As our world has evolved and our communications paradigm has not just shifted, but rather completely transformed, it is more important than ever to take a holistic approach to all of your customer-facing interactions. When you are creating your sales and marketing plans, which are key to your branding and identity, where does the role of public relations fit in? For many businesses, it is thought of as a unique part of the marketing mix—a few press releases to announce charitable contributions, new business openings, new hires—the expected items that you should, well, send a press release about, right? Right--sort of. You should do due diligence in promoting the happenings of your business, your employees, your footprint in your community. However, your public relations strategy should be a living, breathing part of everything that you do with your business. As our world has evolved and our communications paradigm has not just shifted, but rather completely transformed, it is more important than ever to take a holistic approach to all of your customer-facing interactions. I encourage you, especially the small business owners among us, to re-consider how you define "sales, "marketing, and "public relations plans. An effective approach may be to ...