A social media influencer is a person with the power to influence or cause others to make purchase decisions because of his or her position in authority, knowledge or relationship with the audience. Most social influencers have a following in particular niches where they are active. The number of followers depends on the size of the niche as well as his or her influence. Social media influencers have such a high reputation that their posts on particular topics generate large followings of enthusiastic social media users. Social influencers are able to start trends and influence the choice of products that [...]

Public relations has always been in the business of persuasion. Why do you think they called it PR? Public relations is the business of convincing the public to buy something by using your relationship with them. No matter how successful your business is, it can always benefit from some additional PR. Right about this time, there are two questions that always seem to get asked: 1) Can social media be used as a more effective PR strategy? 2) Has the election of Donald Trump made an impact on how we view social media? The answer to the second question is no. We [...]

Building a business or career into a success story takes time and work. Because of this, learning how to create a good platform for public opinion is essential to any success for a person, business or company. As almost all successful individuals, companies and businesses know, communication is key in building strong relationships. When thinking of communication, most minds jump to words spoken. We’re here to suggest that a powerful tool of communication is silence. Now we don’t mean giving someone the “silent treatment”, but rather listening. A key component of communication is listening and truly hearing what people have [...]

Recently the city of Seattle approved a “head tax” on large businesses, allowing the city to tax per person per working hour. The affected are businesses generating at least $20 million in revenue. This means many of the large companies thriving in the Seattle market are now pausing to reconsider their future. A prime example of this is Amazon’s pause on construction of their new office tower. With the tax being passed, there are many kinds of opinions being shared. There are open letters from CEOs, opinions of the public, and of course opinions of the government bodies in charge [...]

A look into Starbucks & Facebooks recent PR nightmares A challenge for any company is keeping ahead of public relation nightmares in a time when news and opinions go viral. A company’s success can be positively corelated to the inevitability that they will be involved in some sort of public relations crisis. However, if you are positioned to respond to these crises quickly and appropriately, a mistake, or miscommunication, doesn’t have to permanently alienate you from customers or business partners. Recently, two of the biggest names in the US have come under fire, Facebook and Starbucks. These stories have a [...]

If you work for a PR firm, then a word you hear constantly is "visibility". There's nothing more important than being seen-and being seen in the way that's most beneficial to you. And if we've learned nothing else from the political kerfuffle of the last year, it's just how deep and permanent an impression made digitally can be. That's why whether you're a private individual, putting together a start up PR firm, or already established at a Seattle PR firm, you want to take the power of the internet very seriously. And you especially don't want to disregard the power of [...]

Dealing with a PR crisis is something that you must do in pieces. You cannot respond to a crisis without a plan, and you must make a plan before you ever venture to work as a company. There are many different companies who do not have PR plans, and you will find that a crisis management plan will guide you when you are concerned about the fate of your business or yourself. You might not realize what goes into one of these plans if you haven’t made one before, and this article explains how to create the plan you need. [...]