PR Insiders

We recently surveyed attendees for the upcoming Social Shake-Up, asking them a couple of basic questions: which social media platform is their main focus in their work life, and what do they want to learn about most at the Shake-Up. Judging by the responses to the first question, the past—in the form of relatively ancient social media platforms—has a pretty firm grip on the professional communicators who responded to the survey.

The About page can be challenging for PR pros as it’s a mix of a professional bio and a compelling pitch. Whether it’s for a brand, an individual or even yourself, the About page is without doubt one of the most important components of a website. It’s the first place potential customers will go to get a good sense of you. Here are some tips to help you create or enhance the About Page for your brand’s site.

“Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” has been attributed to different people, from the actors Jack Lemmon and Gregory Peck to thespians Edmund Kean and Edmund Gwenn. Perhaps we can augment that aphorism: “Dying is easy, communicating is hard.” Examples abound why this is so. United, Pepsi and Wells Fargo are only the latest.

“Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” has been attributed to different people, from the actors Jack Lemmon and Gregory Peck to thespians Edmund Kean and Edmund Gwenn. Perhaps we can augment that aphorism: “Dying is… Continued

In early March, Washington, D.C.’s NFL franchise found itself the subject of scorn. The team fired its general manager a bit more than two years into a four-year contract, despite the club’s improved record on the field after years of futility. In an article covering the firing, the Washington Post quoted a statement from the team’s president wishing the ousted general manager “well in his future endeavors. The team will have no further comment on his departure.” What happened next turned into a PR fiasco.

Some things never change. That’s true in PR, too. The reasons are many. It’s easier to go with the flow than incorporate new thinking. Supervisors fail to give young staff opportunities to try new technique. Staff fear criticizing the boss. Those who advocate change are seen as mavericks and tend to be ostracized. The result is that, well, things change way too slowly. Here’s a list of PR sacred cows that need to be challenged.

Few companies are trying to make a Starbucks-like statement in today’s highly politicized communication environment. Many brands want to respect the diverse opinions of their employees and customers and avoid becoming a target of unanticipated backlash. Here are a few ways communicators can help brands navigate today’s highly charged environment. Fortunately, most of them are basic tenets of PR and communications. Brushing up on the basics can be especially useful in today’s climate.

Social media exposes many ironies, including the possibility that we are less social because of social media. Remember the days when we used our phone for talking, not typing? And when a friend was someone… Continued

Forget about Business-to-Business or Business-to-Consumer marketing for a moment. Instead, consider Human-to-Human. If you treat your customers like the humans they are and communicate with them in human ways, you are more likely to succeed on social media. Whether you are tweeting, posting, gramming or snapping, your human customers expect to be educated, enlightened or entertained.

Customers have four kinds of needs: functional, emotional, life-changing and social. How do communications professionals incorporate values that meet these needs into strategic PR, social media and content development plans? We should begin with why: People in every industry “don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” which spurs us to examine the underlying causes of buyer behavior.