While the American government has a master of public relations President Obama at its helm, the Internal Revenue Service has handled its PR crisis in a terrible manner this week when it came to handling the media.
I am flabbergasted as to why more people in our industry aren’t utilizing Op-eds and blog posts more as Google Rankings continue to reward websites and authors who produce high-quality content regularly. One would think that anyone employed at a PR Firm should be jumping for joy, as unique content placed properly can help rapidly move relevant search rankings – yet very few in our industry write often. Perhaps I should be happy as it benefits my company – but it is just amazing that PR pros don’t spend more time writing as it can have major impact on search engine activity.
Elie Wiesel is the be the featured speaker at a NYC dinner where The Algemeiner Journal will release a list; The Top 100 People Worldwide Positively Influencing the Jewish Future.
The world’s largest PR firm, Edelman has recently been hired by the Saudi Arabian government. Their female staff who works on the account won’t need to worry about driving when they go visit their client – Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which doesn’t permit women drivers. The American State Department says “discrimination against women is a significant problem” in Saudi Arabia. Quite a contrast for an industry where it’s estimated that 75% of the PR industry is women.
Despite the assertion of a recent ZDNET oped Public Relations professionals will indeed create content. There is no longer a filter for Google News which gives preference to old school media vs. a new school blog – Its all “news.” That goes for The Huffington Post or The Drudge Report, CNBC.com or The Daily Beast.
There is no magic button to touch which allows instant success by utilizing Public Relations. However, here are some concrete and catchy public relations tricks your brand can utilize to succeed with PR.
A long-term high-profile client of 5WPR called me recently. He told me he got engaged for the 1st time and is planning a holiday wedding. He’s never been married – yet was mystified that on Google there’s a new info graph which refers to him as married. He wanted it corrected – so we prepared a notarized letter from him stating he’s never been married, copied the 1st page of his tax returns saying so, and multiple recent news clippings referring to him as a bachelor – and sent it off to Google.
“We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” —-Edward Bernays, the father of Public Relations
Public Relations firms, today more than ever before, are in the content creation business – and this democratization of the media – of information and communication can be used for good and for bad.
Great communicators can influence change, whether political, cultural or in business. From Winston Churchill to Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs to Martin Luther King, history is full of individuals who, through their words and deeds, have shifted public opinion and behavior. Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert, and the “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffet are all hailed as great communicators – no argument here.
