Monthly archives

Expanding Minority Public Relations in the Minority?

Another PR Campaign

Is it my imagination, or does every grassroots PR campaign that intends on reaching the black market centered on musicians, athletes, and dare I say… musicians. It makes sense if you are targeting teens and maybe young adults. However, what about the expanding your horizons… are they not worth the effort of stepping outside the expected box. Even the political press has given more attention to the songs by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, when referencing blacks and voting, than the efforts of other non-profit organizations that encourage the minority vote.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the music industry…

Ideas are Just not Enough

I re-learned a super classic rule of PR today: In order to catch media eyes, pens and cameras- a campaign must surround an event or an individual. News needs focus; “stuff,” if you will. Otherwise, there is no story.

I do PR work for an outdoor/environmental organization. We are currently trying to attract media attention for our teen summer program, a full month of backpacking. Teens from around the world, no showers or bathrooms, no ipods or computers, cooking outside every night, walking with 40 pounds of pack-weight everyday. Sounds like a story, right?

Wrong. From our perspective, the idea of kids…

Personal PR

We all have a brand. We are all represented to the public based on our own personal brand. How are you representing yourself to the world? Employers are increasingly turning to the web to investigate prospective job candidates. Anyone can put their best face forward at an hour long job interview but how do you act in cyberspace when you think that no one but your friends are watching?

Before I hire people I Google them and I check out their MySpace pages if possible. I want to know whether or not this person is a freak. You never know what…

Public Relations vs Publicity

These terms are often used interchangeably and misused. The differences are simple. Publicity is the end result and one factor of a public relations campaign or strategy. The end results are what make the headlines, the news cast, the chat room, the blogs, in short, the media placement. Note, publicity isn’t always planned and it isn’t always good but it can occasionally be free.

Public Relations is the strategy used to enhance a company’s reputation. It’s also referred to as reputation management. This is also the department responsible for keeping companies out of the media.

Jessica, Chicken of the SeaOne publicity and public relations example involves…

The Changing Face of Public Relations

Social media (an oxymoron when you think about it) is changing the face of traditional media relations and the role of the public relations (PR) professional in securing media coverage for clients.

I have come from the old school of PR, where press kits and releases were sent out via snail mail and clients were presented with proposals by a live professional. Stories were researched to learn what a reporter was looking for, followed by an eloquent, compelling telephone pitch ~ the 10-second elevator pitch. And the value of PR was tracked by the client based on the number of hits…