A public relations campaign can be an effective and cost effective tool for businesses that want to build awareness of their brand. Many business owners are unaware of just how important public relations is, preferring instead to place an emphasis on advertising. Business owners should consider how advertising is viewed as opposed to the neutral coverage of a product. Public relations campaigns are all about establishing credibility and the endorsement of a neutral third party is often given far more credence than the business’s own advertising.

Viral Marketing

The days of hiding in the shadows are over for the modern day celebrity. In order to stay relevant and gain continued popularity these Hollywood stars need to perform to a daily off-screenjuggling act. Between raising children,entertainment careers, appearances and more – to say that a Hollywood celebrity mother’s life is hectic is an understatement!

@DrewBarrymore –Business Mom

Sometimes, when sending out public relations messages, it can be the basic things that trip you up. There you are, creating excellent public relations messages, following press protocols … then waiting and waiting and waiting. For nothing. But, it may not be the actual content of the message that is keeping your PR from being received and published.

Ronn Torossian reminds you to make sure you have taken care of these simple fixes before worrying that your messaging might be off.

January has been quite a month for Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman. Stuck at the center of a swirling media storm after his bizarre postgame interview, after the ‘Hawks beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship, Sherman has transformed that attention into a brand boosting PR win. Sure, a lot of people who really couldn’t care less think he’s a blowhard, but legions of football fans love the guy they hadn’t heard of just a few weeks ago. The proof is in the numbers.

A few benchmarks that can help tell the story of Sherman’s PR blitz in real numbers:

It was supposed to be just another innocently fun episode in the life and times of the cute little GEICO pig, the happy hog who reps the lighter side of the “save you money” insurance. Ronn Torossian 5WPR has written before about how the pig was a solid PR move by GEICO to present another aspect of its product. However, not everyone is happy about what the little ham has been up to lately.

In a recent ad, Maxwell the Pig sits in a car at lookout point, presumably with a date (he’s been on several). The car is broken down and he’s searching for a tow truck using the (hey!) GEICO road assistance app. Pretty nifty, right?

In the wake of this summer’s National Security Agency (NSA) public relations debacle surrounding Edward Snowden revealing operational details of mass surveillance, the American public is quite wary of how, and with whom, their private information is shared.

Following last week’s LinkedIn Intro announcement, security and technology researchers have responded with skepticism and criticism regarding the technology which allows for e-mail account synchronization with LinkedIn profiles in order to tell the recipient more (or less) about the sender. In short, the application allows for a sort of LinkedIn verification, showing mutual connections and other information about the sender with the goal of becoming a more personal, less spam-like exchange.

Though it is sad to say that this nation has been visited by more than its fair share of tragedy in the last year, both natural and man made, it is an amazing to see how, even in the toughest of times, a nation can come together to help heal from those wounds. We are not strangers to this. In the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Americans mobilized to volunteer their time, their money, and the sweat of their brow to help out however they could.

But with the growth of social media as a tool for volunteers to reach out and organize, those who wish to help now have an even more powerful ally as they try to fix whatever has broken among us. Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations firm, highlights five ways that social media is being used by disaster relief volunteers.

Everyone from Facebook to Reddit, to the Washington Post and NY Daily News is talking about a Scottsdale, Arizona, restaurant, Amy’s Baking Company says Ronn Torossian 5WPR CEO.  However, this is a perfect case of how “bad PR” really can be BAD. There is a cliché in public relations agencies and that all publicity is good publicity. That’s not true.

After a particularly horrendous appearance on the television show, Kitchen Nightmares, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company were enticed into a social media war. The fight quickly got heated and spread across the social media spectrum. So epic was the subsequent PR train wreck that the story was picked up by media outlets from New York to Los Angeles.