Public Relations: Let your actions speak louder than your words by Zlokower

Harry Zlokower, Zlokower Company

More than a tool for marketing real estate services and properties, public relations or “PR” is the art of communicating who and what you are, what you represent, and why you should be respected and your services or products be used. Often called “strategic communications” or “marketing communications,” PR relies on media coverage, speaking, brochures, websites, newsletters and social media.

Unlike advertising, PR requires input as simple as deals and news and the higher principles of influencing opinion on real estate market and government trends, and taking leadership in the industry and community. No one better understood these higher principles than Eugene Giscombe, founder of Harlem-based Giscombe Realty Group, who passed away in July at the age of 76.

Born and raised in Harlem, Giscombe understood PR at its essence, as not simply a marketing discipline, but as a way of demonstrating commitment and confidence in his community. As a client of our firm for 10 years, Giscombe showed us the importance of helping and giving back even while building a successful business.

As a Harlem leader and advocate his entire career, Giscombe preferred to communicate less through press releases and ads, but rather through leading and advising businesses and community leaders and though giving to needy and deserving groups.

Giscombe became known as the “Mayor of 125^th Street, helping to lead the Harlem Renaissance, making Harlem a prime place to live, work and play. He was a deal maker and owner but he was also a can-do community leader for the 125^th Street Business Improvement District, Community Board #10, The Greater Harlem Real Estate Board and the Harlem YMCA.

Giscombe understood PR in a way that few do, by letting his actions as a leader and commentator speak for both his business and his community,

Harry Zlokower is president of Zlokower Company and past president of the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, New York, N.Y.