When Aldina Tracey takes the podium this Wednesday in New York to host the seminar "How to Generate Free Publicity to Get Your Business Noticed," she will be prepared to answer
the main question that confuses many entrepreneurs: What is the difference between PR and advertising?
"A lot of people think that are both PR and advertising are media placement," explains Tracey, principal with the New York agency Tracey Picon Communications. "They
think: I put an advertisement in a newspaper and that is media placement."
This is Tracey's third year in helming this seminar, which she presents with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. While providing much-needed educational input for her
audience, Tracey also harvests new business from these seminars. "I've done follow-up consultations for attendees and created customized PR plans," she says, adding that her work
has brought her clients from the worlds of accounting, travel and fashion design. "I am working with them at a critical time for their business - either they are ready to
establish their brand or they are struggling to turn the corner and move forward."
An entrepreneur herself, Tracey previously worked for corporations that don't face the situations her seminar audiences face: Avon Products (where she was a public
relations manager) and American Express (where she managed PR for the Establishment Services Division and Consumer Card Group Services Division). Yet an earlier job, as
media relations manager for Black Enterprise Magazine, first gave her the concept of being her own boss.
"I worked with Earl Graves, the Black Enterprise publisher, and he instilled in us the value of being an entrepreneur and starting your own business," she recalls.
However, she adds that it is not a formula that everyone can absorb. "You need passion and the desire to be an entrepreneur. If you don't have that fire in the belly, you won't
succeed."
Contact: Aldina Tracey, [email protected].