Tag: PR Agency

My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 28

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , , ,

Although Mike and Ike’s split hit the news back in April, it wasn’t until this weekend that I really saw this nasty breakup play out in public. First, it was the billboards scattered along the sides of highways in Charlotte – a very public display of Ike erasing Mike from his life (and his billboard).

Then, of course, there were the commercials. The news obviously devastated fans, coworkers and celebrities, alike, as the cameras caught their reactions on film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGsxfkROdo&feature=plcp

On the Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr, the drama continued between the estranged duo as fans begged, “Why?!”

Why? Well, for the ratings, of course – there’s no news there. In public relations, we’re usually working proactively to avoid conflict. Yet, here the candy brand has not only welcomed it, but started it. An uncommon tactic, but not original. Barbie and Ken announced their divorce back in 2004, and the brand Benetton is better known for its extremely controversial ad campaigns than it is for its actual products.

So here’s the question I pose: When does introducing a little bit of drama or controversy become too distracting? For Mike and Ike and Barbie and Ken, I think it’s just the right amount. Create a little bit of a stir about a breakup to generate publicity, but still focus on the actual product. Benetton – aren’t you supposed to be a fashion brand? I hear more about your ad campaigns than I do about your clothing.

In my first 30 days at a Raleigh PR agency, I’ve learned that conflicts and crises are sometimes part of the job. But, when did we start creating controversy in an attempt to do our job better? And, when does the controversy become off-putting to consumers? Ignoring the poorly executed posts and bland YouTube commercials, do you think the idea of Mike and Ike’s breakup is just what the brand needed for some renewed publicity, or is it just plain distracting?

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My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 26

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Public Relations, , , , , , , , 1 Comment on My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 26

Why use an Excel spreadsheet when you could use an infographic instead? My blog earlier this week touched upon the power of using images, not words, to generate excitement and fan interaction on social media. The same idea can be applied to reports, presentations and meetings. The bottom line is this: images are easier to understand, more useful for explaining complicated data, and quite frankly, more fun to look at than a long list of numbers and words.

As PR people, we work in a creative industry and work on creative projects on a daily basis. When it comes to compiling a report of analytics, numbers, demographics and other data, why would we ditch all of our creative instincts and resort to the old standbys: Word documents and Excel spreadsheets? Yes, there is a time and a place for a neat, classic, black and white spreadsheet. But, for the remainder of the time, an infographic, word cloud or beautifully choreographed chart gets the job done just as well, and often even better.

Just this past week, I researched different infographic generators and other creative data compilers to use for a presentation, and I was amazed at the amount of easy to use websites and programs available. Don’t worry if you don’t have a background in design, because with these programs, it’s not necessary to be able to create a top of the line infographic. One of my favorite sites for infographics is Piktochart. Check out this video and see how easy it is to create your own. After all, we are creative people, so shouldn’t our work and presentations reflect what we are capable of doing?

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My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 22

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Marketing, Owning a Business, , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 22

If you are a start-up or own a small business, search engine optimization is essential in order to be found by potential consumers searching for your product or business on  Google, Yahoo!  or other search engines. Making sure to use key words and phrases to ensure higher SEO is a good start, but Maile Ohye, developer program tech lead at Google, has shared some more tips and tricks for startups to really optimize their SEO.

Here is her advice (in less than 10 minutes) on how startups can master their SEO:

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My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 19

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, , , , , , 1 Comment on My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 19

A lot of my work at Clairemont thus far has been centered around doing social media and blogging for clients, but every once in a while, I’m doing what we now consider “traditional PR,” as well. My most recent task has involved pitching the Charlotte and nearby Lancaster, S.C. media regarding our client Walnut Creek’sannouncement that three new builders are set to begin construction in the housing development.
Pitching media is still a new experience for me, and it is probably one of the most nerve-wracking assignments that I have worked on yet at a PR agency. Reporters are busy and can receive hundreds of pitches a day. Sometimes they are just not interested in hearing another pitch, and sometimes your story just really isn’t what that reporter needs.

My best advice? Don’t take the rejection personally. Pitching the media can be hard, but it gets much better with practice (so I’ve heard). Instead, make the pitch into a game. What can you do, what angle can you approach it from to make your story sound the most interesting to the reporter? What can you do to make the reporter’s job easy? If you can give the journalist as much information as they need as soon as they need it, you are making his or her job easier, which means you are in a much better position to get placement for your story.

This is just my initial reaction on how to make pitching the most interesting and effective, but for those of you who have had way more experience than me, do you have any tips and tricks to share?

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My First 30 Days at a Raleigh PR Agency: Day 18

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Raleigh PR Agency, , , , , ,

If you’re working on a team, it can be difficult staying up-to-date on what everyone is doing, what you need to be doing, when something is due, when something is completed, etc. Clairemont’s solution to this problem? A free online task manager program called Asana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiLCmstyDdM&feature=player_embedded

Asana is a digital workspace where you and your team can share task lists, plan, organize, prioritize and stay in sync with all of your different projects. On Asana, you can create new workspaces for each client or project, create different tasks and to-dos for each workplace, assign tasks to different team members, set due dates and check items off the list upon their completion. Each team member can see exactly what she and other team members need to do. Projects can be prioritized so you always know which is the most pressing and important at that time.

With people in and out of the Clairemont office and often on different schedules, Asana has helped us communicate what needs to be done and when. Instead of clogging up email inboxes with messages reminding someone to edit a blog or send a document, the task can be added to Asana, assigned to a specific team member and flagged with a due date. This may sound like an elementary idea, but in a public relations office where you are working on a number of different assignments and clients at any given time, the ability to streamline everyone’s schedules is necessary for productivity and efficiency

Intrigued? You should be! Asana is easy, effective and, most importantly, free! It’s a great tool for a public relations agency to use, and we highly suggest it. Take a look at this “Intro to Asana” video to learn more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liO5VbbIqIs&list=UU2BoogM0AqwOJyoSp1S4ClQ&index=7&feature=plcp

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