PR: The New Orleans Style

Chaos, colors, and craziness is exactly what you expect to find on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. Walking down the street you are bound to find every tourist wearing colorful beads with the famous Grenade drink in their hand, and psychics promising you the details to your future.

New Orleans is known for being one of America’s cities that never sleeps, so how do they keep up that reputation? Well, every public relations professional could take a tip or two from the small city in Louisiana.

Recently I spent a week in New Orleans before the annual Mardi Gras celebrations began. I jumped off the plane and immediately had purple, green and gold beads- I was ready to take on the chaos of the city. However what most people don’t realize is that New Orleans can be a pretty average city, especially during the day. The small town manages to maintain a calm and quiet atmosphere when the sun is out, but as soon as it goes down, the city comes to life at night. New Orleans runs exactly how a PR professional runs. Think about it, during the day PR professionals manage to not look stressed and they appear like everything is under control, but just like New Orleans, a PR professional has to have the crazy come out! However, this is not a bad thing because PRofessionals accomplish amazing things through our efforts and help to make our client's brands/products/services come to life, just like New Orleans does at night! 

Here are a few tips about how to keep your PR style the New Orleans style:

1. Always hold your composure! Even when there is craziness going on always keep your cool!

2. Stay colorful! Make yourself bold and stand out with colorful clothing, business cards, and lingo. Don’t get caught up in boring and bland colors.

3. Make your voice heard! When talking with a client don’t shy behind their words but make sure that your suggestions and opinions are heard.

4. Like a street performer performing for money, a little sense of humor is always good to have in this business!

5. Get creative! You may not be able to read someone’s tarot cards, but always work on coming up with new ideas for campaigns, events, slogans, logos, etc.

Just like the city of New Orleans, you want to give yourself a reputation that lets people know you are here for business but you have a colorful, electric and exciting side as well!

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Alissa Steele.