Breakaway Public Relations Services

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Public Relations Strategy and Execution
Media & Influencer Relations Campaigns
Social Media Management
Community Relations
Brand Messaging
Special Event Concepts and Promotion
Content Creation – bylined articles, newsletters, blog posts and more
Communications Audit
Media Training
Translation for Media and Marketing Materials. In Spanish Only

What We Bring To the Table

There’s an overload of news and information delivered 24/7 through devices large and small from laptops to smart phones and movie screens to watches. Breakaway PR can help you cut through the clutter to provide relevant messages to your target audience at the right time and place.

Whether you’re a startup, a social impact organization, or an established business ready to rise to the next level, we are experts in telling your story in a range of smart, creative ways with measurable results.

Public Relations Strategy and Execution

This is our working road map, also known as your PR plan. We’ll lay out the big-picture communications goals with a PR strategy to help achieve them. The strategy ensures we’re all working from the same page, yet is adaptable to respond to shifts in your business and the broader business landscape.

Media Relations Campaigns

Also known as “Earned Media.” We are pros at getting the right news to the right media outlets at the right time in a professional manner. Breakaway knows where your stories and news items will resonate within an ever-changing media landscape and ultimately reach your target audience. With Breakaway, you can be confident your news is being strategically disseminated to produce the most impact.

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Influencer Relations

Our influencer marketing initiatives involve conducting extensive research, evaluating, and cultivating relationships with top-performing influencers within your industry to elevate your brand. Our objective is to identify influencers who share similar values and messaging with your brand, resulting in the most genuine and effective outcomes.

Community Relations

Breakaway has long been a champion of doing well by doing good. As members of our community, every business has a responsibility to contribute by allocating time, talent and/or financial resources annually. At Breakaway, we help you identify the most suitable community partners and/or leverage your existing partnerships for mutually beneficial outcomes.

Social Media Management

Social media is essential for your brand to build and maintain an online presence. At Breakaway, we can assist you in organic content creation, scheduling, publishing, and monitoring your content. We help you build brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive traffic to your website or other intended platforms. We will adopt a personalized social media strategy aligning with your firm’s goals, target audience, and brand identity.

Event Promotion

Breakaway’s event promotion initiatives help increase awareness and generate interest, ultimately leading to higher event turnout and engagement. From earned media coverage to media sponsorships and social media promotions, we help clients build and execute upon a plan that reaches target audiences, builds buzz and attendance.

Media Training

We’ll help you pinpoint your organization’s media spokesperson and train him or her to be well prepared to not only speak to the media, but confidently handle any surprise questions or scenarios. Our training covers interviews by phone, email and live or taped TV or podcast.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Public relations focuses on earning credibility and trust through third-party validation—such as earned media coverage, partnerships, and community engagement—while advertising involves paying for controlled placement and messaging. Advertising guarantees visibility, but consistent PR builds reputation and influence because the message is delivered through independent voices rather than directly from the brand.

Public relations is especially effective for building credibility, shaping brand reputation, launching new products or initiatives, and positioning leaders as experts in their field. It is also the best, most credible avenue, for storytelling—helping audiences understand why an organization or matters or a leader is unique—while supporting broader marketing goals like awareness, trust, and long-term brand equity.

First, you need to be an avid consumer of news. A good PR person knows what the local and national news outlets are talking about. Also, know what the beat reporters and/or trades are covering if you represent a specific industry, which will most certainly be the case. You can’t advise a client or communicate with media if you’re not in tune with current news and trending topics.

Before starting your PR career, I feel all PR students should take journalism classes where you learn not only the basics of news writing, such as AP style, inverted pyramid structure and sourcing material, but how to judge what is newsworthy, what is news vs opinion, how to avoid bias, and more. The more you learn about how the media operate, the better your earned media judgement and skills will be.

Finally, a core question in deciding newsworthiness is “who will care?” And/or “what is truly ‘new’ here? Is it timely, and who does it impact?” With these questions, knowledge of local and national news, basic journalism training, and time in the field, you’ll know news when you see/hear it!

This is an age-old question, and accepted measurement tools have evolved since digital has become the leading source of information. For media relations/earned media, we used to count clips and use the advertising equivalency value formula, considering factors like circulation, readership, length of the article, credibility of the media outlet and more, then calculate what we would have paid for a similarly placed/sized ad. This exercise was helpful, but didn’t measure the full impact.

Although there is no one universally accepted metric today, there are a few widely accepted forms of PR measurement:

Measuring outcomes, not just outputs (ex: media clips, tickets sold, funds raised)
Linking communications to organizational objectives
Measuring qualitative impact
Transparency and consistency

With media relations specifically, we also measure:

Number of placements
Quality/reputation of media
Share of voice
Tone (positive/neutral/negative)
Potential reach (online and offline)

When sending news releases or story ideas, Breakaway PR always builds customized lists that match the client, their news, trends, or expertise with media outlets and reporters who cover the client’s industry. However, the list may also include related news beats and, for breaking news or events, we include news desk contacts.

For example, a news release for the opening of a neighborhood fitness studio will go to local outlets and reporters that cover health/wellness, fitness and business. Follow the “who cares about this news” rule and you’ll build a media list – perhaps some social media influencers as well – who cover community news. There are a few times the list may expand beyond the local footprint such as if the fitness studio owner is a well-known individual/celebrity on the regional or national levels.

First, have at least one PR internship under your belt. Having two – ideally with two types of PR work – is even better.

Second is to follow top news outlets, organizations and PR firms of interest on social media so you know what they consider newsworthy, and in the case of PR firms, you should also get a sense of the workplace culture.

Third: Keep your portfolio current with writing samples, especially those that have a journalistic style.

Fourth: Keep up with the latest in AI because you will be using it. How are PR practitioners using it today, and what are the trends for how it is being used in the communications industry as a whole?

Two answers: one is how our small PR firm uses AI to handle basic tasks such as research, drafting a press release, pitch letter or a social media calendar. Any of this support is cross-checked by humans since AI writing in particular can still sound and read like AI. We also use AI tools that are integrated into our software tools such as Muckrack, Canva, GoogleMeets and QuickBooks.

Larger PR firms and operations are using AI for heavier lifting and with increasing frequency. Of course, I asked ChatGPT for more insight. They found that north of 90% of large firms and corporate PR departments use AI on a daily basis. And according to a recent Muckrack survey, many of the larger firms incorporate AI training and enablement. The biggest takeaway is for all PR practitioners in all industries to learn how to use AI wisely.

In 2026, the most visible human change is not mass layoffs but task redistribution: junior work shifts from first-draft creation to verification, source grounding, and multi-channel adaptation, while senior leaders are increasingly focused on setting rules, managing AI risks, and making sure different systems work together.

My perspective after 30+ years in the field is that most people – even in marketing – think PR can garner meaningful earned media results in a short period of time. They don’t understand the long-game aspect intrinsic to a PR plan. We require consistent, well-targeted/thoughtful, frequent outreach over a prolonged time period. Short of using PR solely for a large or one-time event, the work is ongoing and adaptable.

Unless we’re doing a paid placement such as sponsored content, we have little to no control over earned media timing and quantity of hits.

In short, you’re only as good as your last placement. If the message doesn’t continue at a regular pace across targeted outlets, brand awareness and reputation can fade.

When we dig into case studies, whether it’s for an animal rescue organization or an architect, we almost always find a compelling human interest story. Like a good book or movie, there is a problem or challenge to be solved. And the media want to see more than just the “good news/fluff” regarding most brands. The bigger the challenge or obstacle, the better as far as sharing an interesting success story that reflects the brand’s mission and benefits.

In my opinion, solid journalistic writing skills are vital in almost every facet of PR, but the level of abilities, knowledge and confidence varies among the interns who work with us. Writing may not be underrated, but underdeveloped.

I’m also a big fan of PR pros with great visual, graphic design sensibility and photography skills. No need to be a graphic designer, but knowing how to create a sharp-looking piece in Canva, as well as how to take excellent photos and videos on your iphone is important in the digital world. Every news release or pitch story needs a visual.