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Social media has become a prevalent part of public relations practice. Research and observation suggest young public relations practitioners are often the ones to perform social media tasks. Guided by literature on public relations roles, millennials, and pigeon-holing, this qualitative study explored whether new professionals are in fact relegated to being social media practitioners. Analysis revealed several factors, including agency billing rates, mentorship, and personal attributes, which impact the tasks new professionals are assigned....
Key Findings
- Several participants admitted that they used social media for one-way message dissemination, although they recognized that this might not be the best use of such platforms.
- Although many participants spent more time on social media than they did on traditional tasks, very few of them did social media exclusively.
- Many participants attributed their social media use to agency billing rates, rather than specialized expertise. Senior practitioners have higher billing rates that do not fit into the client budgets allocated for social media.
- Several young practitioners discussed the role of mentorship in their professional development. Those with strong mentors and advocates shared more diverse professional experience.
Even as economic power has become increasingly concentrated in large corporations, communication power has become more diffuse. Most of us now carry global publishing power in our pockets, and we are connected to one another like never before. This combination of access and interconnection gives us the ability to make or break reputations and brands.
For the last two years, I’ve had a unique vantage point on this tumultuous change, as chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the confederation of the world’s PR and communications professional associations.Professional business communicators are on the front lines of the communications revolution. The Global Alliance represents 160,000 practitioners and academics around the globe and I’ve been able to meet thousands of communicators on every continent, from at least 30 different countries and many different cultures. Based on that experience, I can share a few insights about how communication is changing the world of business — and how business communication itself must change as a consequence....
...Traditionally, the ROI of PR that focused on Old Media was measured by a simple comparison of the size and number of mentions in a publication to the cost of advertising for that placement. What’s more, retaining an Old Media PR firm tended to cost upwards of $5,000 per month on a 6-month agreement with no guarantees. In short, calculating ROI for Old Media PR was crude and relied on a lot of ifs. Enter New Media PR. With the ever-growing fragmentation in how we consume media, it only makes since for PR firms to focus on serving content in real-time via the litany of technologies that allow for media consumption. What’s more, ROI is much more easily calculable. Where Old Media PR left a lot of ifs, New Media PR offers more substance. Need to know how many people read your press release online? Wondering how many Twitter followers you gained after an Internet-based publicity stunt? Done and done, all at the drop of a hat. Old Media PR isn’t dead, but it’s on the way out. New Media PR is the future. Adapt or die....
My last column about the role and duties of public relations agencies generated more response, mostly positive but quite a few negative, than any other posting during the past five years. As consumers become more familiar with digital technology, businesses are evolving their marketing strategies to meet expectations. Websites and applications are now considered an essential part of a brand’s presence.
No kid dreams of being a PR person. And trust me, no PR practitioner wants his kids to follow in his footsteps either. Instead, most of us, I suspect, discover the field by accident.... Here’s the point, or, more like the paradox. Tech PR has never been both less important and more important than it is today. It’s seen as a commodity business, retainers are frozen or have actually decreased, with some clients asking for success fees (kind of like going to a contingency lawyer). It has been overtaken by social, search, and Google analytics. In its insecurity, PR tries to act more like a science than the art it really is, and comes up with KPIs (key performance indicators) to prove its value and keep away the dreaded 30-day termination notice. The PR training courses (from writing to client management) at Burson are now a relic, as the bean counters, squeezing all the billable hours, have no time to educate the young generation and instead throw them straight into the fire....
If you work in public relations (or are a business or marketing client who works with PR practitioners), you know full well the industry has been morphing and changing at a rapid rate. However, what might not be fully apparent is how deeply and radically things have changed as the industry adapts to a real-time hyper-connected environment. The infographic below - produced by Beth Monaghan and her company Inkhouse Media + Marketing - shows the profound impact new media and social technologies have had on the PR profession....
Hubspot managed (under the stewardship of my friend Laura Pistachio Fitton) to completely surprise me today with a custom care package delivered to my door. ... One of the clear opportunities of social media is that we all have a chance to be more human brands, and that applies whether you’re in marketing, in PR, or in any kind of business online. I also love that Laura took the opportunity to practice some “real-time PR” or “real-time outreach,” delivering the right thing to me at the right time. Skeptics might argue that this kind of outreach isn’t scalable… and maybe it’s not. But what is scalable is the notion of listening, empathizing, and responding....
Major companies and big media bring financial rewards to pros in the Northeast and on the Pacific Coast, a PR Daily survey shows. ... The recruiting challenge is just one result of regional salary variations—a matter explored by the PR Daily Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey of 2,787 industry professionals ranging from associates to company presidents and chief executives. The online survey showed that the Northeast and West Coast mostly dominated the high salary categories, with one possible outlier in the upper range, the Midwest. Respondents to the questionnaire on PR salary and job satisfaction largely came from the U.S. and Canada, with contingents from Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Africa. ...
Read Public trust in businesses, government and NGOs rises, Edelman's Trust Barometer reveals on PRWeek Trust in government increased 5% globally to 48% compared with last year, while trust in businesses went up 3% to 58%.
Trust in the media jumped 5% to 57%, while trust in NGOs rose 5% to 63%, according to the report.
Ben Boyd, global head of Edelman's corporate practice, told PRWeek US: ‘You might suggest that last year, given the global economic climate and the lack of leadership and action by government, the global context was one of bleak outlook and depressed sentiment around trust.’...
Public relations professionals who have provided ethics counsel to senior management are at least as fervent about serving the public interest -- sometimes even more so -- as they are about their duty to their organizations, according to a Baylor University researcher. A new study of 30 senior public relations professionals, most of whom had served as an "organizational conscience," showed the individuals viewed themselves as an "independent voice" in the organization and not "mired by its perspective or politics," said study author Marlene S. Neill, Ph.D., a lecturer in the department of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences....
A recent study revealed a stark generation gap in the public relations industry. A Boomer says it’s time to get out of the way. I was fascinated by a new global study of trends in public relations by the University of Alabama Plank Center. The study, authored by Dr. Bruce Berger, reveals digital, gender and generational shifts that may give my generation of PR leaders heartburn. His research identifies 10 critical issues. The real news in the report, though, is its in-depth look at gender and generational gaps in our profession on these important issues. We’re not going to like what the next generation thinks about the current generation of PR leaders Berger’s report says... [Research shows a big gap between PR generations ~ Jeff]
I was fascinated by a new global study of trends in public relations by the University of Alabama Plank Center. The study, authored by Dr. Bruce Berger, reveals digital, gender and generational shifts that may give my generation of PR leaders heartburn. His research identifies 10 critical issues. The real news in the report though is its in-depth look at gender and generational gaps in our profession on these important issues. We’re not going to like what the next generation thinks about the current generation of PR leaders. Berger’s report says: “Leaders drink too much of their own Kool-Aid. Leaders and followers hold different views about the 10 most important issues, how future leaders should be developed, and the extent to which their organizations support two-way communication and shared power. Their views diverge even more regarding the quality of leadership performance. Leaders often rate their own performance higher than do their followers, but the divide between the two in this study is Grand-Canyon sized—a very steep, very deep divide. Many participants also rated the organizational CEO’s understanding of communication higher than they rated the performance of the communication leader.”... [Makes interesting reading especially for today's PR leaders who may have missed the memo...~ Jeff]
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Doug McKinlay, a 71-year-old ad professor at Brigham Young University, worked as an unpaid intern at dallas agency Richards Group over the summer.
Would your agency ever consider hiring a senior citizen for a summer internship?
In a business that's obsessed with hiring the hottest young talent boasting digital experience, most shops would probably balk. But 71-year old Doug McKinlay -- an ad professor at Brigham Young University and former agency owner -- took a chance anyway, and proposed an internship to Dallas-based Richards Group this summer.
"The industry is moving at Mach One and academia isn't moving nearly that fast," Mr. McKinlay said, comparing the pace of changes to advertising curriculum to "the speed of a receding glacier...
In an age of public conversations, ethical decision making and accurate communications are top of mind for the PR professional. With the public accessing social media for their news and information, the topic of ethics is even more prominent.
The major professional associations provide a Code of Ethics to educate and guide PR professionals on the subject. However, with the shifting media landscape and technology advancing rapidly, communications ethics are challenged....
Remember a couple of weeks ago that blog post that suggested you use your PR skills when networking? Remember one of the tips they recommended was to know when it’s appropriate to show your bra strap? At a networking event. In a business setting. And somehow this is a PR skill? Clearly, I’m astounded (I’m still not over it), but it got me thinking. Why do people think this is a PR skill?...
Monday’s New York Times ran an article by Stuart Elliott on the rebranding of our competitor, Fleishman-Hillard (FH).... ...The world is moving in our direction. We are not selling to an audience; we are trying to build relationships across the community of stakeholders. The horizontal, peer-to-peer, conversation is supplanting the top-down, controlled messaging that is the essence of advertising. The consumer is now also an employee, a shareholder, a member of an NGO, a community activist and a passionate user of products willing to advise on design. PR is more than a set of tactics or tools. It’s a mindset; the ideas that come from PR people are different than those that come from advertising people. Both are engaged in storytelling, but the PR idea stimulates discussion and has the potential to play out over years. A PR idea has to start with relevancy and newsworthiness....
Are London and New York still the dominant worldwide hubs of PR? Why do certain parts of the world lead in PR?... ... Today’s digital media means it is less vital to be close to key media producers, but agencies have yet to move out of New York. One reason is because of the other businesses located there. Yann explains: “There is a concentration of major global firms and brands. New York remains home to 42 corporations listed on the Fortune 500, making prospecting and networking geographically convenient and advantageous.” And because New York is a buzzing city, it attracts talent, as Yann says: “The same things that draw tourists from the world over to New York – world-class cultural attractions, Broadway entertainment and dining – make it a sought-after destination for young professionals and a rich source of diverse local talent.” Why London rules London is also a centre of media, business and culture, which explains why it has such worldwide PR force. One way that the UK is different from other countries is the style of its media....
Learn how to update your PR strategies and tactics to make it more effective, more modern, and more inbound. ... The good news is that the amount of time people spend interacting with media is only growing; the bad news is that traditional PR is rooted in tactics that were only relevant twenty years ago. Hmm. What to do to compensate for that disparity? Below, we’ve outlined seven tactics to help you modernize your PR approach and bring it into 2013, along with some examples of great companies who have blogged, pitched, and publicized their way to great PR success in the 21st century....
Lark: Creative agencies still want to spend all the money on TV The chief marketing officer of CommBank has warned the public relations industry... Lark said that many PR agencies were not maximising their strategic and creative capabilities and said that creative agencies were a threat. “You should be the owners of content, you should be developing content and managing communities, driving conversations… but I’m terrified as a recovering PR that you won’t get with the program,” he said. L ark held a senior role in the US at PR agency agency Fleishman-Hillard. He was also chairman of the juries for the CommsCon Awards. He cited PR agency One Green Bean’s recent campaign around the Commonwealth Bank’s Kaching app as an example of where an agency – led by executive creative director Kat Thomas – was using its strategic and creative muscle....
...We, as public relations professionals, are trained and empowered to help clients or employers reach a level of understanding with their stakeholders…their target audiences…that can pave the way for better relationships, better cooperation, and better success.
When you take all that into consideration, there is a lot to be proud of.
From the Olympics to presidential elections and enough headlines and scandals to entertain us for years to come, 2012 was a busy year for public relations professionals. Fortunately, for those looking to break into the business and those hoping to move up, job prospects continue to look promising for 2013. A new research study by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) highlighted the top 18 occupations with the most growth (most added jobs) since 2010. With 8,541 jobs added over the past two years, Public Relations Specialist snagged a place at #13 for the best jobs of 2013. This year, we can expect a continuation of this trajectory, especially if PR proceeds to gain leeway in the battle against marketing and others over control of social media....
FOR every reporter employed in America, around six people work in public relations: a few too many, some might think. But it was not like that when Daniel Edelman launched his PR firm in Chicago in 1952, a time when the job mostly involved writing speeches for the chief executive, putting out press releases and taking journalists to lunch. Mr Edelman, who died on January 15th, aged 92, was a pioneer, introducing innovations that reflected his bigger vision of PR as a more effective way to market a company’s reputation and brands than its fancier (and costlier) big brother, advertising. His role in creating the modern PR business, which spans everything from crisis management to political lobbying, is described in a new book, “Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations”, by Franz Wisner....
Public relations (PR) or media relations has long been treated as its own world, separate from marketing. It was viewed as being about name recognition and industry credibility, not something as mundane as lead generation. But as the world has shifted from marketing brochures and printed trade publications to everything online, the connections between PR and marketing have become more apparent; that white paper may be a lead generation asset, but it can also be used to pitch a bylined article. An online ad may be marketing, but the credibility built through PR makes prospective buyers more likely to click on it. A news release may be designed to get media coverage, but it can also create valuable backlinks for SEO. In the online realm, PR, search engine optimization (SEO), social, advertising and marcom are all vital and intertwined elements of web presence optimization, and as such need to be measured and managed to coordinate efforts for maximum online visibility. So how exactly does PR support SEO efforts? How can media relations skills be leveraged in social media? What do PR pros need to do differently to support online journalism? What are today’s best practices for B2B PR? Find the answers to those questions and more here in seven recent expert guides to social and online PR.
Since the PR Society is so enamored of the law, constantly bombarding us and members with legal concepts, it should pay attention to an opinion by a lawyer who says that PR people have no legal grounds for calling themselves professionals and the Society’s Code of Ethics may require conduct that is “actually illegal.” Prof. Michael Parkinson, retired PR professor at Texas Tech University and a lawyer who practiced for 13 years (admitted to U.S. Court of Appeals, Illinois Supreme Court, and Oklahoma Supreme Court), has written a 3,320-word treatise on PR’s claims to be a “profession” and the Code of Ethics of the PR Society. The Code “can require conduct that is actually illegal…” he writes, explaining that PR people are “employees” of their clients and “even without a written contract an employee has a legally enforceable obligation to act in the interests of the employer.” This may include the obligation to protect information about illegal acts by the employer.... [Sparks flying from this contrarian view and PRSA may get heartburn ~ Jeff]
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Research indicates juniors get social media role because of lower billing rates for social media functions. Iandicates PR agencies aand organizations haven't bought into the value of social media.