In the news: why you should use a public relations advisor.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: MEDIA & MARKETING

Just what does the public know about your company or organization? What's being said about you in newspapers, on TV, or increasingly--on the Internet? Is it positive or negative? Did you have a hand in what's out there? If you've left it to chance and are just holding your breath, you might want to connect with a good public relations firm. A PR firm can help spin it, push it, pull it, spread it or try to squelch it.

Although Indianapolis-based Borshoff is a full-service communications firm with 37 employees, founder and star Myra Borshoff Cook could be called the "crisis queen." When she's facing the cameras it's not going to be to announce a new product or a philanthropic deed on behalf of a client, but to be the front lady in time of stress and distress. It's a role she performs well and she's called upon regularly to play it.

One of her most interesting high-profile crises involved the weather. She was called in after strong winds did significant damage to One Indiana Square during the Final Four weekend in Indianapolis in May 2006. The 36-story building was temporarily closed, displacing nearly 40 tenants and 1,100 people. "We went to work in a fairly comprehensive way," says Cook. The firm set up a Web site for the companies affected, asked each company to identify a point person to take part m a daily conference call, set up a hotline to respond to questions, and planned the logistics for tenants to return and collect their work materials once the city deemed the property safe for that purpose. Borshoff also managed the media side of the story.

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"Most businesses have a crisis plan for fire, work stoppage, flood, electrical outages," says Cook, but very often they don't include communication plans for dealing with employees, customers, investors and the media. "At the end of the day, the communications part is one of the most important parts of it."

Cook's efforts aren't focused solely on crises, of course. Often there's good news to spread and plenty of media outlets to pick it up. Her efforts on behalf of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay earned her one of the 275 Super Bowl rings handed out after the 2007 win.

An outsider's eye. Asher Agency in Fort Wayne has been in business since 1974 as a full-service marketing and advertising firm with PR as an important component, says Anthony Juliano, account supervisor and PR manager. "There are two reasons you'd hire a PR firm," he says. "First, for experience and...