Public Relations Stories and Strategies

It’s an often overlooked but critical sin. Taking too many shortcuts in our work. The allure of quick fixes can lead to long-term damage and tank a brand’s reputation and trustworthiness. In this episode we uncover the hidden costs of cutting corners and the ethical implications that come with it.

Listen For
4:42 Cutting Corners Using AI
6:26 Prioritizing Your Unique Strengths
11:00 Impacts of Cross Posting Content on Social Media
16:12 Cold Email Campaigns. Yea or Nay? 

Guest: Jeremy Enns
Jeremy Enns is the Founder of Podcast Marketing Academy where he helps scrappy brands & podcast creators make sense of marketing and hit their next growth milestone with step-by-step playbooks and approachable marketing education.

Website | X | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Free Podcast Marketing Audit | Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter  

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Double the output – but lose the human touch?

From automating media monitoring and sentiment analysis to optimizing content and reshaping billing practices. AI tools are revolutionizing the PR landscape. But while AI can handle many tasks efficiently, there are critical areas where human creativity and emotional intelligence remain irreplaceable. 

It’s not all rosy predictions for AI and PR – there are very real challenges of AI adoption and the surprising inertia many in the field are experiencing. 

Listen For
3:36 An example of AI Adoption Dramatically Increasing Productivity
7:44 Why PR and Marketing Pros Will Need to Shift to Value-Based Billing
15:29 AI Excels at Certain PR Tasks
21:55 Authenticity Will Stand Out in an AI-Saturated World 

Guest: Michael Smart
Subscribe to Michael's popular weekly newsletter on PR and AI tips  

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We all use mental shortcuts to make decisions. Those mental shortcuts are the reason that first sentence in this episode description is so short. 

Savvy marketers tap into these cognitive biases to influence out choices and drive success. In this episode, Nathan Yeung shares why understanding these shortcuts is crucial for creating effective marketing strategies and how trust and avoiding overconfidence play pivotal roles in winning over consumers. 

Listen For
4:21 Utilizing Availability and Accessibility Heuristics
9:08 Channel Strategy and Consumer Habits
11:35 Ethical Use of Cognitive Biases
14:15 Trust and Overconfidence in Marketing

Guest: Nathan Yeung, Find Your Audience
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This episode was originally published September 13, 2022.

Enter Behavioural Science, which is an umbrella term capturing economics, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, sociology, psychology, and political science. It’s the study of when and why individuals engage in specific behaviours by experimentally examining the impact of factors such as conscious thoughts, motivation, social influences, contextual effects and habits. 

There are hundreds of firms exploring in this field now, working for clients trying to convince people to buy the right soap, vote for the preferred candidate, or choose the right behaviour. It’s a shift away from just best practices and intuition – to seek an understanding of human behaviour as best we can. One is standing out from the field and the industry has noticed. Lynn, in Wales. It’s won dozens of awards including “Fastest Growing Communications Business in the World.”

In this episode we meet the founder, Shayoni Lynn.

Listen For
4:15 Understanding Behavioural Science
6:15 An Integrated Behavioural Science Approach
20:43 Misinformation and Disinformation Management
18:43 Sludge Audits 

Guest: Shayoni Lynn, Lynn
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Those big networking events. Many of us enjoy those but the repetitive small talk can be exhausting and challenging especially when conversations are frequently interrupted. In this episode we look at strategies for engaging storytelling in brief interactions, making meaningful connections, and ensuring your conversations stand out.  

Listen For
5:06 The Power of Listening
9:13 When You’re an Introvert
13:30 Finding Your Wedge into Group Conversations
20:14 Tailoring Your Stories 

Guest: Robert Kennedy III

Website | You Tube 

RK3’s August 2024 Webinar http://learnwithrk3.com/3swebinar 

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Instagram Reels has become critical for brand promotion. Of all the things you can do on IG (Stories, Posts, Carousels…), Reels is number one.

SocialInsider studied this recently and found brands have increased their use of reels by 40% compared to the previous year because they’re more engaging than single images or carousels. Brands should have a consistent calendar for creating reels, but also use other content formats like carousels to reach their goals on Instagram.

And, as in any PR campaign, it’s important to understand your audience and tailor content to their preferences.

The “Reel” success for brands just might be in creating smaller, niche communities for more effective engagement.

Listen For
3:38 Why Reels is Number One on Instagram and How Brands have responded
6:30 The Importance of a Content Mix
9:18 Understanding Your Audience
12:00 Why You Need to Get Their Attention in Three Seconds

Guest: Adina Jipa, Founder and CMO Social Insider
Email | LinkedIn | Instagram | Instagram Benchmarks Report

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The debate was a disaster.

In this episode, we look at the chaotic political showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, exploring the “What Now” for each party.

Janet Brown is an extremely well-respected pollster in Canada with NO political affiliation to either US party. We talk about what she would do if she was in charge of communications strategy for the Democrats and the Republicans.

Listen For
6:38 The Need to Focus on Donors
8:40 Utilize Private Meetings for Recovery
14:06 Emulate Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” Campaign
21:32 How to Monitor Grassroots Indicators

Guest: Janet Brown
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The UN Secretary-General António Guterres's has made a controversial suggestion that public relations professionals should sever ties with fossil fuel companies. While his comments are aimed at combating climate change, they overlook the crucial role PR pros play in driving innovation and transparency within these companies. 

By disengaging, PR experts could inadvertently hinder progress towards net-zero goals, as their expertise is vital in communicating and facilitating the transformative changes necessary for a sustainable future. 

But this raises another question – when should we say no to working with a company?

Listen For
4:02 Understanding the Influence of Public Relations
4:40 The Role of Public Relations in Environmental Progress
6:10 Ethics vs Morality in Public Relations
17:45 Driving Positive Change

Guest: Stuart Bruce
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This is a Replay from Episode 73 which first published in October 2022.

You know how this feels. You’re called into a meeting on something important where a decision or action must be determined. But in the meeting, everyone takes turns making different points (presumably so they feel they’ve contributed to the meeting in front of their superior), the conversation goes wayward and when it comes time to making the decision, everyone’s confused or (worse) misled. This is typically the point where the most senior person in the room then makes decisions, essentially based on what they thought before they entered the room, and the meeting has been a waste of time.

It just doesn’t have to be this way. 

The ORID method (Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, Decisional) traces its origins to a person named Joseph Matthews, a US army Chaplin who had just come home from World War Two. When he returned to his university professorship, he was consumed with the need to help people process the events of their lives – to help people build meaning from their own trials. 

Matthews met an art professor who showed him that any encounter with art involves a trialogue – or three-way conversation – between the art, the artist, and the observer. The Professor explained:   

"First you have to take the work of art seriously by observing carefully what's there, and what's not. Then you must look seriously at what is going on inside of you as you observe the art to see how you are reacting, what repels you? What delights you? You have to peel back layers of awareness so that you can begin to ask what it means to you. Art, the professor explained, is like listening. You must work to create your own meaning from an artwork, or a conversation.” 

Matthews recalled his exposure to phenomenology - the study of phenomena and brought to mind readings of Soren Kierkegaard. Matthews used this structure to create, what was called the art form conversation, and what facilitators affectionately call the focused conversation method. The idea is a structured conversation that helps participants develop their thinking in a logical manner but following a natural human process for focused communication. Logic and facts are introduced first, then emotion is welcomed, followed by interpretation, and then a decision or resolution to the thinking process. 

In this episode we talk with Robin Parsons, a seasoned professional facilitator who uses the ORID method all the time. 

Listen For
5:09 Definition and Role of a Facilitator
7:38 The ORID Method Explained
10:03 The Importance of Reflective Thinking
17:42 The Challenges with Surveys in Capturing Full Thinking Processes

Guest: Robin Parsons, MBA, CPF, CTF
Parsons Dialogue Ltd.
Website https://www.parsonsdialogue.com/
Email [email protected] 

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Leadership, and leadership communication, is evolving. The rules from even just five years ago (pre COVID) have shifted. In this episode Paige Williams shares how we can transform communication and leadership effectiveness by asking the right questions and staying rooted in curiosity.

These are strategies that can enhance creativity, engagement, and resilience in your team, whether you’re leading a small group or a large organization.

Listen For
5:22 The Importance of Asking the Right Questions
7:09 Modern Leadership and the Ecosystem
10:14 Holding Plans Lightly
18:29 Positive Deviance

Guest: Paige Williams, Ph.D. Organisational Behaviour
Website | Email| LinkedIn | Instagram | You Tube | Books on Amazon

Books by Dr Paige
The Leaders’ Ecosystem
What Does Good Look Like?
Own It!
Becoming Antifragile
Your Leadership Blueprint
Surviving to Thriving

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