The Role Of Crisis Communication In Public Relations

Posted on 12. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

It is important for an organization to have one or more spokespeople who are experienced and can stay calm when communicating during a crisis. Crisis communication is how people know what is going on and it is very important when it comes to public relations. This is why it is important to have an adequate number of spokespeople for your organization because sometimes it isn’t sufficient enough to have just one person doing the talking. It looks better on the public relations side of things if you have more than one who are both on the same page and can effectively speak to the media and people on a face-to-face basis.

There are several things that must be done in crisis communication. It isn’t just a matter of looking at the situation and coming up with a response within five minutes. To give a proper response, it is important to evaluate the situation and follow a certain set of rules to make sure the public gets the adequate information. These steps are:

- Developing and delivering at least three key points about the situation. These messages must be relayed in such a way that everyone can understand what is being said. Sometimes these messages do not have to be anything extensive, depending on the situation. Such an example is when a company is going through a lawsuit. Most companies do not allow commenting on pending litigation, so the spokesperson may simply say, “no comment.”

- Make sure that all employees are up-to-date on what is going on. This creates consistency and allows for adequate response for various situations that may arise during a crisis. Many times this interaction should take place face-to-face instead of in a memo.

- Make sure you identify who can be trusted with information and who cannot be. These can be considered your unofficial spokespersons if they must be asked questions. These are the people who will adhere to what you tell them to say. In crisis communication, it is important to stay sensitive to various pieces of information that could cause an even bigger issue.

- A rumor-control system should be put in place. This means that the system must be up and running, allowing others to ask questions and get immediate answers before they begin communicating their speculations with others. What starts out as a question soon becomes fact when it is passed from person-to-person. This can cause a situation to become much more difficult. Rumors result in new issues that must be given attention. This can take attention away from the issue at hand.

Just make sure that those on the inside know exactly what is going on because they are just as important as those on the outside wanting to know what the crisis is, how it is going to impact them, and how to rectify the situation. It is even fair to develop key messages for employees, but to have key messages that are used for those on the outside as well. It is important to implement a system and a strategy that will not cause any type of mass panic, depending on the situation. Sometimes those situations are limited to a company and other times they can influence an entire population.

Just be sure to not jump the gun. Instead, develop strategies that will relay the message effectively. Both inside and outside communication go hand-in-hand in order for things to run smoothly. This shows that crisis communication in public relations is very important when ensuring the safety of people, their affairs, and of those directly involved with the situation.

Top Tips For Using Public Relations In Your Marketing Programs

Posted on 10. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Help your potential clients realize how you can help with great marketing; the best public relations events end up giving you a new lead. What’s public relations? A wide range of activities can be considered PR, from business marketing to personal luncheons. Outreach in magazine is the most common form of lead-generating PR. The object is to get a mention for your business, service, or staff members to appear in a publication.

Alternatively, one of your management staff can have something published which they write or have ghost written. This sort of press can have a big effect on the number and quality of leads you generate. However, although this kind of PR is cheap compared to advertisements, getting covered in magazines requires sustained effort and a time commitment, in order to nurture relationships with magazine people in your business field. An organized campaign is usually more successful than scattered attempts at getting press. The best campaigns utilize the following elements:

1) A press release
2) A press kit with bios, product photos, and reprinted content
3) Good relationship with the press
4) Features supplied by managers and other staff
5) Media coverage featuring your employees as industry experts
6) Testimonials

Complete the following actions in forming your program:

Research, compile and read the publications. What’s the audience? Think about the info that gets published – is it news? Make your contributions appropriate. Talk with the writers and go to the web site. Who’s the right person to talk to? Call the editors and ask for submission guidelines and what they like to publish. Try to find the editorial calendar and see what stories they’re running month by month. You can usually find this on the last page of the magazine or at the site. Then decide what you’ll submit, and what publication month to target your efforts toward. Don’t give up – keep at it to gain rapport with editors. It gets better with time. By becoming a source of relevant info, you may supply the publication with information which is vital to their readership, and become an important contributor. Your pitch should explain how it is relevant to the editorial calendar – offer to provide an outline upon request. It can be a good idea to use a ghost writer, as these professionals have experience working for magazines and can form the article to the format of the publication with relative ease. These deadline-driven contractors will take the initiative to get the work in on time, freeing your technical or management employees to work within their fields of expertise.

Be sure your press release provides newsworthy content. It should answer some of the following questions:

1) What’s the problem you help solve?
2) What is accomplished?
2) What’s the take-home benefit?
4) Is it a product or service?
5) How can it do this?
6) Why will the readers be interested?
7) How much does it cost?
8) What are the main features?
9) When’s it available?

Don’t brag about yourself or your company. Steer clear of words like “best,” “revolutionary,” and “unique.” These are overused. Editors prefer testimonials instead. Avoid language that is inaccessible to a lay person. Really, even the writers won’t have an expert understanding of your offerings. Keep it simple. Always include contact info in two places on the page, and photos if accepted by the publication. Most prefer digital images. Name these files with relevant terms that one can search on to find them. In short, do the prep work and make it easy for them to run your piece.

PR can help improve Search Engine Optimization efforts as well. For example, wire services are excellent – after sending these out, your release will be discoverable by search engines and news wires. By including links in your online release, you can raise your info in the search engine rankings. A recent survey showed that most journalists use the Internet daily. About 75% of them make searches for press release info. For a free news wire to get you started, try: http://google.com/alerts and create a free subscription.

Debunking Public Relations – the Terminology of PR Explained

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Advertising   Paid for by a business to be submitted and published

Advertorial   Similar to advertising but it looks like a piece of editorial

Bills    The day’s headlines on the board (or bill board) outside a newsagents   

Brief (or nib or even fudge) Small item of news, one paragraph only, in a newspaper

By-line    Carried on a story, to identify who wrote it

Brand    Your company’s name and its identity – more than just its logo

CIPR    Chartered Insitute of Public Relations

Copy    The words that make up a piece of writing

Corporate communications The company’s messages (such as press releases) to the outside world

Crisis Management  Coping when the proverbial hits the fan (a bad news story perhaps)

Damage limitation  Same as crisis management

Deadline   Final time by which a story has to be written   

Doorstepping   Coloquial term for reporters hanging around someone’s doorstep to get their story

Edit    Altering copy to improve, and often shorten, it

Editor    The person in charge of overall content of the editorial side

Editorial   Stories, features, letters, sport – anything not paid for   

Ezine    Electronically generated and distributed newsletter

Feature    Longer than a news story, more in depth, not necessarily topical

Features editor   The person in charge of the features pages

Freelance   Someone who works for him or herself and sells stories or gets commissions

Integrated campaign  Using a variety of media i.e. TV, radio, press, online, outdoor and direct mail

Journalist   Can be a reporter, news editor, sub-editor or editor

News Editor   The person in charge of the news content

News hook or angle  Most interesting part of you story, which will grab the reader’s attention

Newsletter   Updates sent out by businesses – good way of keeping in touch with clients

Optimised press release  Press release that is both optimised for search engine results and released online

PR    Public relations

PRO    Public relations officer

Press pack (or media pack) Pre-packaged set of information or promotional materials to be distributed to the media

Press officer   Person usually working in a company’s PR or communications department

Press release   Short piece of copy submitted for publications

Proofread   Read through carefully, to check spelling, punctuation and grammar

Proposal   Idea for a PR campaign

Reader offer   Offer or competition for newspapers/magazine readers – good way of promoting a product

Reporter   Writes the news

Sell-in    Term given to attempts to interest a publication in carrying a story or feature

Splash    The front page lead

Public Relations Bad PR

Posted on 06. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

When placing stories in the media, you want to highlight you product or service, but you also have an equally important second objective. You want to educate. I don’t think that I can emphasize this point strongly enough. Public Relations has bad PR. It is known for its fluff and hype, for the sleight-of-hand work, and, whereas, all of that exists, the glitter and flash isn’t what makes for an effective campaign. What makes media placement effective is that it tells a story, it educates, it gives the public information on a particular topic or field that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

We represented a physician who was working on a new cancer drug and was in the midst of clinical tests. The first series had been quite promising. He was looking for patients with a certain type of cancer who were interested in participating in the study. He received hundreds of calls after a local TV interview ran, from people wanting to find out more information. These people would have never been aware of the study, and their opportunity to participate in it, if it had not been for the interview they saw. How about a couple of examples that are not quite so serious?

A skin care expert who has created her own make-up line, appeared on a TV segment teaching consumers how to buy cosmetics for less. The piece explained how to read and understand labels and how to shop for quality, yet inexpensive products. She was presented as an expert, her products were highlighted, and the public learned new information.

The President and CEO of an Internet company who specialized in B to B solutions, was interviewed in a national publication on the changing face of the Internet. He was able to discuss his company and the solutions it offered, establish himself as an expert in his field, and educate the public.

All of these pieces highlighted and focused on the client’s company, but they also educated. By watching the programs or reading the articles, the public learned new information. The pieces were informative and (hopefully) added to the quality of the viewers’ or readers’ lives. Done correctly, it educates, instructs, entertains, and whets the public’s appetite to know more. On the marketing end, it also stimulates your target audience to make an appointment, purchase a product, or to visit a store. But the bottom line comes down to presenting yourself as an expert, an educator, as someone whom both the media and the public turn to for information and advice, you are communicating with and educating the public.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2008

For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com

Why Public Relations and SEO Should Become Best Buds

Posted on 05. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Website promotion is a competitive, lucrative industry where everyone from Manhattan Public Relations(PR) Firms to smalltime Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies are vying for a piece of the pie. Ironically, on the information super highway, it is because of this lack of knowledge that most SEOs and PRs have for one another, which hinders their ability to offer a truly effective and affordable online-visibility solution for their clientele.

Let me explain.

THE TROUBLE WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS

PR is an industry that creates visibility across several different media for its clients while adhering to a pre-defined budget. It is an industry of communicators, with the ability to disseminate information to selected outlets armed with a rolodex, a press release and some serious people skills. Yet, with all of their strengths, one of the greatest criticisms of PR is their lack of ability to produce measurable ROI.

Large companies see the overall benefit of a well executed PR campaign, but medium-sized companies don’t see the immediate value in a bunch of blog links or they can’t afford to have Custom Myspace Tools developed for a product launch. As a result, many medium sized companies are leaving PR out of the marketing mix.

THE TROUBLE WITH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

On the other side of the spectrum are search engine optimizers (SEOs). Technically savvy problem solvers, SEOs can tweak a website to maximize its exposure in the search engines (the tools that over 90% of internet users turn to when finding new resources or information online). SEOs rely on their technical expertise as well as their ability to build “backlinks” (links coming from other websites) to achieve success in the search engines for their clients.

In the past few months, however, (06-07) search engines have gotten “smarter” and have made traditional methods of building backlinks less effective. Many SEOs have turned to what they call “link bait”, tapping into social media (blog forums and others) to build backlinks. Of course, “link baiting” is really just a nerdy term for online publicity. It’s something that only the best of SEOs have mastered, and many PR Practitioners are now diving into.

WHY PR AND SEO SHOULD BE BEST BUDS

Where “link baiting” (and really online promotion in general) is concerned, Public Relations firms have a distinct advantage. With their preexisting experience, contacts online and off, and other resources already dedicated to building online visibility, PR firms are much better equipped to get mentions and links on authority websites than their SEOs counterparts.

Of course just because a PR firm can get mentioned in a dozen blogs posts, or make the first page of Digg.com, doesn’t necessitate an increase in their client’s bottom line. With the help of an SEO consultant, or SEO company, however, PR firms could present actual numbers to prove the value of their service by converting online publicity into search engine dominance.

If PR could tap into the technical expertise of a search engine optimizer they could solve the problem of tangible ROI and expand their services to more medium sized companies, ecommerce sites, and others. What if you as a PR Practitioner could hand your client a piece of paper saying “Look, we’ve gotten your name out to your niche here, here, here and here – oh, and as a result of this, you are now number one in the search engines when searched for these top keyphrases…”

Likewise, SEO firms, what if you could cut your workload in half by completely cutting out link building, show your clients better results, and get them mentioned in related high-traffic blogs or ezines? How much more would they be willing to spend with you? For how many more keywords would they want to rank?

YES, BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

It is a symbiotic relationship. Yes, you have to pay another company and cut away at some of your margin, but the relationship is mutually beneficial. Furthermore, if each party is accommodated with solutions specific to the other’s industry where both stand to make a buck from offering the other’s services, the relationship will grow.

By putting stock in SEO as well as outsourcing it, Public Relations Firms will be able to retain their larger clients with greater frequency as well as set their sites on medium sized businesses that previously hid their wallets when someone mentioned the words “press release.” Similarly, by outsourcing to PR firms, Search Engine Optimization companies will be able to service more clients, while providing all around better results.

The most important point to remember here is that neither SEO nor PR firms have the whole of the online promotions pie yet. PR’s strengths lie in creating visibility, but not technical prowess. SEO is just the opposite. They’re a veritable Ying and Yang, an Odd Couple, Bonnie and Clyde, Simon and Garfunkle, Best Buds just waiting to find each other out there in the entangled world of bandwidth, servers and free information that is the internet.

The Trade Show as a Public Relations Tactic

Posted on 03. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Many of our business-to-business clients participate in their industry’s relevant trade shows and conferences. For most, these events are key opportunities to interact with prospects and clients to tell them about their latest products, programs and services. The trade show is most commonly viewed as a function of the sales department – salespeople attend the shows, work the booth, gather business cards, give their sales spiel ad infinitum and complain about their aching feet.

There is no denying that trade shows and conferences are very important in a company’s overall marketing strategy. A lot of money is spent on exhibit booths, literature, travel & entertainment and the overall logistics of participating in these events. So, why not make the most of them by adding a key component that can be the difference between a “good show” and a less-than-productive three days? Enter public relations.

Publicity is Only Part of PR

First, let’s level-set what we’re talking about when we say public relations. In its most literal interpretation, PR is “relating to your various publics” – including media, suppliers, customers and prospective customers. It’s not just getting a press release hit. It’s delivering your key messages in a way that is relevant to the receiver. For example the media want to provide “industry news” to their readers, while customers and prospects want to understand how your product is going to make their business better, etc.

Make sure you have your key messages developed and everyone representing your company at the show is well-versed and on-board with these messages. Then, identify ways to deliver these messages to the various audiences (publics). The messages you develop for media will be slightly different than those for customers, which will be different than the prospect messages, which will be different than the supplier/vendor messages, etc. Prospects may need to receive the messages via demonstration (live or via video), media will need a media kit with press releases, company background info, executive bios, etc. and customers will want personal contact via face-to-face meetings. The more you can customize your messages and delivery method to the audience, the better your message will be received.

Leverage the Event

Trades shows are major events for everyone involved. Attendees go with the goal of learning about the hot new products in their industry – they want to see and hear about the latest and greatest things that are going to make their life/job easier or more effective. As an exhibitor, this is your opportunity to fill that need and make a big deal about doing so. Trade shows are perfect venues for new product launches. In fact, this is the primary purpose of the automotive shows – to show off prototypes and new designs. A complete trade show strategy should include pre- and post-show activities as well as at-show planning. Use the event to contact key clients and prospects prior to the show and invite them to stop by your booth while at the show. Hold special VIP events at your booth after hours for product demonstrations and networking, and pre-arrange meetings with editors and writers from the key trade publications to stop by your booth to hear why your company is leading the way in your industry.

Most importantly, after the show follow up with everyone you made contact with, using specific information demonstrating your experience at the show with them was meaningful.

Develop Relationships, Increase Awareness, Gain Expert Status

We’ve all seen the exhibitors that show up, set up and sit at their booth waiting to give their sales pitch to anyone who happens to stop by long enough to listen. Trade shows are your opportunity to develop relationships, gain awareness of your products and services and position yourself as the expert in your industry. Make tradshows more than just a big line item in your budget because you “have to go because everyone else does.” Make them relationship builders and revenue generators. When planned and optimized, that’s exactly what they will become.

Public Relations For Law Firms: 5 Tips For a Successful PR Strategy

Posted on 01. Apr, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Law firms that lack a sound public relations strategy are missing valuable opportunities to represent clients who are enmeshed in the most important and impactful legal issues of the day. To secure such clients effectively, smart law firms know how to engage and leverage the media effectively.

The most effective public relations strategies for law firms are founded upon a keen understanding of the issues. They entail the effective positioning of the law firm as a credible resource offering valuable insights into the issues and problems their clients face.

Here are 5 tips for conducting effective and efficient public relations for law firms:

Tip #1: Know your audience:

It is essential that law firms identify the key spheres of referrals, relationships and prospective clients in their field of specialty. Each time the firm initiates a media outreach campaign, it should be sculpted to speak directly to one of a set of clearly-defined target client segments. The most commanding strategies are those that seek to inform audiences while highlighting key issues that personally and directly affect those target clients.

Tip #2: Intersect your firm’s expertise with real pain points:

Showcasing your firm’s true talents and specialties entails first understanding the real pain points of your target client segment. Fostering a relationship with clients that is conducive to trust and loyalty increases the likelihood that they will approach you in a reliable, confident manner. If you are unclear as to which issues to specifically address with your target client group, ask yourself: what is an issue or cluster of related issues that are important to lives of my target client segment? How might the resolution of these issues increase their upside (e.g., income, happiness, peace of mind) or decrease their downside (e.g., expenses, stress, health problems, etc.)?

Tip #3: Understand current trends:

Trend commentary is a frequently-employed method for generating visibility and increasing exposure for your firm. To generate trend commentary, PR practitioners collaborate with executives to identify key thought leadership platforms that traverse both current business trends and the law firm principals’ own expertise. The platforms are then shaped to cater to the target segment and then pitched to the media.

Tip #4: Represent yourself to the media as a resource offering substantial, well-articulated insight:

The final secret to success in media placements is approaching a topic with an insightful, well-articulated perspective. It is important to reach out to the right reporter(s) with relevant information. The main goal here is maximum reach and clarity, which can only be possible with effective and lucid channels of communication. The law firm’s presentation must be eloquent, refined and precise. This is crucial in terms of the portrayal of the firm’s image vis-à-vis the media.

Tip #5: Author expert articles:

Another facet of a thought-leadership campaign is the authoring of in-depth, by-lined, expert articles. These articles, often written in partnership with public relations professionals, have the power to go into specific details that highlight trends, problems and solutions. Expert articles can be developed for specific industry trade segments or for general business magazines. In some cases, they are developed to articulate detailed trends to other expert audiences. Articles and other literature often receive coverage in local publications such as newspapers, journals and newsletters, which in turn can create a potential gateway to national and possibly international exposure.

When launching a PR campaign for your law firm, the end game involves knowing your audience, identifying their pain points, and effectively positioning your firm as a thought leader who holds a substantive, insightful position on the issue or topic.

Public Relations Essentials: Understanding Your Target Audience

Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Public Relations, or PR, is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its public. The critical function of PR managers involves protecting the organization’s image and managing its identity. Public Relations utilizes publicity and other non-paid forms of promotion and information that can generate a positive attitude or opinion toward the organization. The primary focus is on communication, and to be successful, businesses must fully understand the Public Relations Essentials.

The recent economic downturn and the slow revival have put PR under considerable scrutiny. The expensive, over-the-top hype method is no longer effective and too much “in-your-face” marketing can bring businesses crashing down. Organizations now want the PR machinery to function and sustain within lower budgets, but with the quality same as ever and competing with a more intelligent audience.

Public Relations Essentials include answering these questions:

What is your intended objective? Who are your target audience? What are their current attitudes, opinions, and interests? What messages would impact their attitudes, opinions, and interests that your objective is achieved?

You should know your target audience right from the inception of the project. And after you determine the scope of your message on the target audience, you must determine how to most effectively influence or impact your target audience. The more you know about the target audience, the more impact you can have as the end result. These Public Relations Essentials are elements of a communication plan which, if properly understood, will generate a positive impact on your organization and its goals.

I Can?t Afford a Publicity/Public Relations Campaign — Can I?

Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

It’s a phrase I hear over and over again from many entrepreneurs, small businesses owners and inventors: “I’d love to hire someone to launch our publicity campaign professionally, but we can’t afford it, so I’m just going to have to do it on my own.”

Over the past several months, I have been conducting an informal survey among entrepreneurs and business owners who have contacted me about my services. I have found that due to their lack of information or knowledge on the topic, many businesses typically over-estimate or over-budget the cost of a prospective public relations/publicity campaign. During my PR consultation with them, I asked: “How much do you think it will cost to launch a solid, effective PR/publicity campaign for your product/business?” Of the 102 people I’ve queried:

· 11% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $10,000+ per month

· 32% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $5,000-$10,000 per month

· 39% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $3,000-$5,000 per month

· 12% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $1,000-$3,000 per month

· 6% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost less than $1,000 per month

The truth is — you can get a publicity/PR campaign in all of those price ranges. What you get for your money and how effective the campaign will be is the real question. It is true that the more you pay the more you get. But getting the most publicity/PR exposure doesn’t mean you have to get most expensive PR agency or specialist.

A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business that best reflects your business size. Most times their rates will be in line with your prospective PR budget. If you are a small business owner with two employees, you need not hire a high-dollar PR agency with dozens of employees. Find a PR business whose office size and capabilities closely resemble your business.

Case in point — there is a large PR agency in a fancy building downtown a few miles from my office. Frankly, we are not even competition to each other – in fact we have even referred clients to each other. Why? They typically work with large corporations and implement campaigns of around $10,000 per month. My business works with small/medium-sized businesses. Mechanically, the downtown firm and my business do the same thing when it comes to PR campaigns: professional media release composition; extensive media market research; articulate personalized distribution to the media; months of media relations (article placements/interview scheduling/media request fulfillment, clipping/tracking of media placements, etc.).

Signing up with the big firm doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are you getting what you are paying for? A friend of mine who works at a major PR firm gave me the following breakdown of billing fees in his office:

· Interns/Junior Executives – bill at $75 / hour

(Very little, if any professional experience)

· Account Executives – bill at $100 – $125 / hour

(1-3 years of professional experience)

· Senior Account Executives – bill at $125 – $200 / hour

(Multiple years of professional experience. Agency decision makers.)

Compare those prices to many small PR shops or individual PR specialists. Many have started their own PR businesses after years of experience in the industry and typically charge $50 – $100 per hour to professionally launch and maintain your campaign. Many times, you can get a seasoned PR veteran who will work directly with you and your staff for cheaper than the “Intern/Junior” executive rate at a downtown firm.

However, one word of advice — when choosing a smaller firm or individual to do your PR, make sure they have the same tools that the bigger agencies do: updated media lists/contacts; personalized media distribution capabilities; professional clipping/tracking services to get copies of each of your media placements (articles, tapes from TV/radio shows) as well as the intangibles of expert communication/media relations skills and professional pitching prowess. If they are cheaper, but don’t have all the tools to help you in the best manner possible, you are probably better off spending a little extra money to make sure your campaign is launched and maintained correctly.

The major benefits of hiring a professional (individual PR specialist or PR firm) to launch your campaign are:

· Proper Campaign Implementation – Improperly composed or poorly pitched campaigns are the major downfall of many PR efforts. Poorly written, over-commercialized media releases; uncalculated, misdirected mass e-mailing of the release pitch; no follow-up media relations/media request fulfillment; etc.. Your first impression to the media is a lasting one – make sure it’s a good one.

· Media Contacts – Most PR agencies have established multiple media contacts over several years that can lead to much better and more numerous media placements for your campaign. Let their foot in the door benefit you.

· Efficiency and Effectiveness – PR specialists/agencies generate publicity full time, 8-12 hours per day and know the ins and outs, shortcuts and secrets to getting the job done better and quicker. Sure you could hang your own drywall or do your own plumbing, but do you have the tools, the time and the expertise to make it cost effective? I always tell my clients, “You do what you do well, I’ll do what I do well and we’ll collectively move this business further up the ladder.”

One caveat when it comes to choosing a professional PR agency or individual to work with – signing up for a higher priced campaign doesn’t necessarily mean you will get better results than a cheaper campaign. And the inverse is true as well. Over the past year or so, many “low-cost PR/publicity services” have begun to pop up all over the Internet. Ones that promise to write and launch a press release for as low as $99. They are low in cost – because frankly many are low in quality. Bigger is not necessarily better, and cheap does not always mean a good bargain.

If you have the time, tools and talent to launch and maintain your own campaign, you should definitely do so. If not – there are a number of public relations/publicity firms, specialists and services out there. Research to find the one whose services and fees match your business plan. Once business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors learn more about their options when it comes to launching a PR campaign — many find that they can’t afford NOT to have one.

Researching Challenges of Public Relations Practitioners

Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by admin in Public Relations

Uniqueness of culture in Arabic culture can be both a threat and an opportunity. Cultural aspects enable a public relations practitioner choose the most effective message and communication channel for a specific target group. The smallest language problems may be very dangerous as they can lead to a total failure in the communication process.

Another unique challenge posed by U.A.E. community to public relations practitioners is rooted in the level of ambiguity in the communication process. According to scholars, communication occurs within a range of high to low context cultures. Further, they emphasize the importance of direct and exact verbal messages in low context cultures. Unites States and Northern Europe are the typical low context cultures, whereas Arab, African, and Asian countries tend to vary meaning of the message delivered depending on environment, settings, individuals, and personal relationship. As such, public relations practitioners in U.A.E face additional challenges posed by cultural differences that are rooted in the level of ambiguity.

Another issue is the lack of opportunities and training ground. Public relations practitioners in U.A.E. are not as skilled as that of in the rest of the developed world. The reason for this is rooted in a relatively small role attributed to public relations within the country and also a relatively small history of practice.

High digitalization of U.A.E. and governmental control over major communication channels constitute a unique informational environment of the local community. On one hand, invention and relatively high spread of Internet changes the very essence of public relations by shifting the focus to a new communication landscape. However, at the same time, high reliance on traditional media channels controlled by government decreases the scope of opportunities that could be realized by public relations services in the U.A.E. While the advent of printing press, radio, and television has forever changed the societal culture by granting power and opportunities to the poorest segment of society, Internet might have a similar impact on society. Interestingly, due to clash of interests within the U.A.E. community, the outcome of such a relationship as well as its impact on public relations can hardly be reasonable predicted. As such, public relations practitioners are exposed to another threat of uncertainty.