A Little Holiday Fun From 123people with Santa, Rudolph, The Grinch and Even Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo

My latest blog for 123people (http://www.123people.com/) the leading and quite frankly the best of the people search engines, where I wrote a blog to provide everyone with a little fun and humor for the holidays!

See my 123people blog "Holiday Fun From 123people with Santa, Rudolph, The Grinch and Even Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo!" at:

http://www.123people.com/blog/a-little-holiday-fun-from-123people-who-is-the-most-searched-for-holiday-character

Enjoy the blog, some laughs and the holidays everyone!

From me and my whole team here at Maxima PR, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Big Mistakes In PR That Can Easily Be Avoided

Wanted to discuss today some of the common mistakes made by people and agencies in public relations.

A few of the most common mistakes are actually very simple and easy to avoid, if you just take a little time and have a little knowledge.

1. Overdoing it with the media and contacting them too much. You do not need to contact the media 7 or 8 million times, this annoys them and if you burn a bridge, you may not have a second chance with the person you have harrassed to the point of ignoring you.
2. Making sure you have the right contacts at press outlets. Many times lists are out of date or have everyone at a press outlet on a list. This is not appropriate and you need to research and know who your contacts are for whatever type of story you are pitching. There can be more than one person at a publication, but you need to know who they are, not just randomly contact every reporter at an outlet. This makes you and your agency look like hacks and is not good.
3. One very important rule is to never ever lie to a media person about a company, product or service. We all want to score the meetings and the big stories with Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TechCrunch and Good Morning America, but when you lie you are risking not only your reputation with the media, but the company you represent. I have seen PR agencies and people lie and have warned them about this, and some have found out the hard way what it costs to try and fool the media. You cannot buy your reputation and if you soil your name with someone in the press, it could have a very negative effect on your career.

Just a few simple rules to follow when working with the media, and it is always best to be open, honest, and know your media outlets and contacts. A good PR agency or team lead will make sure their people are doing things the right way, and will educate and assist them on learning and developing in their career and skills, and help them to avoid blunders like those listed above.

Good luck pitching all you hungry PR people.

Networking: The Power of Communication

Today we wanted to go over networking and how important and beneficial networking and communicating can be, not only for PR and media, but for any part of business and life.

You never know who or what is out there or who or what your associates, family, friends, coworkers or casual contacts know or are into, unless you communicate, network and find out.

If you are building a business and have a general plan and overview, by networking with already existing contacts, while also going out and about to meet and make new contacts and associates, you are doubling your chances of finding clients, work, contacts, and a vast range of opportunities and people who could help you in any number of ways.

It is very important to network and communicate openly, and sometimes things can really come together with people and opportunities which can grow and become more contacts and opportunities, and still more and more. Communicate and network the heck out of yourself, your business, skills, interests and opportunities and share this with everyone through your network or networks, and you will be amazed at the number of great things that can and will happen for you, your business and career.

The Power of Public Relations

All companies wish to grow, expand and enjoy great success and revenue streams, and public relations is a perfect means to achieving growth in customer/user base, name recognition, market share and expansion, and increase in revenue.

Under the marketing umbrella, public relations is a key part of communications and pushing your company brand to your target audience, customers, partners, investors and media. Public Relations (PR), is also very cost effective and is fairly low in price when compared to advertising.

Press Releases, Blogs, Twitter and Tweets are a few of the tools that help PR people to communicate your news and messages to the world. Using press releases and wire distribution services like Business Wire, as well as social media and social networking, blogs and company blogs and Twitter, allow communications professionals many different ways to make the world aware of your company, your name and your news.

Media placemets are the bread and butter, the cornerstone of PR. News stories in key target press can lead to huge increase in attention, customers and inquiries, and over the years I have been told by several clients that after story placements they have been "We have been overrun with so many calls, we have had to hire more sales people!" and "Our sales and customer service teams tell us our phones have been ringing off the hook!), showing just how effective a good story placement is for any company, in any market and any industry. A nice story placed in publications like Wall Street Journal, Mashable, TechCrunch, Businessweek, InformationWeek, GQ, Allure, DailyCandy or your local newspaper(s), can provide great publicity and a nice return of interest and customers/users and sales.

Public Relations is a truly wonderful and cost effective way to market and promote your company, brand, products and services.