When you think of summer, you think of things like backyard barbecues, baseball, fireworks and fireflies. But over at Food Shelter PR, our mind goes straight to delicious summer seasonal craft beer.

Like most folks, we’re pretty obsessed with craft beer. We also want this blog to be a helpful resource for our friends in the industry. So we combined two of the things that we spend the most time doing: Drinking good beer and PR.  Here is a look at the PR industry through a pint glass.

1)   Experiment with new channels

Experimentation is at the heart of the craft beer culture. Breweries are constantly coming up with new ideas for beers and even breaking into the world of food collaborations, keeping customers on their toes.

PR Takeaway: Experimenting with a variety of media channels, whether it is YouTube, Twitter, Vine, or even just plain old email, can only benefit your clients. By taking full advantage of every media channel and resource available, you are putting yourself in the best position to get your message out to the public.

2)   Keep a good HEAD on your shoulders

If your beer doesn’t have a good head (aka the right amount of foam), it’s not going to taste all that great.

PR Takeway: Common sense and levelheaded thinking are always en vogue. If you don’t have a good head on your shoulders in the PR world, or just life for that matter, you are going to run into lot of trouble.  As a PR professional, you are faced with multiple challenges on a daily basis, but if you can think quickly and clearly, you and your business will thrive.

3)   Too much of it, will give you heartburn

Everyone knows that feeling. That feeling where you know that one last beer will take you over the edge, but you can’t seem to fight the urge to have just one more. I mean it tastes so freakin delicious, how can you resist?  And that’s when everything stops feeling incredible, and you just want a glass of water so your damn heart will chill out.

PR Takeaway: As a publicist, things are always a little bit nuts. Whether it is working with demanding clients or dealing with not-so-friendly journalists, your day is always a hectic one. That being said, you need to remind yourself to take a few deep breaths each day and just relax. If you keep taking on more tasks and let the craziness win, you, your clients and your career will suffer.

As teenagers, we distinctly remember allowing ourselves to fall backwards into the arms of our closest friends with complete faith that they would catch us. TRUST FALL, we would call it.

Now as working PR professionals, we’ve learned that the client trust fall takes some time (And by time we don’t mean 12 hours after the retainer is signed).

It is almost inevitable that you and your client will experience waves of ups and downs; it’s a natural part of the process. However, through hard word work and perseverance, you will eventually earn each other’s undeniable respect and be able to form a relationship based on mutual trust.

Recently, a survey done by RPA (Rubin Postaer and Associates) and USA Today concluded that there are 4 ways to build trust in agency-client relationships:

1.    Focus as much on interpersonal communication as we do mass communication.

2.    Work with clients to better define and understand the evolving role of creativity.

3.    Support clients in recognizing the distinction between "different" and "risky".

4.    Practice the art of business as much as the art of PR.

Take these tips with you to your next client meeting and rest assured that your agency-client relationship will only flourish.

Word of advice: You might want to wait a few months on the trust fall..

In our experience, many of the people who are fantastic at what they do, rarely apply it to themselves or their own personal business objectives because their own needs take a back seat.  Food Shelter is no exception to that idea.  Despite counseling clients and initiating a number of new sites, we spent months, possibly years (really who are we kidding), of discussing what our own site needs in terms of updates, functionality, adaptability, etc. Well, we got fed up and the time has finally arrived.  We introduce our fresh, new look to all.  May it be nothing short of the riveting,  typo-free, easy to navigate and to those in need of a loud, tenacious, creative PR group, high up in the SEO rankings masterpiece it was intended.