Everybody makes mistakes. No one’s perfect, after all, right? But when it comes to Lakeland public relations, you have as little as a room for mistakes as a basketball player shooting a clutch free throw seconds before the buzzer of an NBA Finals Game 7.

One simple PR mistake can prove disastrous for the company. You might have to spend months to correct the mistake and even then, who’s to say that it won’t come hounding you and biting you when you’re not looking.

When it comes to public relations, mistakes are costly and should be avoided at all costs. Not all mistakes are hard to identify. Some are complex you aren’t even aware you’re making them until they’re staring you straight in the eyes.

Some Lakeland public relations mistakes are completely avoidable. These are the things that you need to avoid, no matter the circumstances:

Not Preparing

As a PR agency or practitioner, everybody expects you to be ready for sudden media interviews, press releases, press conferences, ambush interviews, and the like. You should also be prepared to recognize a PR opportunity if you see one.

If there’s an opportunity for you to promote your business, you should grab it and be ready with your campaign. Being ill-prepared as a PR practitioner is the worst thing you can do for your business.

Poor Timing

Magazines and other publications finish their monthly issues way ahead of the current month. If it’s a June issue, the magazine’s probably finished by April or early May. The only thing they would change would be the headlines or cover if there’s really something drastic that needs to be altered.

Otherwise, a magazine and even some publications are “closed” for editing months before they are published. Make sure you allow plenty of time for the journalists and editors to evaluate the value of your press release.

Choice of Language

Either you’re using too much jargon or you have poorly worded sentences in your press release, it has the same effect on any publications—they won’t want to publish or run your Lakeland public relations. Be careful about writing a press release.

When editors find it hard to understand a PR, they will probably put that in the trash. They need press releases that will attract readers and that will provide value to their publications. Anything below that will be delegated to a lowly reporter or worse, to the trash bin.