New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be about pretending you’ll go to the gym more. As a public relations professional, the new year offers an opportunity to reflect, reset, and recommit to the principles that define our work, especially in this rapidly shifting media landscape. This list of resolutions isn’t just about improving our craft—it’s about embracing honesty, integrity, and purpose in everything we do. From cutting out jargon to standing up for freedom of press, we should all strive for an impactful and ethical approach to PR in the year ahead. Below is our wish list of what we hope PR professionals will resolve to do in 2025 and beyond.
I resolve to cut out the jargon and hyperbole, reserving the word “revolutionary” for discussions about overthrowing governments—not for describing a laundry delivery app.
I resolve not to lie—to my clients, the media, the public, or myself.
I resolve not to propagate lies. I will investigate everything my client tells me to ensure its veracity.
I resolve not to make the world a worse place. I will not represent dictators, abusers, oppressive regimes, polluters, exploiters, scam artists, snake oil salesmen, or corporations that profit from human misery.
I resolve to give back to my community. Whether it’s mentoring aspiring PR professionals, teaching a PR class, or providing pro bono assistance to nonprofit organizations, I will put my money where my mouth is.
I resolve to foster a culture of diversity and acceptance, to give people a chance, and to provide the tools they need to succeed.
I resolve to read more, write more, and listen more.
I resolve not to spam-blast media lists of 500+ contacts sloppily culled from Cision or MuckRack.
I resolve to appreciate journalists, value the hard work they do, and uphold and fight for the freedom of press in our democracy.
I resolve to take pride in what I do and to enjoy every moment.
We PR pros like to kvetch about how media relations has become infinitely more difficult, thanks to the digital age (and it really has, given that the ratio of PR pros to journalists sometimes feels like 1,000 to 5 – no, really, it’s bad). But for small business brands and SMBs, digital media has ushered in a significantly easier PR landscape. Now, more than ever, PR has gotten easier, cheaper and more effective, for small businesses to leverage.
No More Gatekeepers
You don’t need to spend big bucks to wine and dine media, or even try to figure out how to get a hold of them. Now, anyone who discovers you can spread the word about you. Brand ambassadors abound, and are more than eager to share how great your business is. Media used to be the gatekeepers to the precious social currency of knowing what the hot new businesses were. In today’s world, social media has broken down those exclusive gates and anyone can discover you and share the good news.
Free Crowdsourcing Makes You Better
Online critics make it imperative for your product to be great – this is a good thing! While many businesses complain about companies like TripAdvisor or Yelp (and many of the criticisms are very valid), the silver lining is that online reviews can force businesses to just plain be better. Doing business better and creating better products (whether that’s a physical product or a service) can turn haters into fans. Bonus: you have free, built-in crowdsourcing and virtual survey results! You no longer need to pay a market research firm to do this for you – just read your online reviews and see where the pain points are.
Can’t Get the Media’s Attention? Write it Yourself
Content marketing has always existed in PR – it’s just been christened with an annoying new term. If you can’t get a reporter to tell your story for you, do it for yourself. Blog posts and social media postings can help you explain your business, tell a great story and are often an easier way to get a reporter’s attention. Creativity is your currency and clever viral posts or memes can have a life of their own that draw even more attention.
Who Needs Billboards When You Have Facebook?
While it’s true that you have to have a certain ad budget for social media, which no longer offers brands a free ride, you don’t need to break the bank anymore like you used to when you had to take out television or bus stop ads or billboards. You can spend as little as $100 on a Facebook promotion and get it amplified. Plus, you get access to insightful data on your customers that you wouldn’t get from a magazine ad. Analytics still have a long way to go to compete with SEO analytics but it’s improving.
Social media has created options on the ad spend front. Google AdWords is incredibly costly, though certainly still very effective for many businesses. Social media advertising has emerged as an equally effective, and less expensive, option.
Proliferation of PR Means Lower Costs
PR costs have gotten less expensive as the industry saturates. While this isn’t necessarily a good thing for firms like ours, it definitely helps small businesses reach out to more people who can help them market their brand. From solo freelancers to boutique shops to specialists, there’s a plethora of affordable PR options for small businesses.
While social media is no longer the level playing field for brands that some thought it might be (given that it’s the new advertising), digital media has created many more affordable options for small businesses to better market themselves and generate great PR. There’s no excuse anymore. Go do it.
If you’re a small business owner, you’ve heard how influencer marketing has helped brands big and small, using trusted content creators to share their messaging.
Studies have even shown that each dollar spent on influencer marketing generates $6.50 in revenue. Consumers follow recommendations from their favorite content creators, as 92 percent of people surveyed said they trust an influencer more than an ad or endorsement from a celebrity.
Photo by Eaters Collective
But is partnering with an influencer the right move for your small business? Budgets for influencer marketing continue to increase, especially as top YouTubers and Snapchatters command top dollar for their services. The costs for influencer marketing are overwhelming, and can dominate your entire marketing budget.
Small businesses can still reap major benefits from influencer marketing, though they have to be more careful than Fortune 500 companies when partnering with a popular content creator. We’ve heard of businesses spending thousands of dollars to partner with an influencer, only to see little to no ROI from the campaign, as no relevancy was in place.
Here are three things small businesses should consider before partnering with an influencer, based on our own experiences:
1) Is the influencer relevant to your company?
The first mistake many companies make is getting seduced by follower counts. While it might look cool to have a well-followed influencer talking about your product in their podcast or vlog, the cost to get that conversation going often heavily outweighs the ROI.
You need to find an influencer who is relevant to what your company is trying to accomplish. If your company sells life insurance, trying to woo a beauty vlogger with a million followers could be a costly mistake.
The most important currency to influencers isn’t money, it’s trust. They’ve built a community on a solid foundation of trust and authenticity. While some lesser-known influencers might take the money and share your message with a disinterested audience, others will turn you down because your product has nothing to do with their messaging.
At the most basic level, find a content creator who shares similar messaging to your company. For instance, if you’re a hardware store, partnering with a popular DIY builder on YouTube would be a natural fit.
2) Is the audience relevant to your company?
This is the other big question you need to ask before starting an influencer marketing campaign. Look at the audience that the personality speaks to on a daily basis. Is it the same demographic you’re trying to reach? Unless these goals are in perfect alliance, it would be unwise to move forward.
If you’re trying to reach affluent Millennials (and have a product they would be interested in), working with a vlogger whose primary audience is tween girls could be a waste of time and money. Do some homework and study the audiences.
Audiences follow influencers not because they’re really great at reading ad copy, but because there is an authentic connection. These influencers know this, and usually only work with brands who have a message that resonates with their audience. An influencer marketing campaign absolutely has to tie into your main business objective, or it runs the substantial risk of not delivering ROI.
The trust between the content creator and their audience is crucial, but lucrative. Google found that 6 out of 10 YouTube subscribers would follow purchasing advice from their favorite content creator over their favorite TV or movie personality.
3) Is there a local influencer?
For most small businesses, the best pairing won’t come from an international superstar YouTube personality with a massive cache of followers. It will come from someone the local community trusts.
Hyperlocal influencer messaging is on the rise, as small businesses look for ways to break into new levels of conversation. Businesses are partnering with Yelp reviewers, popular local bloggers and podcasters, amateur athletes, creating relevant content specifically targeted toward local customers.
The major risk of influencer marketing is the lack of sustainable ROI. If you spend your entire marketing budget on a high-priced influencer just because they’re followed by throngs of subscribers, you’ll likely receive a temporary spike. Once that influencer moves on, so will their followers.
But by asking customers where they go to learn more about their community – whether that’s a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel, etc. – you’re able to see where they voluntarily go for content. The winning influencer for your company might be just footsteps from your storefront.
Thanks to the increased sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI) tools now available in marketing, it’s easier than ever to write copy, generate content, and most importantly for brands, to optimize search engines using AI. This may be good news for smaller brands who don’t have the budget to compete against deeper pocketed-brands in the ever expensive SEO race, but is it good news for the larger public and marketers in general? If using AI to gamify the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) system is the business equivalent of eating instant ramen- cheap, easy, and good for consumers’ short-term attention span, what does this mean for the long-term health, growth, and results?
In order to understand how AI can manipulate search engines, let’s explore how Google and other search engines use AI in search. When people talk about search engine algorithms, they’re talking about how search results are being delivered and how easily findable they are. However, Google and other search engines are based on an interconnected series of web-powered signals that powers where these search engine results are appearing, how they’re appearing, and what type of search results are appearing (source: Marketing AI Institute).
So how are people utilizing AI to game SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing)? With AI, search engines utilizing LLMs (Language Learning Models) could “dynamically adjust the richness and type of information provided based on multiple variables such as query specifics, user profile, location, and time.“ Bad actors can “work the system” by creating fake news or fake data and arranging it in such a way that the search engine’s LLM will think it’s authentic enough to prime the search results in a desirable way for the short term (e.g. first page Google search results.) However, when these fake news and/or fake data aren’t corroborated, the LLM will realize that they aren’t legitimate and cease showing them in the search results.
This essentially means the potential to game consumers’ short attention span is higher than ever with the advent of AI and necessitates the need for brands and public relations professionals to firmly hold and manage their digital reputation. Editors will still need to fact check sources before letting AI instant publish, and brands will need to integrate branded keywords into other credible sources like whitepapers, research papers, and infographics in order to maintain a high level of trust with search engines.
Essentially the end lesson is this: while it may be tempting for marketers to produce fast food-like digital marketing results using AI for search engines, in the long term to retain trust, they’ll need to do the hard work of proving credibility with a lengthy digital footprint, integrated marketing communications, and third party approval (rankings, awards, back linking.)
Recently while speaking with aspiring PR pros, we were asked to share the five most valuable things we’ve learned in our 15+ years of experience in this hectic industry. We couldn’t come up with just five (though brevity is the soul of PR, it’s one we clearly haven’t mastered), so these are the ten most important things we’ve learned while evolving from faxing pitches to broadcast newsrooms to messaging TikTok influencers. The more things change, the more they stay the same. And these remain our guiding principles in our business.
The best clients are the ones you go after.
Chasing after RFPs is futile and a waste of your resources. Find the clients that you’re passionate about, and let them know. They might not need your help right away, but everyone likes to be wanted.
Keeping up with the joneses is impossible. Find your niche and own it.
The list of skills PR practitioners are expected to know keeps growing as new technology emerges. We’ve seen job listings requiring everything from video editing to graphic design (no and no). There’s simply too much to know, too much to learn, and too much to do. Figure out what you’re great at and own it. Trying to be the jack of all trades means you’re the master of none.
No technology or tool will ever replace empathy.
AI might be able to write a blog post for you (it didn’t write this one!), but the ability to have relationships is the single most critical factor in this industry. Nothing will replace human connection and more importantly, empathy, and that is the hallmark of PR.
Even if others don’t appreciate honesty, you always should.
It can be maddening and frustrating when your honesty “backfires” and you get a reporter or a client who makes you feel like it’s a burden rather than an attribute. Don’t let a lack of appreciation for transparency turn into a bitter pill. Honesty is still the best policy, and you’ll sleep better at night for it.
Your gut instinct is always right.
If you’ve got red flags about a client or a potential media opportunity, they will turn out to be true. Always trust your first instinct. You’ll waste valuable time trying to justify something that just doesn’t quite feel right.
Change is inevitable. Beat it to the punch.
The essence of crisis communication is to always be prepared for anything. That preparation should extend to all facets of an industry relying on being on top of trends. Digital media is moving at lightning speed and you want to be one step ahead always or risk being left behind.
You never stop being a student.
Every day there is something to learn, and the best tactics are taken from daily life. You might be a grizzled PR veteran or you might be a recent graduate brimming with confidence; no matter who you are, open your capacity to learn, and listen, and your ability to do PR increases tenfold.
New doesn’t always mean better; don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Take what works from old tactics and mix it up with the shiny new things. After all, the basic tenet of PR remains relationships, and while the way that you conduct relationships have changed, the ability to connect hasn’t. Evolution is key.
9. PR is difficult to do, and valued.
If you’ve seen those statistics about PR practitioners outnumbering journalists by a terrifying margin, you know that the number of news outlets have shrunk considerably. Newsrooms no longer have dedicated beat reporters and the rotating door means you’re constantly updating your media database and learning new bylines. The amount of noise that you have to cut through is tremendous, but there’s a reason everyone still wants to see their name in “print.” PR moves the needle for brands better than anything else.
Honest PR has never been more needed.
There are too many dishonest snake oil salespeople, or even worse, chaos-lovers who just want to burn it all down. With a lack of fact-checking and the rapid news cycle of communications today, lies reach too many people too quickly and it’s a bell that can’t be unrung. Every PR practitioner’s duty must be to be truthful, and that’s never been more critical than now.
Small businesses (or SMEs) are often understaffed and it’s left to the business owner to run a social media account. When you’re juggling a thousand balls in the air, it’s easy to forget best practices. As hectic as operations get in your small business, keep these three simple social media marketing tips in mind and you’ll make at least one aspect of entrepreneurship easier.
Don’t Run Ten Accounts Poorly
With so many social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snap and whatever flavor of the month catches tech press’ fancy (remember ello??) – it’s easy to feel compelled to be on all platforms. FOMO is real when it comes to social media marketing. However, not every platform’s audience is right for your business. Focus on quality, not quantity. Pick the top platform that your customers are heavily engaged in and focus on creating quality content on that platform, rather than every single social media platform.
Reward Your Customers
Don’t forget to reward your existing customers when creating social promotions designed to lure new customers. Existing customers don’t want to feel left out or “punished” for being loyal. Promotions for first time customers/new customers are certainly important but if they’re the only promotions you’re pushing on social media, your loyal customers will feel left out in the cold. It doesn’t always have to be discounts but offer opportunities for your loyal customers to feel like a part of the family, from exclusive invites to sneak peeks.
Don’t Forget It’s a Dialogue
Listen! Don’t just push discounts, sales and promotions about your business non-stop. Your followers want more than to be sold to when it comes to social media. Share content that might interest them, because it interests you. Remember that social media isn’t a one-way street. Don’t post content and walk away from your computer. Monitor, read and actively listen to what your customers tell you on social media. Don’t be defensive, paranoid or have a heavy hand on the delete key. Take in the feedback, do your best to make amends when you can, and make adjustments as needed.
Credit: Yelp’s Local Economic Average Report, Sept. 2020
With decreased demand from coronavirus restrictions, how have organizations survived, and in some cases thrived, in a post-pandemic world where small businesses have been given very little guidance or financial assistance on how to operate? Many have resorted to out-of-the-box thinking and strategic creativity with the four principles of marketing: product, place, price, and promotion.
Some breweries, bars, and wineries shifted their medium of place by holding virtual tastings, while restaurants like DaBao Singapore, Cassava, and Che Fico in San Francisco changed their product/place/promotion models by offering Netflix-style meal subscriptions to their regular customers. Subscribers can choose between a Che Fico box (loaded with jams, pasta sauces, desserts, and local produce), DaBao Singapore’s laksa bowls, or Cassava’s pasta dinners for two which include salad and dessert.
DaBao Singapore’s pandemic offerings
Here are three tips for small businesses who have been struggling during the pandemic:
Rethink where your customers are and what they’re interested in.
People are at home more than ever. Organizations can adapt to this by offering virtual interactive events, like tastings, art and craft classes, and seminars. Restaurants and retail have adapted with meal kits and weekly or monthly subscriptions, pivoted to ecommerce, expanded payment options, curbside pickup, and/or offered free delivery with a minimum $X orders. Otherwise, if the business is concentrated in one area- if some of your services or products are more popular than others during this time, perhaps you can offer package deals or targeted promotions?
2. Change or adapt your business model as needed.
COVID-19 precautions and shelter-in-place restrictions have forced businesses to change their modus operandi. This is where out of the box thinking has truly helped brands overcome COVID-19 limitations. San Francisco Bay Area restaurants who wanted to decrease usage of paper menus used QR codes for outdoor dining and online ordering.
Beaver Creek, Ohio candle maker Wick Therapy Candle offered their DIY bar online, where customers take a five question survey to narrow down over 100 scents, select a container and up to three scents. After the purchase, a custom scented candle is delivered to the customer’s door. Global hotel chain Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group caters to local customers who want to feel pampered but who understandably don’t want to get on a plane. Their Staycation at M.O. program offers guests early check-in and late checkout, overnight valet parking and daily breakfast.
Modify your business model by offering personalized products or services, adding new customer programs, or switching to ecommerce sites or virtual streaming services. These are just a few of the ways establishments can adapt their business models.
3. Add onto or diversify your product offerings.
Oakland’s New Parkway theater has creatively pivoted during the pandemic
If you can’t easily change the way you do business, expand your product and services line-up. Since Oakland-based theater New Parkway can’t show movie screenings, they now offer very private screenings where household members can rent out a theater for up to three hours, receive a three course prix fixe meal, and all the drinks you can drink. They also have a popular food crate delivery program and growler hour where customers can fill their growler from their choice of eight local beers. Nationwide, it is now common for restaurants, convenience stores, and gas stations to also sell groceries, hand sanitizer, and masks, along with their usual goods and services.
While the pandemic isn’t over yet and restrictions are still very much in place, there’s room for small businesses to survive and thrive in today’s isolated landscape, and post-pandemic when we slowly shift back to a new normal.
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way Americans normally work, shop and spend their leisure time. Since consumers as a whole have decreased their overall spending, companies in turn have decreased their marketing budgets. However, businesses shouldn’t make the mistake of slashing and burning their marketing budgets completely. McDonald’s did this during the 1990-1991 recession and saw sales drop by 28%. Fast food competitors Pizza Hut and Taco Bell strengthened their advertising budgets, and increased sales by 61% and 40% respectively.
So, where should small businesses spend their marketing dollars in the most cost-effective way right now? Social media advertising (also called paid social), content marketing, and market research are the best ways companies can maximize their budgets right now.
Social Media Advertising
Photo by William Iven
Compared to pay per click advertising models like Google Adwords, paid social is still more affordable for advertisers. Average CPC (cost per click) for Google Adwords is between $1-2 on the search network, while for Facebook ads, it’s about $0.35 globally and about $0.28 in the U.S. Advertisers can choose to either run an ongoing campaign with a minimum daily budget of $5 or boost a post (usually a one-time cost) for $10 to reach a certain percentage of their Facebook page’s followers.
Interesting facts you should know:
The pandemic actually caused a drop in Facebook advertising prices when you compare CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per mille impressions) prices from Q12019 to Q12020. Check the charts below from Revealbot.
Ad prices did tick back up in April & May 2020, likely due to advertisers returning to the platform. Advertisers should focus campaign objectives on Reach+App Install, which saw the biggest increases in CPM. (source: Revealbot)
Social media platforms saw solid growth in their monthly active users, with Facebook,Youtube, and Whatsapp seeing the most growth in April 2020. (source: Next Web)
Advertisers can now reach more than 2 billion people on Facebook. (source: Next Web)
Bottom line: Facebook advertising and paid social advertising in general are the best ways to reach a captive audience, since many people are turning to social media for connection, entertainment, and information.
Potential cost: $5- $$ (depends on your ad budget and campaign length)
Content Marketing
Photo by Florian Klauer
Even though most internet users have increased their time spent online, brands still need to consider whether the content they publish is relevant, interesting, and valuable. People are more likely to pay attention if your content hits these points:
Craft content that’s both informational and entertaining. If your content can both alleviate pain points and do so in a humorous or light-hearted way, you’re more likely to convince your readers to perform an action- whether that’s signing up for an email list, buying a product, listening to a webinar, or visiting a website.
Efficiency and DIY topics are likely to be a huge hit with employees who have had to shoulder an extra workload because of downsizing while still needing to make deadlines.
Tune into the thoughts, emotions, and challenges people are feeling with working remotely during this pandemic and what your brand can do for them.
Bottom line: Whitepapers, webinars, blog articles and Facebook/Instagram Live videos don’t require much overhead but do need the involvement of content writers, designers and social media managers.
Potential cost: $$ Time and manpower from key internal + possibly external stakeholders.
Market Research
Are your customers’ values and behavior still the same, prior to COVID-19? Chances are, probably not. Consumer purchasing behaviors change in a down economy.
Confirm what products, software, and services your customers still deem essential. Market research in the form of feedback forms, surveys, and email campaigns can help determine whether customers will remain with a premium product line, downgrade to a basic package, or switch to a cheaper substitute/competitor.
Learning your customers’ priorities during this time will help you figure out if and where to reallocate funds and manpower. It is more important than ever to be responsive to what your customers are saying and doing, and adjusting expectations as necessary.
Bottom line: Verify your core customer needs in order to make critical decisions about product roll out and existing services.
Potential cost: $$ Internal stakeholder labor plus additional low-cost and free tools such as Survey Monkey, JotForm, and Hubspot Make My Persona which help you create surveys and generate buyer personas.
Nothing will kill a high quicker than reaching for your vape and finding the battery dead just as you’re about to pull. Then you’re frantically looking for the proprietary charging cord, which you can’t find anywhere, and now the high is gone too and you’re left with a bad movie to stream on Netflix and a useless vape.
This is why TOQi CEO and founder Drew Henson (of SEAM fame) created the industry’s first wireless charging cannabis vape, the TOQi 510. This artfully designed, sleek vape is equipped with Qi-technology, which can also be found in Samsung’s Galaxy Note10. Qi technology allows the TOQi 510, and the Note10, to be charged wirelessly. No cord, no problem. Just use any Qi-equipped charging device, like TOQi’s Wireless Charging Pad.
Created to always be ready, the TOQi 510 boasts twice the battery size of similar vapes, at 400mAh (compared to 240mAh) and will quickly charge to 85% power in 20 minutes. The TOQi 510 also features a USB-C port so that you can use any charging cord to power your TOQi.
Reading this excellent CNET profile of Craig Newmark reminded me of one of the highlights of SXSW 2019: getting to hear Craigslist founder Craig Newmark discuss his philanthropy and philosophy with Inc editor Jon Fine.
Inc editor Jon Fine (L) with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark
A refreshing contrast from the aggressive capitalism espoused by the Jeff Bezoses of the tech world, Newmark shared his simple philosophy on business. For Newmark, he knew when “enough was enough” financially, and focused more on ensuring a positive experience for users. Fine asked Newmark, “how do you know when enough is enough?” Newmark answered that that was up to the individual.
At Craigslist, the design philosophy was to keep things so simple and straightforward that it was obvious how to use it. “I didn’t know how to design but I knew ‘simple’ and ‘fast’ as design principles, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Newmark told Fine.
Today, Craigslist maintains the same design philosophy. To say that it’s rare to find a technology company maintaining both the same design philosophy and business ethos from its inception is an understatement (Oh hello, Google, how’s that “don’t be evil” motto working out for you?). Can you think of any other technology company that is still thriving, that looks nearly identical to its design from ten years ago?
Craigslist has also never branched out from classified listings. As Newmark stated, he wanted Craigslist to focus on doing one thing really well. Competitors have tried to take market share, including OfferUp, LetGo and Facebook Marketplace, so it’ll remain to be seen if Craigslist can remain the standard. One thing’s for sure, it doesn’t seem like Newmark will be too concerned.
Craigslist has had its fair share of controversies, and Newmark himself admitted that he wasn’t the best manager during his tenure as CEO. But a tech founder who knew when “enough was enough,” willingly foregoing millions in further profit in order to focus on philanthropy, is pretty damn admirable in any age, let alone today’s gilded one where founders will sell their own mothers for extra Soylent from the Facebook cafeteria.
