Hiring Professional PR

Help
Prepared by Silva Hasalami and Ksenja Ferro

Silva Hasalami 1
PR is an essential tool for many businesses. If you’re launching a new
product, just raised a large sum of money for your startup business, or
recently won a prestigious industry award, PR can be used to get the word
out.
 As Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about
is not being talked about.”

An effective PR team can help get attention for your business so you can
get more customers. They have the knowledge, and expertise to increase
brand awareness, build credibility, and instill trust.

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WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE A
PUBLICIST / PR FIRM
 You should contact a publicist or PR firm to breakthrough
your own limitations and achieve results. It’s not admitting
defeat, but simply realizing you can’t do everything yourself
and need the extra level of expertise to reach the results
that you want.
 You should also hire a publicist/PR firm because it will cost
less money than hiring a part-time or full-time employee to
do the same work.
 You will receive higher levels of specialized skills for less
money than paying other employees.
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 Graphic design
 Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving
through the use of typography, photography, iconography and illustration. The
field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design,
but sometimes the term "graphic design" is used synonymously. Graphic
designers create and combine symbols, images and text to form visual
representations of ideas and messages. They use typography, visual arts, and
page layout techniques to create visual compositions. Common applications of
graphic design include corporate design (logos and branding), editorial design
(magazines, newspapers and books), way finding or environmental design,
advertising, web design, communication design, product packaging, and signage.

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Creating Identity Designs for
Building Brand Awareness
 Building brand awareness includes creating all identity designs
for the client. Some examples of identity designs are the
company logo, business card, and a letter head. It is up to
Providence to then use those designs to promote the client
company in ways that are appealing to potential customers.
 When it comes to creating logos and a brand’s identity, you
want to create successful designs that act as the accessory to
the company. Brand identity needs to be viewed as the earrings
or a great outfit that enhance the beauty of an already great
company and not something that is so overbearing you are
distracted by the design.
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Creating Designs for Social Media

 Once the brand has been established with identity designs and the
foundation of the brand’s presence with the public has been built,
graphic design is used to create content to maintain that
foundation.
 For example, if the brand has social media accounts, then it is up
to the graphic designers to create content on those social media
accounts. It is important to note that the content on social media
needs to be top notch, engaging, and serve more of a purpose than
to just communicate information. Using imagery, typography, and
a visual hierarchy, graphic designers create designs that are
memorable and communicate information in an appealing way.
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  Successful relationships are built on strong foundations. Foundations are
created with intriguing designs that accurately portray the purpose of a
brand; thus, the designs continually support the brand in the eye of the
public.

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Creating Designs for Events
 Beyond creating identity designs and content for social
media, graphic designers at PR firms are also responsible
for creating designs for events put on by client companies.
 One instance of this would be if a client’s store was being
remodeled and Providence was planning a re-opening
event, it would be up to the graphic designers to create
flyers, banners, t-shirts and other promotional materials for
the event. Much like creating brand identity, the designs
created for events are to accessorize what the event is
about. You want to ensure the designs are inviting and will
attract as many customers to the re-opening event as
possible!
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  Successful public relations strategies really would not be as
effective without the use of graphic design. Problem solving with
imagery keeps content interesting, and I’m sure we can all agree
when we just see words on a page or a screen, we are less likely
to pay attention to what is being conveyed!

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Graphic Design Studios

 Design is a skill which many companies can acquire, but

only the truly gifted graphic design companies will take it
to the next level. In an industry as seriously competitive 
as graphic design, it can be difficult to establish a name
brand.

 However, there are some companies that have managed

to surpass their competitors and become credible for their
customers.

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Graphic Design Studios

 I am sure everyone of you has heard of Warner

Brothers. They have entertained us for years. I especially
feel nostalgic about the character of Bugs Bunny in the
Loony Tunes series, which is also their official mascot.
 But, what you may not know is that the graphic design
of this company has been created by Pentagram.

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 Pentagram

 The world’s largest independently owned design studio,”

Pentagram is owned and run equally by 25 partners—all of
whom are leaders in the design industry. Their star-
studded list of past and present partners includes names
like Alan Fletcher, Bob Gill, Paula Scher and Michael
Bierut.

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 Pentagram

 Headquarters: London
 Locations: Austin, Berlin, New York and San Francisco
 Notable clients: Planned Parenthood, Rolls-Royce, Saks Fifth
Avenue, Starbucks, The Guggenheim, United Airlines, Verizon,
Walgreens, Warner Brothers, Windows
 Services offered: brand identity, book design, campaigns,
data visualization, digital design, editorial design,
environmental graphics, exhibition design, film and motion
graphics, industrial/product design, interiors and architecture,
naming, packaging, sound design
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The graphic design of W.B created
by Pentagram

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Freelancer

Freelancer and freelance worker, are terms commonly used

for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily
committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance
workers are sometimes represented by a company or a
temporary agency that resells freelance labor to clients;
others work independently or use professional associations or
websites to get work.

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 Freelance public relations is a job market that is currently
flourishing. Practitioners have become interested in the
personal and professional gain it offers. Freelancing allows
professionals to earn extra revenue while gaining
experience by helping organizations on a project-by-
project basis.

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 With the market growing, some companies choose to use
freelancers instead of agencies because of cheaper costs.
For example, if a small nonprofit organization needs help
implementing a new initiative in the local community, it
would make sense to hire a freelancer due to a small
budget. Even larger organizations are turning to
freelancers because it allows them to get away from
hiring a full-time employer. Such instances are driving the
freelance market right now.

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Freelancers

 The positive aspect about working as a freelancer is that

you can work on a flexible schedule, even work from home
if you choose to. A good example would be a photographer.
 If a photographer has an in-home studio, he can shoot
portraits from there. He also should be able to know how to
edit the pictures, apply special effects and use retouching.
It is in the photographer’s best interest to keep a large
portofolio. Therefore, he will be able to impress
prospective clients who will choose him as the PR provider
they will use to advertise their business.
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 Freelance Photographer

Lisa Michelle Burns

Lisa’s portfolio lets her stunning photos do all the talking.

Her homepage is essentially one large Wix Pro Gallery where
she beautifully displays her photos in the highest quality
available online. All it takes is a click for site viewers to
share Lisa’s images on email or social media.
On the next slide, I present you with a few samples from
her portofolio.
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Freelance Photographer

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Web design
 Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in
the production and maintenance of websites. The different
areas of web design include web graphic design; interface
design; authoring, including standardized code and proprietary
software; user experience design; and search engine
optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams
covering different aspects of the design process, although some
designers will cover them all.

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Web Designers

 When you consider the possibility of hiring a web designer

to promote your business, first thing you should do is
check the web design of his own personal site. If you find
it appealing enough, you can entrust that person with
advertising your business.
 Personally, I like to keep things simple and that’s why I
would choose a web designer such as Sean Halpin.

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Sean Halpin

 Portfolio: seanhalpin.io
 Why it’s special: Sean packs his portfolio with
personality.
 What it is about: A portfolio is more than a list of work —
it’s a chance to show off your individual skills and
personality as a creative person. Sean Halpin’s website is
an excellent example of this. Sean creates not just a
portfolio, but a little green world in which you can
discover how he can help you build the perfect site.

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Here’s a view of what his webpage
looks like

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Search Engine Specialists

 I would rather think of this as a quality a web designer

must have. Google, YouTube, Bing, etc, - they are all
search engines. A good web designer must also be a good
technologist if being discovered by such search engines is
fundamental to your business.
 I will try to explain the process of Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) as simply as possible.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 Imagine for a moment that you are a librarian, but not a

normal one. You’re a librarian for every book in the world.
People depend on you every day to find the exact book they
need.
 How do you manage? You need to know what’s inside every
book and how books relate to each other. Similarly, search
engines like Google are the librarians on the internet. Their
systems collect information about every page on the web and
every search engine has a recipe - the algorithm - for turning
all that information into useful search results.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

 On a website, search results matter. When your pages

have higher rankings, they help more people find you. The
key to higher rankings is making sure your website has the
ingredients search engines need for their recipes.
Therefore, this is the process known as SEO.
 As it turns out, most of the big ingredients are known.
Let’s take a look.

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The ingredients of SEO

 Words matter: Search engines account for every word on the web.
This way, when someone searches for shoe repair, the engines can
narrow results to only the pages that are about those words.
 Titles matter: Each page has an official title but you may never see
it because it’s in the code. Search engines pay a lot of attention to
these titles because they often summarize the page like a book’s
title.
 Links matter: When one webpage links to another, it is usually a
recommendation, telling readers “This site has good information”.
A webpage with a lot of links coming to it can look good to search
engines.
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The ingredients of SEO

 Words matter: If your webpage says “Amazon has a lot of

books” and the word “books” is linked, search engines can
establish that amazon.com is related to the word “books”.
This way when someone searches for “books”, that site
will rank well.
 Reputation: Sites with a consistent record of fresh,
engaging content and growing numbers of quality links
may be considered rising stars and do well in search
rankings.

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Search Engine Specialists

 In conclusion, if you search well enough, you will be able

to find a web designer who has a profound knowledge in
the process of SEO. Only then will your business’s website
be able to stand out from ‘the crowd’.

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