Public Relations Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners

Social Media Marketing Works When The Consumer Comes First

“Trouble with you is you don’t enjoy the game for its own rewards: stimulation, relaxation, pleasant association, and interesting conversation.” – Paul Regret, “The Commancheros,” 20th Century Fox, 1961 The biggest thing that’s wrong with social media marketing is consumers. They simply don’t understand that marketing is a fairly one-sided effort. – You decide what […]

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Social Media Numbers Don’t Matter, People Do

Numbers Game – People use social media to connect with friends, family and people of similar interests while social media experts focus on racking up numbers. Firms are coming to grips with the fact that the customer isn’t just a numbers game but the right contact when folks want information or want to share information. […]

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Trade Show PR Isn’t All About Body Count

For a whole bunch of publicists, the holidays – Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, you name it – are the starting gun to perform/deliver for bosses and clients at what is arguably the largest trade show in the world … CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Here are the players: The Client/Boss More than 5,000 companies preen themselves, get […]

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140 Characters Isn’t PR, It’s a Job Opportunity for Real Writers

You’ve may have been so busy getting Likes for your page(s) and Twitter followers you didn’t notice that management and marketing have been finding people to do your less fun job … researching and writing. You know, the stuff that’s too much like work. According to the latest Optus Future of Business report, social media […]

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Trade Show PR Mining – It’s Not Just the Fastest, Biggest Gun

“We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.” – Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Warner Bros – 1948) Conventions/conferences are events that challenge a man’s (and woman’s) stamina. They push you to the limits of creativity and performance. Companies spend hundreds of thousands, no […]

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Does Your Small Business Need A Blog?

For any modern company to thrive in the current market, numerous avenues of development need to be explored. From establishing a clear brand identity to promoting this image across various platforms, today’s businesses must be adept in numerous fields. One area which has been surrounded by a great deal of hype is that of social […]

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CruiseOne to Award Free Franchises to Veterans

After launching new careers in the travel industry for five unemployed educators in 2010 in its ‘Second Chance at Success’ campaign, CruiseOne will be doing the same for former military men.  ‘Operation Vetrepreneur: Become Your Own General’ is open to those who are retired, off active duty and/or were honorably discharged prior to May 15, […]

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It’s Time to Play – Heading Toward Gamification Nation

Gamification, the use of game design techniques to solve problems, motivate and engage people, is poised to become a leading digital marketing trend, according to brand consultancy Millward Brown. Although at present, gamification is largely driven by novelty and hype, Gartner forecasts that by 2014, 70+% of major companies will have at least one “gamified” […]

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Going Viral

Not that long ago I was sitting in a meeting with a client (a local college) and he told me he had some great news. “We just started a new class at the college and we videotaped the first class. The professor is fascinating, the subject is fascinating. We want you to take this video, […]

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What Should Hiring a PR Firm Cost?

After you’ve made the decision to retain the services of a PR firm, the hard part starts. How do you find the right firm? How do you know they will provide what you want and need? And perhaps most important, can your budget handle their cost requirements? It is first important to understand the billing […]

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The Real Crisis With Crisis PR

One of the fastest growing areas of the public relations business is crisis management, or crisis communications, or crisis PR, or issues management, depending on what you want to call it. Simply put, crisis PR is the art, and I do mean art, of helping a corporations, organization or individual manage their image when a […]

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Crisis Communications in a Transparent World

The public relations business can be categorized in two parts. Pre-internet and post-internet. While some may argue that there really is no difference between how PR was handled pre-internet and how it it handled now, it cannot be argued that journalism is the same. And, with journalism being at the crux of corporate and crisis […]

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PR Starts with a PR Plan

When embarking on a PR / marketing campaign, it is critical that you first start with a plan. Achieving goals and objectives is what PR is all about, and you need to clarify what your goals and objectives are so you have a way of measuring that the plan is working or what needs to […]

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Non Profit PR – Marketing With a Mission

If you’re the executive director of a non-profit organization, you come to work each day with two things on your mind. First, how can your agency best fulfill its mission, and second, how will you get the funding you need to fulfill your mission. The two are intertwined, a Catch-22 if you will. While most […]

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Public Relations Is Not Just For PR Pros

If a company hires a public relations firm and then sits back and expects the PR firm to work magic, the company will be terribly disappointed. Effective public relations is not a job — it is a process. It is not just writing news releases and doing special events. And, it is not the sole […]

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How to Publicize a Start-Up Business

Many people who start a new business sometimes have an inferiority complex. After all, if you are the new kid on the block with the new business, why should anybody trust that your product is any good, you know what you are doing, or that you will be around to stand behind your product? This […]

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Finding the Right PR / Marketing Firm

Engaging the right public relations, marketing and / or advertising agency is not always as simple a task as it appears. When companies venture out to find marketing representation, they often do what most people do when searching for a new business relationship — ask someone who has worked with a PR consultant for a recommendation. […]

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Business to Business PR

Every business owner knows that public relations is a subset of marketing and marketing is a subset of sales. The “bottom line”, to use an overused term, is what it’s all about. Whether a company is selling a product or service, making the sale is the goal. So it’s often fascinating when a company says, […]

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Beware of Hidden Costs of Hiring a PR Firm

Perhaps the most often asked question companies ask when hiring a public relations firm is, “what does it cost?” Interestingly, this is also a question many PR firms have difficulty answering. There are three basic ways that firms charge. First, and perhaps the most common, is the monthly fee. A PR firm will give thought […]

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Marketing in Tough Economic Times

When the economy slows, and companies are faced with belt-tightening, often the first function to be cut back is marketing, advertising and public relations. The reason is simple. A company believes it can get along without running ads and having a strong public relations program in place. On the other hand, they need employees, legal […]

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