Reading @TDefren – “I’m Just the PR Person” [link to post]

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Public Relations is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans, executes and evaluates a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.

thanks!

The comparison to Jafar from Aladdin probably isn’t a home run, but a good blog entry about the power of PR people. [link to post]

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interesting post. You bring up a lot of good points.

It should be the goal of any organization, not only the PR person to “be out in the open.” An organization’s transparency can become its biggest asset during a time of crisis. The growing trend of our agency/client affiliations becoming increasingly public is a key indication that we must now, more than ever realize our potential as PR practitioners.

PR is not synonymous with publicity. Our only function is not to pitch stories, get coverage and produce media reports. We serve a management function; part of our job is to make sure that we manage these relationships as they become more public. If PR then, is a process of cultivating and managing relationships, it is crucial that we begin to understand and see the value of concerning ourselves not only with ourselves, but with others.

Too many people generally assume that PR strives to influence how publics interpret any one organization. Although this is partly true, we must focus on emphasizing our ability to participate in strategic decision-making –to help manage the behavior of organizations.

Unfortunately, this is a lot harder to do than it is to say. For this reason, we must start finding ways to measure our success. We must look for ways to demonstrate that what we have done has real value. In order to do this we have to first prove ourselves. This is not always easy, especially with all of the misconceptions of PR flying around.

We must become comfortable with showing others in our organization that PR can not only save money, it can make money. So the next time that someone says prove it, you can. Going to your boss and saying, I got coverage in newspaper A, worth B advertising dollars doesn’t really say much about what we do. So we saved 25, 000. At the end of the day, who cares?

But if you say to your boss, 30 people who read the article that we got in newspaper A, went to the website and participated in the blog, five of those people called and have asked to set up a business meeting to discuss our service C. The potential dollar making value of these meetings is $300, 000, which is money that PR has also generated, on top of the money it has saved.

Like you said, there are a few bad apples in every field. For the most part though, we’re not just PR people, we are creative, outside the box strategists. This blog and our social media efforts are proof of that.

Happy PRing.

AK

[link to post] “I’m just the PR Person”

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No longer can we say “I’m just the PR person.” @tdefren riffs about PR’s new role in the 2.0 world: [link to post]. Thanks @scottmeis!

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“I’m Just the PR Person” | PR Squared – [link to post]

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Problem is, success has a nasty way of going to someone’s head and they start to believe their own hype. At the end of the day, yes, we advise but we also need to listen to our client’s needs.

we are, after all, “the power behind the throne,” as it were. certainly not a trivial position. act accordingly.

My boss had just given an interview about his client’s product.

Yep. He freaked out. He also caught a lot of flak for it from his agency. However, he survived. More importantly, he knew enough about his client’s services to play a bigger role than “just the PR guy.”

While this is an extreme circumstance, it’s a great example why we should intimately understand our client’s businesses, especially in the Web 2.0 world. That way, if we ever find ourselves all of a sudden “being interviewed,” we can truly act as a brand ambassador.