Top PR blogs you should be reading
Blogging has grown over the years. It is a form of content marketing that is extremely effective for companies to build their audience and have people come to them in an inbound way. There are various kinds of blogs — from how-to where they unlock internal knowledge, thought leadership to curated roundups and news commentary.
With the growth of blogging and its benefit to companies, blogs are competing with media houses to provide high editorial quality content via their blogs. PR blogs are run by companies offering PR services and tools.
Reading industry blogs help you keep updated, brush up on your skills and know first-hand what industry professionals think. Here are our top blog recommendations based on the quality and diversity of the content.
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General PR blogs
1.PR Academy Insights
Insights blog is run by PR Academy, an organisation that provides PR courses. One of the blog’s popular series is “This week in PR”, which is a weekly list of top links, tweets and information about the industry curated by editor Richard Bailey.
The latest roundup contains links to relevant PR news, virtual events, academia, COVID-19 and comms, corporate, how to develop career and teams, wellbeing and diversity and its intersection with communications and much more. This is one of the quickest ways to get yourself updated on industry news and trends and find a lot of discussions happening in the industry in one place. The blog also welcomes guest posts by PR professionals.
2. Wadds inc.
Run by a PR professional and influencer Stephen Waddington, Wadds Inc is a blog where he shares his opinions on what is going on in the world, his business and his life and its intersection with corporate communications, social media, marketing and public relations. The blog also has some guests posts by other PR professionals as well.
Stephen Waddington, PR expert
He often posts about 8-10 times a month and some of the recent posts are about the importance of good photography in telling a story, using his experience of being interviewed for a magazine; a summary of an investigative journalism report about a tobacco company using paid influencers to promote a product that kills people and his expert views on the ethical issues for PR and marketers in such a case; a book review; and a guest post by an industry organisation head on the impact of COVID-19 on the PR industry.
3. SCoRe India blog
SCoRe or School of Communications and Reputation is a PR college in India. The blog posts are written by the students at the college. It is a good mix of the latest industry news, academia as well as the intersection of real-world events with communications and reputations.
The blog is frequently updated often at least a few times a month with fresh young voices talking about the politics of PR, summaries and lessons from the workshops and seminars that the college holds and academic theory and research that the students are being taught. Some of the recent blog posts include ‘Why is regional PR important in India’, ‘Is PR a polite name for propaganda?’ and ‘PR as a social function’.
4. PR Daily
Run by Ragan Communications, a PR training company for professionals, PR Daily is one of the top blogs on PR that offers news, advice and opinion on PR and communications. It publishes at least one post a day. Its navigation tabs show the various topics they cover, from social media, media relations to crisis, marketing and writing.
The posts are written by numerous guest contributors. Some of the latest articles are about how a company’s Women’s Day campaign backfired, how to create shareable content and how to brainstorm on Zoom. They also run a regular series called ‘Daily Scoop’, which is a roundup of news related to digital marketing and PR.
5. Research Conversations
Run by the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), an organisation working on academic research on and for PR, the Research Conversations blog is a great place to hear from PhDs and academicians on the latest research they are working on.
The blog often publishes a couple of posts per month. Some of the latest posts are titled ‘How should we teach PR measurement?’, ‘Painting a Picture of the U.S. Military: Lessons from Public Affairs Officers’ and ‘The complex nature of internal communications’.
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6. Astute.Work blog
Run by Sarah Waddington, managing director of a management consultancy Astute.Work, the blog usually has about two posts a month. Sarah Waddington is a PR professional who is the founder of the #FuturePRoof community, podcast and author of the book by the same name.
The blog posts are about PR trends, curated news that impacts the world of business communications and advice for professionals. For example, some of the recent blog posts include a curated news story list including the arrival of Clubhouse and scenario-based cash planning; whether to stand and how to vote in an industry body election; and racial inequality in the PR industry.
7. PR Insider
Last but not the least in the list of general PR blogs, we would like to recommend our own blog, PR Insider. It is a team effort, with the blog conceptualised by our CEO Farzana Baduel and the posts written by consultants of the company, showcasing the skillset and the way we do PR. You would often find one new blog post per week about strategic PR.
Farzana Baduel, CEO of Curzon PR
Anyone from young professionals to senior experts is likely to find value in the blog. It mainly has how-to educational content aimed at PR professionals looking to develop their careers and learn PR or those considering hiring a PR firm for their companies. Some of the recent posts are about the best PR books, how much does PR cost and how to write a PR brief.
Niche Public Relation blogs
PR is a broad field, comprising of many service, sector and regional specialisms. Reading niche blogs on the area of your interest would help you dig deeper and be a part of conversations and discussions that will take your niche knowledge to another notch.
Crisis communications
Crisis communications is about understanding crisis as much as it is about understanding communications. Crisis communication specialists do much more than just communicating with stakeholders during and after a crisis. When done right, they do a risk audit, sentiment analysis, media training and issues management, ensure a feedback loop and much more. Crisis communication specialists are also crisis management specialists, responsible for managing risks and crisis. Here is our recommendation:
• In Case of Crisis blog
With about three posts a month, the blog is run by RockDove Solutions, a US-based company providing a crisis management platform to companies.
Their posts are a combination of evergreen content like ‘Distribution of your crisis plan is your follow through’ and ‘moral fatigue’ as well as those relevant to the current environment such as how to ensure vaccine distribution does not become a crisis and ‘Three key issues that experts predict you will face In 2021’.
Media relations
Media relations, which is about pitching story ideas to journalists to get coverage for your company and stakeholders in news outlets, is a specialist service within public relations. While the basics of communication like putting the need of the other first when communicating and being responsive to emails are useful across specialisms, several situations and issue such as how to form a pitch, what is the best time to send a pitch, how many times to follow up, etc. are some things that are more likely to be covered in a niche blog on media relations only. Here is our recommendation for a blog if you are looking to hone your skills in this area:
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• MuckRack blog
MuckRack is a tech company that provides media relations management software to PR professionals with features like a media database and pitching and monitoring stories. Hence, the blog posts are aimed at its potential audience, with topics like bad PR pitches, why your PR campaign missed the mark and how to find and shape a story.
The blog posts are written by people from the company as well as guest contributors like media relations experts. A new blog post is usually published once a day.
Internal Communications
Internal communications is about employee communication and engagement. While the basic aspects of communication remain the same, reading blogs by specialists in internal comms help with how to respond to situations specific to employee communications. For example, how to let an employee go, how to onboard an employee virtually and more.
• All Things IC
Written by Rachel Miller, a specialist in internal communications, the blog All Things IC usually publishes about 1-2 posts a month. Rachel is a chartered PR professional.
Rachel Miller, internal communications expert
The blog posts are about industry developments and issues like commenting on the latest research that came out, the challenges for the professionals among COVID and how successful internal communication looks like.
Read more: 8 Ways to Transform Employee Management Via Internal Communications During Covid-19
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is about getting paid endorsements and product placements with influencers in your field that have a large engaged social media following.
• Scott Guthrie’s blog
Scott Guthrie is an influencer marketing expert and he blogs frequently and regularly on his website, with often at least two posts a week and sometimes more.
He posts any trends and relevant news stories and his commentary on world events intersecting with influencer marketing. Some of the latest posts are about a new currency token for influencers, an industry shift in how influencers get paid and the latest development in influencer agreement. His posts cover ethics, legal and economics of influencer marketing.
Scott Guthrie, influencer marketing expert
Conclusion
Reading blogs by PR practitioners, researchers and agencies is often one of the easiest ways to know what is going on in the industry, how to think about the news impacting your profession and how experts do PR.
Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team bd@curzonpr.com
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