Public Relations Tips — Tip No. 81:

Savvy public relations professionals learn how to leverage everything at their disposal to their employer’s or client’s benefit.

One such way to do this is to keep an eye out for emerging trends that you can hook your employer’s or client’s products/services to. You can call it bandwagon-jumping if you’d like, but in my book, if it works, it works.

Understand, I’m not talking about taking advantage of a breaking news story, such as the record-setting snowstorms that pounded the East Coast of the U.S. early this year and how your product/service can really help snow-weary consumers. Nope — that’s a breaking news PR strategy and the subject for a future Politis PR Tip.

Actually, a trend piece related to these record-setting snowstorms might focus on this:

When when it snows, more employees switch temporarily to public transportation.

Hence, if you worked for a public transportation entity such as the UTA (Utah Transit Authority), you might pitch local and national media outlets on this trend. A key point of this pitch would also center on what UTA does to prepare for heavy snow days, like increase the number of buses on the road, trains on the track and personnel on the job.

Another related trend piece might be the growing use of scarves by consumers. Heck, the Today Show’s Matt Lauer even took to wearing scarves on set during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. (Here’s a news story link from a Victoria TV station that shows a very cool-looking Lauer kicking it in a scarf while visiting Victoria — Anne Curry too.)

So . . . a savvy PR person at a scarf manufacturer could craft a story angle featuring

Fashion tips on how to wear a scarf,

including visual examples of ways to tie or wrap a scarf around your neck. (And no, I don’t have any clients in the fashion business.)

The point is this: Smart PR pros recognize that one of the best ways to get more ink for their clients or employer is to

• watch for emerging trends, and
• jump on the trend bandwagon.