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Wolfstar is UK-based public relations consultancy run by award-winning PR consultants. We provide strategic corporate communications counsel and deliver successful tactical PR campaigns including media relations, online PR, crisis communications, stakeholder relations, product launches and event management.

Above all we are focused on delivering effective public relations and reputation management solutions that deliver real results to help our clients achieve their business objectives. Our successful PR campaigns can help you to increase sales, recruit and retain staff, improve community relations, lobby to change legislation – whatever your organisation needs to achieve.

Some of the public relations services where we provide expertise include:

• Corporate communications strategy and planning
• Media relations
• Online PR, social media and social networks
• Word of mouth public relations
• Crisis communications management
• Stakeholder relations
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• Community relations
• Event management

How to do PR in 2008

Shel Holtz has a great story that illustrates how really savvy PRs should be operating in today’s always connected society. It’s about a US magazine (MAD) and a big electronics retail chain (Circuit City). The magazine ran a spoof Circuit City ad (sort of sub-Private Eye style) and an executive at Circuit City took umbrage and order the mag to be cleared from the shelves and destroyed.

As you’d expect in today’s citizen journalist world the offending email was leaked and published in the blogosphere (on Consumerist). The story then took off and received 114 comments, an amazing 1935 Diggs (with a further 165 comments) and was picked up by AP.

But, this is where it gets really good. Instead of acting like a big, old, dumb corporate Jim Babb, a savvy PR in Circuit City’s corporate communications department sent a witty email that: a) Admitted the mistake; b) Tried to put it right; and c) Apologised.

The result was acclaim from The Consumerist and the apology received 63 comments – almost universally positive.

Shel quite rightly points out that the mistake should never have been made in the first place. It’s essential that potential reputation issues are run past the experts (i.e. the public relations people) and that every manager and indeed employee has a basic grasp of when they might need to take counsel.

The story illustrates how word of mouth marketing can be negative as well as positive, so it pays to get expert advice to help you manage it.