A client just honored me by asking me to serve as their organization’s media spokesperson. I also had a chance recently to interview about a dozen spokespersons for a client project, frankly with mixed results. The two situations caused me to think about spokesperson basics. If you’ve been tapped to be spokesperson for your organization, [...]
PR planning basics: 3 key questions
You’ve been sold on the idea that you need a PR plan – for example, by this post. Now what? Before you put fingers to keyboard to create the plan itself, you’ll want to answer a few questions. And because my husband is threatening to build a house as I write this, construction analogies come [...]
Learnings from FTC’s POM Wonderful ruling
The fresh produce industry counts on being able to promote the healthy profile of our wares. So what can we learn from the recent POM Wonderful case? (Background: In May 2012, a federal judge agreed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that POM Wonderful has engaged in deceptive advertising. Finding the company’s claims about the [...]
What I’ve learned as a spokesperson
The following first appeared as a guest post on MrMediaTraining.com on April 27, 2012. Thanks to Brad Phillips for giving me permission to reprint it here: As a crisis communications consultant turned fresh produce industry spokesperson turned PR counselor and trainer, I now have the chance to pass on some of the lessons I’ve learned throughout [...]
4 steps to bring clarity to your PR efforts
Having worked in public relations and issue communications for more than 20 years now, I tend to forget that my craft is still a mystery-slash-missed opportunity for many people. A prospective client brought that home for me recently as I considered how to answer the question, “So where do we begin?” Here’s a four-step guide [...]
Outsourced yes, hack no
From time to time, clients hire me/Clarity to provide outsourced PR staff. Typically, the client’s staff PR position is vacant, but meanwhile the work won’t wait. Or the client is a mid-size company that doesn’t have enough to work to justify a full-time staff position. Or the client is a start-up that doesn’t yet have [...]
PR lessons to learn from Komen/Planned Parenthood announcement
First thing: I’m going to stick to public relations, not politics, in this post. There, now the men and you folks who oppose women’s reproductive rights can continue reading. Until the last paragraph. In case you’ve been on a desert island, this week the Susan G. Komen Foundation has been soundly blasted – or resoundingly [...]
The art and magic of gift giving
This time of year I spend a lot of time thinking about and searching for those elusive “perfect gifts” for those special people on my list. You know, that holy grail of a gift that has them exclaiming, “This is soooo perfect!” Alas, for all that mental energy invested, I rarely achieve that level of [...]
Limited time offerings spur pent-up demand
I’m a big fan of limited time offerings, I think they are very powerful stuff. In true Pavlovian fashion, Starbucks has trained me to await the return of its pumpkin spice latte every fall — and apparently I’m not the only one, according to the Chicago Tribune. And while not a fan myself, the buzz [...]
The real-world consequences of not telling our story
The following post originally appeared in Produce Marketing Association’s Field to Fork blog on August 25, 2010. At the time of its writing, I was one of PMA’s on-staff PR experts. BTW, fiance graduated to husband in April. Thanks to my friends at F2F for allowing me to reprint that post here: This past weekend [...]
