Will Smith has broken his silence.

The Hollywood star who slapped Chris Rock live on stage during the Oscars has released a video on social media.

So, what can we learn from what he said? What can we learn from a PR and comms perspective about his apology and what he said as he addressed the key questions he's being asked?

Did he do it right?

In this episode, we play a part of Smith's video and analyze what he did from a PR perspective. 

#publicrelations #willsmith #pr #comms #marketing

Why do short-form videos work? How are they being used and could you use them for your organizationhighlights?

Short form videos are popular. They are highly engaging and highly addictive. It's no wonder so many people are using them.

In today's episode, I discuss a recent Instagram post that highlight work the Washington Post had done with videos like these.

So could you use them too and what would you need to think about?

Is it worth launching a social video series for your organization and how do you persuade "management" to let you do it?

This was a situation Dominic Walker of JMW Solicitors found himself in but he actually found it to be a lot easier than he expected.

In today's episode, I'm sharing a section of a chat I had with my good friend Dominic. 

He was telling me how he pitched the idea for the Inside Man series and how it developed into the show he makes now. I thought I'd share that with you too. 

What is also interesting is how he did this in a profession I would have thought would have been resistant to social media like this.

It's an interesting chat.

Journalists are everywhere. It's a lot harder trying to find a journalist and pushing a story to them when you need it.... than calling a "friend". 

In this quick update I share a story that just happened of connecting with a journalist.

#pr #publicrelations #pressofficer #Marketing #communicationsmanager

There is a news story almost every day that you could latch onto for PR or social media.

In this episode, I look at today's news to see what stories a business could be part of today. There was a surprising number.  

Whatever industry you are in one of the easiest ways to build relationships with journalists is to help them write the stories they want to write already. 

We can see those by simply looking at the news agenda that day and asking the question, how could I help? 

But it doesn't stop there. 

If you are putting out social media, you also want to be talking about the things the public are talking about too.

Why does timing matter? It sounds so obvious doesn't it? But, once again, it's one of those things that often isn't considered enough.

In major companies, there are banks of screens monitoring the public's real-time feelings about a brand in the marketing and PR department. It allows them to monitor what people are thinking and then react to it. 

The importance of timing can be seen in a book written in the 1960's too. 

I went to a play last night in London (UK). It was Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and that is a book that demonstrates the principles of timing perfectly. 

What Joe Rogan can teach us about crisis PR.

Last week as I lay in bed with COVID, I watched a video on YouTube with Joe Rogan in which he was asked how he dealt with the massive attacks on him earlier this year.

There was a lot to pull from this conversation from a PR perspective because so often in PR the focus is on the techniques of crisis management, not us.

So how do you cope when your organization or the public are looking at you and they are not happy. 

What can we learn from Rogan?

There is a way to approach a journalist for the first time that if you follow is much less likely to result in a grumpy response. 

The secret is to help them do their jobs. But that is not by reaching out to them with your story.

In this episode, I talk about another approach you can make which the best PRs used on me when I was a news editor.