Polly's Power-PR

Link-building is the name of the game today in public relations. A well-planned PR program builds inbound links to your website through news release distribution, article placement and awards nominations. In a commentary on OpenForum, “6 Common SEO Mistakes on Small Business Websites,” Rae Hoffman-Dolan describes the importance of links: “Links are still widely believed [...]

Community relations has always been a subset of Public Relations. According to Answers.com ,"Community relations refers to the various methods companies use to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the communities in which they operate. The underlying principal of community relations is that when a company accepts its civic responsibility and takes an [...]

The Washington Business Journal reported in its Morning Call on Friday, September 24, that Washington's business people ranked third in the nation in the use of Twitter. The statistic comes from a study released this month by NetProspex, a company which maintains a large sales and marketing database. While Washington ranked third in terms of [...]

How to handle apologies can be a touchy subject. In a recent issue of Inc. Today's Small Business News, there was an interesting item entitled, "Meet the apologizers," which referenced a Chicago Tribune article," Airlines employ professional apologizers." Featured in the article is Fred Taylor, Jr., official apologizer for Southwest Airlines Co. His job is [...]

Advertising Age reported on August 23 that Edelman, a traditional PR agency, had won out over a digital shop competing to produce a digital campaign for Ben & Jerry's. Says Michael Bush, who authored the article: "Like every other marketing sector, the PR industry took a beating in 2009. But unlike the last major downturn in the PR business, [...]

Tired of the summer TV reruns, I stopped at the Red Box while I was grocery shopping and brought home the movie, "Ghost Writer." WHEW! Roman Polanski's film is a dark depiction of the ghost-writer's profession. It' s also a dark depiction of Martha's Vineyard and in stark contrast to the sunshine and happy crowds [...]

Being a PR person is never dull. With each client, there is something new to be discovered. Recently, I learned about Moxibustion, a technique used in traditional Chinese medicine. My client, Dr. Owen Liao of Whole Health Medical Center in Alexandria, VA, was demonstrating the technique for Vicky Hallett, health and fitness editor for the Washington Post [...]

NewsChannel 8 has rebranded itself as TBD TV. I'm not sure what this will mean to the PR community. I'm still in mourning over the cancellation of Washington Business Tonight, which offered local businesses, small as well as large, their four minutes of fame. Apparently, Let's Talk Live is still alive and well, moved back from [...]

PR  is about telling stories and story opportunities are everywhere, even in your own backyard. Kay and Tom Horst enjoy outdoor living year-round on their new screened-in porch, created by Michael Sauri of TriVistaUSA and featured on Bob Vila's Website The Horst's porch is slide #6 of 13 porches showcased on the site of home improvement [...]