PR

It doesn't matter if you have hundred of thousands of employees, or just three, employee surveys are still necessary to ensure a smooth running organization. However, conducting surveys is more than just handing out forms and getting your employees to answer. To ensure the accuracy of survey data, you, as an employer must observe proper guidelines.

First, be clear about the goals of the employee surveys. Are the surveys to be utilized as gauges for salary increase or for amendments of company policies? It is also important to explain these objectives to the employees. It is advisable to discuss with them the rationale behind the need for a survey and why is it necessary. Another important aspect to discuss is how they will be informed of survey results. These people would want to see results. Second, contact an impartial third-party organization to facilitate and conduct the sur...

It’s true about any profession. The "old pros" somehow always seem to get everything done much quicker and more effectively. They’ve made their mistakes and are sensitive to the pulse rate of the industry.

Most professions take years of experience or education to master, getting free publicity doesn’t. It’s much more an issue of finding out the little "insider secrets" that work, and learning how to apply them to your publicity campaigns.

Above all others, there are 4 cardinal rules you can’t afford to ignore if you hope to be successful. Not following them is a sure fire way to start depending entirely on luck instead of skill for your progress.

These rules that should be spray painted across the wall in the front office of every business are:

1. Be Organized. It’s fun and definitely rewarding, but becoming a publicist isn’t a game. You need to...

There’s an unwritten "code of ethics" out there that dictates the guidelines the media expects savvy publicists to follow. Certain do’s and don’ts that keep the amateurs out of the "club". More than a few well-intentioned businessmen owners trying to lobby for free publicity have been caught in the tangled web of protocol violations.

As crazy as it may sound, the most common reason publicity campaigns fail is something you might call the paralysis of analysis. You come up with an idea, it sounds good, but you wonder if you’re being objective enough. Weeks and months later you’re still tweaking and fine tuning it. If this is a problem for you, it might be helpful to know that editors and program managers never remember the bad press releases (unless they’re really bad). It’s the good stories they remember. So if you send one in that gets tossed in the trash, i...

The aim of Public Relations is to maximize support and minimize opposition for your enterprise among the various stakeholders and general public. A PR campaign consists of two distinct elements -- strategy and execution, i.e. what to do and how to do it.

The role of a Public Relations Counselor is to suggest strategy, i.e. advocate “what to do”. A Public Relations Counselor would typically be involved in defining the PR policy of your enterprise, analyzing problems and opportunities, identifying the stakeholders or publics you need to reach, recommending the key messages for each public, and allocating responsibilities to the team.

Given the criticality of this position, here are some qualities you need to look for in your Public Relations Counselor:

Good Judgment

Good judgment is the single most important quality of a good PR counselor. She needs to correc...

You may wonder what I am talking about when I say you can get “almost free” new product publicity to work for you. By way of explanation let me site a couple of examples out of my personal experience. These are new product publicity campaigns I wrote and developed for my clients and myself.

Example: One of my clients was an importer of disposable plastic hospital wares such as Petri dishes, plastic syringes, specimen sample trays and more. I helped him, using only a series of regular, well written, monthly new product publicity releases to grow his business from one based in his two car garage to what is now one of the largest, most successful importers and distributors of these specialized plastic disposables in the USA.

Here’s another example: A number of years ago I invented a filing system for archiving used time cards and I promoted the sale of my ...

Savvy small business owners know the importance of saving money. There are definitely times when going cheap spells disaster (you’ve seen those Hefty commercials, haven’t you?); but this isn’t one of them. Welcome to the wonderful world of PR - public relations; or, as we like to call it, free advertising – an essential part of any effective marketing strategy.

Are you making effective use of this important strategy for reaching your target market, or do you shy away from PR because you feel it is:

So, you and your business have a great product, event or “rags-to-riches” story that you’re dying to spread the word about--because you just know that once people hear the news, they’re goin to want to know more about what you have to offer. You can already hear the “cha-ching!” sound as new customers beat a path to your door. The question is…how are you going to get the word out?

The answer…a great press release.

A press release is a great way to gain free publicity (and who doesn’t want that?) for your business & services. How you write one can make all the difference between getting media coverage for your business—and your crumpled-up press release covering the bottom of an editor’s trash can. So, here are some tips on how you can hopefully achieve the former.

Use the proper setup…
Most press releases are between 200-500 words, and no more than a page long—s...

Public relations is fundamentally the art and science of establishing relationships between an organization and its key audiences. Public relations plays a key role in helping business industries create strong relationships with customers.

Public relations involves supervising and assessing public attitudes, and maintaining mutual relations and understanding between an organization and its public. The function of public relations is to improve channels of communication and to institute new ways of setting up a two-way flow of information and understanding.

Public relations is effective in helping:

* Corporations convey information about their products or services to potential customers
* Corporations reach local government and legislators
* Politicians attract votes and raise money, and craft their public image and legacy
* Non-profit organizations, in...

One of the least understood, most underutilized marketing techniques in the business world is public relations. That fact represents an opportunity for small business owners and managers who are willing to devote a little time to cultivating relationships with reporters and editors in their community.

Advertising is the obvious approach to self-promotion, so a lot of your competition is doing it. Generating free or inexpensive publicity through press releases and media relations is not as commonplace, so it offers a much more uncluttered arena for gaining visibility and name recognition. The 'cost of admission' consists of a newsworthy story and a little insight into how the process works.

Potential Pitfalls and Opportunities

The bad news is that editors, radio news directors, and other media gatekeepers receive dozens of press releases every day, and that's just in ...

Hopefully, as a business, non-profit, public entity or association manager, you will switch from a tactical approach to public relations, to one that emphasizes a strategic plan to achieve your managerial objectives. You may even surprise yourself as you begin to persuade your key outside audiences to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that allow your department, group, division or subsidiary to succeed.

What you will have done, of course, is combine a sound public relations strategy with effective communications tactics leading directly to the bottom line – perception altered, behavior modified, employer/ client satisfied.

Perhaps most important, you will also have done something positive about the behaviors of the very outside audiences that MOST affect your operation.

A sure way to win big with public relations.

And i...

Is it possible for an insurance company to use its insurance adjuster division to promote goodwill and public relations? Hey, if a Lizard can do it on Television then anything is possible right? Consider if you will the number of insurance adjusters an insurance company may have and then consider the needs of a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Business Program. It makes a perfect sense and has public relations value for these vehicles and drivers to participate in such;

INSURANCE ADJUSTERS: These people travel their territories and randomly go to different areas depending on what damage has occurred. They may work a three-city area depending on population size of cities. It does not matter if they travel outside the program's area, because so do criminals. Criminals are mobile too. They travel to their crimes, remember that. Insurance adjusters are observers by trade. They look for thi...

Every business model needs a public relations strategy even a Hot Dog Vendor; Seriously and why not? Yet you are now laughing and want to find out what on Earth a Hot Doggie Vendor can do for public relations and community goodwill. Well do not laugh too long, because it just so happens that they make excellent Neighborhood Business Watch Program participants and it also can bolster hot dog sales too. Consider if you will the current hot dog vendor business model;

HOT DOG VENDORS: You cannot get any closer to grass roots than this. Hot Dog Vendors and other street vendors sit in one spot and talk to people all day. If they have a sign on their cart for all to see, you program will benefit greatly. Passers by will learn of the program and regular customers will often volunteer to join in after a few weeks of seeing the sign. These types of vendors tend to know a lot of people and...

A pool cleaning business can be a very lucrative business and yet getting clientele may not be so easy. It takes work, networking and a strong referral base to build up such a business. One good way to help build strong pool cleaning routes is by innovative public relations strategies. How so you ask?

Well consider if you will a pool cleaning service, which joins a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Patrol in their community. It makes perfect sense you see;

POOL SERVICE COMPANIES: Most of these small business people have on average 45 pools on their weekly routes. Some are commercial such as hotels, and apartment complexes, but most are residential, thus bringing them into many neighborhoods each week. Some pool companies have up to 70 pools on their routes. This is a maximized route and these are veteran pool cleaners. A pool person may be in 5-10 different housing tracts or neigh...

What kinds of great things can a Real Estate Title Service do to promote community goodwill and public relations? Well what if they participated in a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Program? But you ask what does that have to do with a Real Estate Title Service? Well it is about security and what could be more important to a neighborhood than low crime rates, which help bolster real estate prices? Also consider if you will the following truths about Real Estate Title Services;

TITLE SERVICE COMPANIES: Title services have reps which drive around all day and deliver documents and collect signatures, mingle with Realtors, and return the information and drop off literature. They will know which Realtors are most likely to want to join the program. A title company may have many reps thus many cars driving around helping the important exposure of the efforts. The title reps are usually GQ t...

Day Care Centers have a rough time of convincing parents that their children will be safe and they also have a tough time with public relations, as parents are so quick to prejudge them and their services. Nevertheless a Day Care Center must over come this unfortunate public perception and consider that they need to be on the other side of the game.

How so you ask? Well what if a Day Care Center took the approach that they were helping make the entire community safer? Lets say by participating in a Neighborhood Watch Program? Why you ask; well consider if you will the following facts;

DAY CARE CENTERS: Day Care Centers have vans and shuttle buses that pick up kids and they are colorful and happy in their paint schemes. They also know all of the Moms who work at all the corporations in town. Family and safety are at the top of their agenda. They are very concerned with the ...

How can a local Pizza Franchise Operation participate in unique types of public relations? Most Pizza Places sponsor backboard advertisements at the ball fields and often sponsor soccer and little league teams. That makes sense indeed. But what if they did something else, something innovative to bond with the community? Like what you ask? Well how about helping take a BITE out of crime by joining a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Patrol? Consider if you will Dominos Pizza;

DOMINOS PIZZA FRANCHISEES: Domino's founder in building his company always made it a goal of his company to help out the community. For this reason nearly all their franchisees feel obligated to help in good causes. Their franchisees feel a strong commitment towards those ideals and that is one of the reasons, which attracted them to the business in the first place. Dominos can be a great asset because on Friday and...

Many people when they sign up for a maid service are worried about things being stolen out of their home. Yet if you stop to think about it that scenario is highly unlikely because if this happened then the company could not survive and they would be run out of business due to negative word-of-mouth you see?

Nevertheless this is one of those things that Maid Service Franchises have to deal with and unfortunately it is a false public perception that must be over come. This is why it makes sense for a public relations campaign, which includes joining the other side of the crime game and promoting participation in a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Program. Why? Well because it really will not cost them anything and consider the following reasons if you will;

MERRY MAIDS FRANCHISEES: This maid service franchise is part of Service Master and also part of Tru-Green Chemlawn, American ...

Some industry sub-sectors have a difficult time in setting up public relations plans and strategies. Lets look at a plumbing company for instance, it is a company type that everyone thinks nothing of until they need a good plumber and then they are at the top of our list for solving a major if not catastrophic potential problem.

But what kinds of things can a plumbing company do to promote itself and increase its community standing and goodwill? Well why not join in a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Patrol in the town or city. Help take a bite out of crime? Great, but what does this have to do with plumbing you ask? Well consider if you will the following factors;

PLUMBING COMPANIES: Plumbers are highly paid individuals and tend to know all the income property owners of the town. These property owners are the movers and shakers who are also involved in all the philanthropic and ...

We have all heard the comments about the Rent-A-Cops or the $5.15 per hour security guard telling us we can or cannot do something. Often these folks up set us and many people are rather abrasive back to them, calling them names and complaining. Thus most security companies do not have a very good public persona.

Yet this does not need to be the case and with a little smart public relations planning a security company can turn around this perception you see. How so you ask? Well why have them involved in a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Patrol? Consider if you will that:

SECURITY COMPANIES: They already are in this line of work and have lots of vehicles and often employ former police officers and military personnel. They have communication, scanners, and bright lights. They will be glad to join the program simply for the PR value. This adds numbers to your group. Some security ...

Public Relations for Flower Shops is easy and yet it is difficult to do your local community business relations without getting into a loop of giving away every thing in your store. It costs lots of money to get flowers to market and those costs are real. If you give away your inventory freely to all comers who need something for a non-profit group you may have trouble paying the rent and the energy costs for your refrigeration system.

What if a flower company used its flower delivery vehicles to help with a Neighborhood Watch Program? That is something they could do fairly easily while they were already making their deliveries. You see;

FLOWER COMPANIES: Usually have delivery vans, which deliver to offices and homes. These vans park in shopping center parking lots at night. This fact helps the center from break-ins; it makes the criminal think twice. The owners of Flower ...