Public Relations

This is our public relations blog.

5 Things We Learned from a Dog Trainer

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By Anne Buchanan and Emily DiTomo

We are big believers in training and development for our staff. That commitment also extends to our canine workers. When Anne adopted a timid shelter dog named Lacey, her early visits to the office often resulted in chaos. Emily’s dog Romeo became very protective of his turf; Lacey disintegrated into a puddle of nerves – sometimes literally. The combination of a very confident, outgoing poodle and a fearful Rottweiler / cattle dog blend created tension for dogs and humans alike.

And so we called upon Wendy Young of Progressive Dog Training to pay us a house…errr, office…call. Romy and Lacey with Wendy

She spent nearly three hours with us. We can happily report that there is a new doggie equilibrium in the office. We also were struck by how many canine lessons can also be applied to PR.

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My First Year in the PR World

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This week marks my one year anniversary of working at Buchanan Public Relations. I still remember pulling up to BPR for my interview, seeing Anne outside with beloved canine co-worker Buddy and walking in together. Little did I know that six months later, after the most integrated and in-depth internship I had ever experienced, I would become a full-time employee.531667_486652814705808_1787178276_n

When I graduated from college last May, I had the basic skills to enter the world of PR, but my first year at Buchanan has taught me so much more. Below are three skills I learned during my first year in the business that I could never have learned in college.

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7 SEO Basics Every PR Pro Should Know

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Content marketing is now a $44 billion industry.  And with businesses planning to increase their budgets toward search engine optimization (SEO) by up to 44 percent this year, PR professionals must be savvy in digital communications tactics in order to remain in the game.

At a minimum, every PR pro should know the following seven SEO basics:

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Board Placements Can Be a Winning Strategy

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Our clients often ask us for advice on developing a program to place their employees (frequently the “up-and-comers”) on nonprofit boards. There are lots of good reasons to do this, and we’re happy to encourage the practice. Here are some of the steps we suggest they take.

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What I Didn’t Learn in College

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There are some lessons even the most diligent of students can’t learn from the best of instructors. Only seven months ago, I was still a student. In June, I began my internship at Buchanan PR, where I have learned crucial skills to set the framework for career success. The following are the surprising but useful PR lessons that my experience at Buchanan PR has taught me:

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Calculator, Please

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It was sometime in elementary school—when calculators were unjustly banned from use during tests—that I decided to break up with long division and started serious relationships with reading, writing, and art (we’re even Facebook-official).

When high school and college rolled around, I decided I didn’t want to starve as an artist later in life, so I began to pursue writing. Seven failed novel attempts later, I discovered public relations and immediately felt at home.

Fast-forward to this past December, when I began seeking a summer internship. Googling “public relations + Philadelphia” produced more results than any human could possibly wade through, so I narrowed it down and applied only to the firms that seemed human, had a great social media presence and whose websites were beautifully designed. Hello, Buchanan PR.

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It’s All About the Reunions

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Our new Account Supervisor Nicole Lasorda has been a longtime volunteer with the Red Paw Emergency Relief Team, an organization that provides support for animals involved in fires and other disasters. Below is a blog post Nicole wrote for the Red Paw website:

I’ve always loved animals – that’s probably an understatement. Ever since I was a kid, sick, injured, and homeless animals had me on their radar. It was like a beacon on my head that said “FIND ME. I WILL HELP YOU!”

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Getting the Hook Can Really Hurt

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On a whim, I performed in my very first Story Slam about a year ago. The way it works is that, if your name is called at random, you stand up on stage and tell a 5-minute story related to the given theme in front of an audience of 50 to 100 people. I was shaking in my flip flops the first time, but braved my way through the entire thing. And I wasn’t bad.

Over the past year, participating in the slams got me  thinking — “This is a lot like what we do in PR.” 

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6 SEO Rules Every PR Pro Should Live By

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Buchanan Public Relations, Philadelphia Public Relations Agency, Kathleen McFadden, Shay QuigleySearch engine optimization (SEO) determines where and how businesses rank on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.  As the competition for online real estate continues to heat up, B2B and B2C marketers have planned to increase their SEO budgets by 43 percent and 45 percent, respectively. 

With marketing departments increasingly seeing more value in digital services, PR professionals must understand how to best incorporate SEO tactics into their service offerings. 

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