FAQs

Public relations is the art and practice of building and maintaining relationships between organizations and the people they interact with through messaging, social communication and collaboration on common goals. It involves strategic planning that includes the targeting of specific messages to specific audiences, and using specific channels for a desired outcome. It also involves the development of critical and strategic responses to undesirable messages and interactions. For instance, if you are a government agency that wants to get a message out to a specific type of client for a designated period of time, a public relations practitioner would:

• Identify and clarify your goals
• Create a communications plan for you that speaks directly to your identified client on the channel he or she communicates on.
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate the results
• Restructure and implement again

In advertising, known these days as paid media, messages are used to persuade people to buy a product or act on an idea. This is done by paying traditional or social media to explain who you are or what it is and what it does and most importantly to get you to purchase or use an item or join and participate in a cause. In public relations, messages are used to create understanding and good will between organizations and the people or entities with which they interact. These relationships create and enhance the atmosphere in which messages are sent and received and communications takes place. In public relations, you tell the story and encourage others to enjoy or participate in it.

As a public relations expert, I develop communications strategy where messages are crafted on behalf of individuals or organizations with which they interact with other individuals, groups or organizations. I help you choose what message should go to what audience at what time and for what purpose and through which channel. I help you manage and maintain your relationships through quality, consistent messaging and interactions.

You need a public relations specialist to help you:

• Build and maintain the relationships that are important to you with those who have an interest in what you do such as your employees, clients, customers, vendors, competitors, immediate community and the wider world.
• Chart a course by examining your business goals to create a communications strategy that will help you achieve them.
• Simplify the complex. Sometimes the messages that you want to send and those that you receive are complicated. You have to respond with the right words, at the right time, using the correct tone on the right channel.
• Keep your head in a crisis. When your interaction with individuals or organizations become problematic, we can help you think through how you should respond, when and why.
• Reboot and refocus your message. If your messages have gotten stale and out of date and you need to do something differently, we can help you develop a brand new you.

I am particularly interested in government agencies, non-profits, small businesses or social entrepreneurs who specialize in economic development, education, energy, environment or technology for emerging or underserved communities. I am also interested in arts and culture projects.

A good public relations practitioner can research and create content about any topic. Specialists of course have insider knowledge on a topic and that can be helpful. It depends on who you are communicating with and why. Business to business communications in a specialized field about a specialized topic can best be handled by a public relations firm with insider knowledge.

You measure the effectiveness of your public relations strategy by the quality of the relationships that you have with your various publics, your employees, stakeholders, customers, clients, your immediate community, your community at-large. In the old days, public relations companies measured their success on the amount of publicity they generated for the client, i.e. newspaper stories, free mentions on radio and TV, use of knowledge and expertise by a wide group of people and interests. Today, with social media in play, measurement is now done through SEO, search engine optimization and the use of analytics. A good public relations strategist will use them both, while also focusing on actions and events that enhance relationships between the organization and those with whom they want to have or maintain a relationship.

Yes, we can help with your presentations. Whether it is a TV or radio appearance, a speech, workshop or web presentation, we can help you present your best and most articulate self.

Yes. We do short term projects, 3-month, 6-month, 1 year aimed at achieving a specific goal for instance: a non-profit trying to raise awareness around a themed month; a government agency trying to get the public to understand and participate in a new initiative; a small business engaged in a civic project that they want to publicize.

Earned media is publicity that your organization gets that wasn’t paid for directly. When the local newspaper or a professional blogger writes a story about you, your event or your product, that is earned media. When a customer loves you, your product or your event so much that they take to social media to tweet, blog or post about you, that is also considered earned media.

Owned media is media that you control because it is located on or generated from a platform that you own. Your website, blog, Linkedin page, Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter accounts are owned media. This is where you can tell and control your story. It is also where you can interact with your various publics on your own turf.

Integrated marketing is a communications strategy that combines traditional and social media and utilizes earned, owned and paid media to sell a product or promote a cause. It combines public relations, advertising and marketing techniques and tactics to achieve a desired result.

Ideally, your website is a part of your public relations strategy and should be developed in conjunction with your business goals. However, many individuals and organizations build the website they can afford before seeking public relations help, if they ever do. If you already have a website, a good public relations specialist will advise you on how to update it to reflect your business goals.

Social media has changed the communications game. In order for your owned media and your brand to be seen when a potential customer or client does a google/bing or other internet search, your organization must have an active presence on various social media platforms. You have to offer valuable content for your customers on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others in order for those searching for the services that you offer to find you. Your owned media must be search engine optimized for your organization to be found. You must be able to interact in real time with current and potential clients and customers and those who just want to know more about you, your services and your knowledge and opinions on related matters.

A strong, effective communications strategy is developed through a collaboration of practitioner and client. We will work with you to understand your goals for your organization and to design and implement a solution that works for you.

Contracts will be determined by the needs of the client. Some will need a long term plan of a year or more to achieve a desired outcome. Others will need a few months to develop and implement a particular strategy for a particular cause.

We will analyze your current communications profile, identify areas that need improvement and work with you to develop and implement a strategy that will improve your brand.

We will help you and your organization understand, participate and compete in the digital communications environment.