  
| A: | Not everyone is a writer, or wants to be a writer. Writers love to write. Sometimes marketing department staff have specific talents that are geared toward corporate direct sales, the creation of sales materials, even product development and proposals.
They are highly-talented, busy and valuable professionals, but may not have time, interest, or technical skills to write about the successes within a company and market those releases and feature stories to customer, client and stakeholder media.
Oak Tree Communications loves to write. It works closely with a company’s marketing or development director, company president or executive director to discover a company’s untold stories, tell them in a creative and newsworthy fashion, and distribute them to the right media at the right time for optimal exposure. |
| A: | Clients are businesses and nonprofit organizations that desire a regular, proactive presence in local, regional or national media. Experienced CEOs can be marketed as experts in their areas of expertise to media. |
| A: | All marketing efforts—advertising, a Web presence, direct mail, billboards, social networking groups, awards, referrals, memberships in civic and philanthropic groups, and public relations-- greatly enhance your organization’s ability to succeed in any kind of economy.
Public relations can be the least expensive of the above, as well as a great persuader. Having your organization’s story told in media is an outside validation of your company’s professionalism, products, philanthropic projects, and high ethical standards.
In a down economy, when companies are concerned about getting the best value out of promotional dollars, public relations can be a great way to build customer, client, and stakeholder bases. |
| A: | Guerilla marketing is an aggressive, low-cost, creative promotion that hits an unusual or unexpected market with the expectations that the promotion will become wildly popular and be replicated all over the universe. It requires a lot of time and creativity to be effective, but it can be done. |
| A: | Whether or not you should hire someone to update social media depends on the size of your company, the complexity of your product or services and the issues that may surround them, and the amount of time you have per week. Oak Tree can advise you on this.
Some CEOs take a social media course and update their own accounts. Companies with few employees may want to designate one employee to make social media updates, or assign employees to write blog entries on a rotating basis. A key to success is to ensure that messages are approved by management and in sync with your company's ethics.
Large corporations likely have marketing or communications departments involved in creating social media messages, filming videos, and even blogging. Social media can be as small as keeping in touch with your individual client or stakeholder base, or as large as creating a worldwide campaign for a cause, service or product. |
| A: | We offer writing and editing; media and crisis media relations; strategic and tactical marketing planning; and event and campaign publicity. Oak Tree partners with trusted professional affiliates to provide services like corporate restructuring and re-branding, graphic design, logo creation and makeovers, photography, and Web site creation and maintenance. If we don’t offer a service, ask us. We may be able to recommend a great professional for you. |
| A: | Advertising allows an organization to present its message to the public exactly the way it wants—both visually and content-wise. The down side to advertising is that it should be presented to the market audience on a regular basis, it can be expensive, and there is no guarantee that you will get the customers or results you want.
The advantage of public relations is that people naturally gravitate toward stories because stories are about people, and people are social animals. We love to read, see and hear stories about people, empathize with them and their problems, and learn from their experiences.
Stories are wired into the way we communicate with each other. We like to watch TV and movies, which present visual stories; we listen to the radio to hear broadcasters tell us stories; and we read stories in print and online media.
A disadvantage of public relations is that PR professionals cannot guarantee that a story gets told exactly as the press release or feature story is written. Once a release is sent to media, reporters and editors modify, or edit it, for publication. The best way to ensure that your stories are published with the least amount of editing is to select a talented writer with journalistic skills to create materials and disseminate them to the most talented media. |
| A: | It is always best to get permission from the publishing company before Xeroxing or posting copyrighted materials to be used as promotional materials for your business. Your public relations professional or attorney can help with this process.
Some publishers, especially those with print and online agencies, may not give you permission to use copyrighted material on your organization’s Web site. If you do post anyway, you may receive a cease-and-desist letter from their attorney, or even a fine.
Why do we care about adhering to copyright law? Writers, photographers, and publishers build their careers and feed their families on their names. People often give permission if asked, but no one likes to be taken advantage of.
The most ethical and safest course of action is to ask first, pay a copyright fee if you need to, then Xerox or post. |
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