick to answer any sort of inquiry. If people, especially people in the media. contact you for information, get them as much information as you can and as quickly as possible. When the media is asking for information it is likely that they are going to relay that information to the public. This is free advertising for you and you should make it as easy as possible for the news station (or newspaper or radio program) to do a good job.

Continue reading "Make a quick response" »

Posted by DK at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The standard public relations uniform is the business suit. This is perfectly acceptable if you are having important meetings with other people that are in business suits. However, you main focus should be on the public and not everyone in the public wears a business suit. Not everyone in the public even has a business suit. Save the business suit for doing business, there are certainly situations where only a business suit will do.

Continue reading "Dress for success" »

Posted by DK at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you aren't already good with names you should focus on getting good with names. This is a great skill for public relations and fortunately, it is a skill that can be learned. If you are bad with names you can look up some tips on the internet and learn some association techniques. If that doesn't work, there are self help book that teach name memory and make it seem like a parlor trick. There are even classes on name learning. After one of these classes you will, allegedly, be able to recall over 30 new names given to you in one setting.

Continue reading "Get good with names" »

Posted by DK at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you are trying to reach the public, you should broadcast on as many frequencies as possible. As a public relations specialist, you need to not just reach those people who are surfing the web looking up your product. You also want to reach the people who have never heard of your product. There are all sorts of different ways to use the media to present yourself to the public. You might make a statement to the evening news. You could advertise for a town meeting on the radio. Of course, the internet is one of the most popular ways for people to get their information so you will want to use the internet as well as the traditional media services.

Continue reading "Work the media" »

Posted by DK at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whenever you are preparing a press release, preparing a report, posting to an internet website or writing up copy for an ad, always think about your audience. Your job is primarily a to communicate and the thing that you are communicating is image. Your audience is really important when trying to communicate your image. For example, to a group of edgy teenager, you might want to say little more that, "we're chill". To the parents of those teenagers you might want to communicate that, "we care about your children and they will be safe with us" to the shareholders you will want to communicate in dollars signs, "we made twelve billion dollars this year selling this product to teenagers".

Continue reading "Know your audience" »

Posted by DK at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your job is public relations, you need to get out into the public. This means participating in talk shows, charity events, and any other public opportunity you might be given. You need to be "out there" representing your organization and putting your finger on the public pulse. Even if you have the best surveys in the world and you do 10 interviews a day, you won't learn as much about public opinion sitting in your office as you will by stepping out into the public.

Continue reading "Go public" »

Posted by DK at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes you make a mistake. Sometimes your political candidate puts a foot in his mouth. Sometimes you sell a product that makes everybody sick. Sometimes your team comes in dead last for the season. A good public relations specialist knows how to weather these storms and bury the failures. There are several different ways to bury failures but the most popular is just to pile a lot of dirt on top of it. If you can get that one thing out of the public eye, the hype will fade and you can be out of the spotlight while you begin to rebuild. Fortunately, there are big guffaws every day and something will certainly come along to trump your little disaster soon.

Continue reading "Bury failures" »

Posted by DK at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a mind set that you must have to do public relations. The key is to always be thinking about how things look from an outside perspective. This is contrary to the message that most of our mothers tried to get into out heads that "it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks". In the world of public relations, it really does matter what every body else thinks. You need to constantly think about appearances, appearance and image are the most important thing in this field.

Continue reading "Get your head right" »

Posted by DK at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If the old adage can be trusted, every cloud has a silver lining. When your group gets hit with a dark cloud, your job is to spin that cloud so the public sees the silver lining. This is a skill and some people are better at it than others but there are a couple of spins that everybody can use.

Continue reading "Specialize in spin" »

Posted by DK at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When your company does something right, you want to yell that from the rooftops. A part of public relations is publishing successes and cementing those successes in the minds of the public. Whatever it is that your organization is doing right, get that information published right away. If your University department completed a study showing that conjoined twins share heart rates after separations, get that story into the newspapers and make sure the keywords "University of." and "department of." are all over that story.

Continue reading "Yell from the rooftops" »

Posted by DK at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think it is interesting that BF Skinner, the most renowned behavioral psychologist the world has ever known, finished his career in advertising. He is not the only psychologist that found that the skills transfer nicely into the business world.

Continue reading "Don't see a psychologist, be a psychologist" »

Posted by DK at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every once in a while you should try something that is totally new. Try to shake it up a little and once or twice a year, do something, anything, that you haven't done before. Maybe you will try an advertising strategy that you have never used. Maybe you will have an open house for the public and serve hot dogs and soda pop. Or how about putting a booth up at the county fair? It doesn't really matter what you try as long as you try something.

Continue reading "Get out of your box" »

Posted by DK at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No matter what happens, never lose your cool. It's terrible what 30 seconds of totally justified emotion can do to your reputation. This is especially true in today's society. Now days it isn't just a rumor of your outburst that will circulate. Nope, you can be digitally recorded blowing your stack at any time. Once this eruption is on file , you can amuse your friends and family by showing them the clip on You Tube. You'll be so proud!

Continue reading "It's hot to be cool" »

Posted by DK at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everybody thinks about how important it is to communicate when you are in public relations. The problem is, people usually only think about the expressive part of communication. The truth is, communication includes not just expression but also reception. To properly communicate there has to be some give and some take-after all, communication is a two-way street.

Continue reading "Listen up!" »

Posted by DK at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What you say is very important in public relations and so is how you say it. Every time you make a statement, whether it is on your company's website, for a press release, or as an mc at a charity auction, consider every word that you use. It is easy to build a picture with words, if legend holds, it takes only 1000 words. Use your words in a way to build the picture that you want in the mind of the public and your stakeholders. If you aren't good at impromptu speech, don't try it. Go to meeting and events with your words carefully selected and written down.

Continue reading "Be a wordsmith" »

Posted by DK at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The longer you play the public relations game the more you will come to see it for the game that it is. You should formulate both long and short-range plans and then stick to those plans. This is the way big projects will get done and the way you will be able to carefully portray your company to the public.

Continue reading "Stick with your plan" »

Posted by DK at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't ever say anything about your company without being able to back it up. To get the public behind your project is a great thing. To fail to deliver on the promises about that project is a terrible thing. Before you launch a campaign to elicit public support make double sure that the company will make good on the promises you make. Think about the elections and all the "no new taxes" type of statements flying about. If you have noticed, the failures-to-deliver are remembered much longer than the actual deliveries.

Continue reading "Show me the money!" »

Posted by DK at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is very important to look into the future whenever you can to see what kind of an impact actions by your company will have. You should be conscious of the political and economic ramifications of every new products or new programs. With issues like this, you should always be a step ahead. Are you going to step on toes? Get a hold of those toes before the shoe falls. Are you going to be lobbied against? Make sure your own team of lobbiests is there to defend your interests.

Continue reading "Use your crystal ball" »

Posted by DK at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are people that you are not going to like and there are companies that you won't want to do business with. Instead of burning your bridges with these people and companies, just quietly do your business elsewhere. It does you no good to make enemies when you are in the field of public relation.

Continue reading "Don't burn your bridges" »

Posted by DK at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are doing public relations you have to be honest. Your good reputation is largely going to determine the reputation of your company. Any lies, any cover ups, even any omissions of the truth will come back to haunt you. If you tend to be a bit of a liar you might fare better in creative writing than in public relations because when you are doing public relations, everything you say, write, or do is going to be scrutinized. Even one slip up can soil your reputation forever in those circles.

Continue reading "Honestly!" »

Posted by DK at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are working in public relations, you have an obligation to yourself and to your company to never stop learning. Your job is to represent your company to the world. This means that you have stay current on what the world wants and how best to communicate these things. Since communications is one of the fields that has changed more than any other in the past 10 years, you really have your job cut out for you! You not only have to learn how to use the communication equipment, you also have to learn about the changing face of the world that you are communicating with.

Continue reading "Never stop learning" »

Posted by DK at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sure, you want to play to your strengths but what about the weaknesses? Weaknesses are a delicate matter, if you focus on weaknesses; you can lose confidence and worse, lose sight of what you are trying to do with your strengths. On the other hand, if you ignore your weaknesses altogether, they won't go away and not everybody will be able to ignore them.

Continue reading "Strengthen your weaknesses" »

Posted by DK at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not everybody is good at everything but everybody is good at least something. Do whatever it is that you are good at. Use that your strengths when doing public relations for your company.

Continue reading "Play to your strengths" »

Posted by DK at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In business, developing relationships with reporters is very important. You have to be able to get good publicity or else your business will not do very well. If you do not have good publicity then you will not have people interested in buying your products.

Without people to buy your products you will not be able to run. You would just go into a hole of debt that you could not get out of. That would stink pretty badly. That would be worse than just having a small business; your business would completely collapse.

In order to develop relationships with reporters you have to begin pitching stories to them and doing it in mature, experienced ways. You have to be able to impress them and not annoy them.

Continue reading "Rolodex" »

Posted by DK at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)