Lately as I have listened to guest speakers, and class lectures I have become more convinced that PR is what I want to do. I just can’t seem to stop smiling about it when thinking of all of the possibilities that come to a person’s life when they are doing PR. As the economy is struggling and people are losing jobs, public relation’s has flourished. Personally I believe that it will never disappear.
Public Relation’s can be found in the governmental world, non-profit companies, schools, food establishments and a lot more other places. The work is fast pace and never mundane. You always need to think on your feet, know what is going on around you and much more. Public Relation’s is what makes a company/product memorable and some of the times can be connected to historical events. Public relation’s is a type of hard and honest work. This can be seen what tragedies occur and spokes people are talking to the news letting people know what has occurred. It is also behind news stories filled with details about a new product or an event announcement about finding a cure for cancer. It helps people believe in a product/company.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
It Only Takes One Blogger
PR is everywhere and occurs all of the time in the business world. Usually when you hear about PR it is because of news articles declaring something a major PR catastrophe. An example of this is found in the article, “Employee Misconduct and Internet Video Create PR Disaster for Domino’s Pizza.” A blogger posted a video of the employee misconduct and the video reached 20,000 views. Domino’s even noted the fact that the event was brought to people’s attention by the internet. In their crisis campaign Domino’s used that fact in explaining that it overshadowed all of the good work done by their many employees.
Their statement after the incident says a lot about what PR people have to deal with. They need to anticipate and be ready for whatever news that may come out about their company/product. That is why PR people need to always know what is going on with their company/product and with the daily news. Certain events might spark interest that a PR person can use to promote their company/product. Also certain media attention might mislead the public towards the company/product that the PR person represents or works for. It reminds me of the saying, “it is always better to be safe then sorry.”
Link to article: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/32/79.php
Their statement after the incident says a lot about what PR people have to deal with. They need to anticipate and be ready for whatever news that may come out about their company/product. That is why PR people need to always know what is going on with their company/product and with the daily news. Certain events might spark interest that a PR person can use to promote their company/product. Also certain media attention might mislead the public towards the company/product that the PR person represents or works for. It reminds me of the saying, “it is always better to be safe then sorry.”
Link to article: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/32/79.php
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Learn From Others
When working in the PR world you will notice many other examples of PR going on around you that you can learn from. A significant event happened on the Amazon website that the news is calling it a major PR mistake.
In the article “Giant Amazon Error Spurs PR Storm” is some very vital lessons that PR professionals can learn from and hopefully not make the same mistake. It points out that with websites such as Twitter, people find out news in a rather quick fashion. When the news does spread the PR department needs to be ready. One of Amazons problems was the fact that they gave numerous reasons for the error making the media and people question what really happened. A PR person never wants to make the customers question their business. Amazon worked on reassuring their customers and showing them that the problem had been fixed. When these storms occur PR professionals need to be up front with their customers and fix the problem in a speedy manner. This is why part of a PR person’s job is crisis management.
Link to the article:
http://www.thestar.com/unassigned/article/617982
In the article “Giant Amazon Error Spurs PR Storm” is some very vital lessons that PR professionals can learn from and hopefully not make the same mistake. It points out that with websites such as Twitter, people find out news in a rather quick fashion. When the news does spread the PR department needs to be ready. One of Amazons problems was the fact that they gave numerous reasons for the error making the media and people question what really happened. A PR person never wants to make the customers question their business. Amazon worked on reassuring their customers and showing them that the problem had been fixed. When these storms occur PR professionals need to be up front with their customers and fix the problem in a speedy manner. This is why part of a PR person’s job is crisis management.
Link to the article:
http://www.thestar.com/unassigned/article/617982
Creativity
After attending a couple of sessions at our PR conference here up on campus, it was clear that a good PR person must be able to be creative. For effective PR you need a person who is creative and always thinking of ways to improve. A speaker talked about how being a kid sometimes comes in handy. Kids aren’t afraid to ask questions, or tell you what they think of things. A PR person needs to do this so they can provide valuable PR for a company or product. If they do not do this then a company or product becomes at risk of losing money and customers.
Creativity is helpful when it comes to making PR plans to promote a business or product. It is also needed to come up with ways to deal with new technologies that the public is using. PR people have had to use creativity it figuring out ways to work with the popular internet sits such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. They need to know how to make their company stand out. The most successful companies stand out because of their creativity in their PR practices.
Creativity is helpful when it comes to making PR plans to promote a business or product. It is also needed to come up with ways to deal with new technologies that the public is using. PR people have had to use creativity it figuring out ways to work with the popular internet sits such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. They need to know how to make their company stand out. The most successful companies stand out because of their creativity in their PR practices.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
PR Is Everywhere
Inspiration for this posting came to me out of the blue Tuesday night while I watched one of my all time favorite movies, A League of Their Own. It is a movie about the first pro baseball league with women during the time of World War II when all the men were off to war. This time when watching the movie a certain character stood out among the others. Ira Lowenstein, was given the job to come up with a solution for professional baseball while all of the men went off to war. He worked and started the girl’s league. Throughout the movie it shows him always sitting in the stands on occasions, cheering, talking to reporters and telling people to come see the games again. I realized while watching the movie that he was the PR guy. He worked with the media getting the word out and promoting the league. He worked with the players in getting the public interested in the game. Lowenstein was always at the games and knew what was going on. He talked with the coaches and worked on getting them to generate interest in the league. The league became what it was all because of him and the PR work that he did.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Internal PR
PR is diverse and can be found in many different jobs. Every company needs and has someone who does internal PR. In the book for class there is a story about a man on an airplane who starts talking with the passenger sitting next to him, wondering aloud why tickets to fly are so expensive. The passenger sitting next to him defends the airline and come to find out works in the upholstery shop of the airline. When defending he provides certain details and statistics that make you think he is the airlines CEO. However he is just a well informed employee. This shows that internal PR gets a company loyal employees who are willing to defend the company to the public.
I believe that a company’s success depends on the kind of internal PR that they have. Internal PR in essence makes an employee feel like they are worth something to the company and that the company believes in them as part of their team. That goes along way to employee productivity. I know when I feel that I am cared about as an employee I try to go the extra mile when doing my work. As I think about internal PR my mind wanders to the TV show the Office. The Office is a comedy and is not based on actual scientific facts about internal PR. However the show does do a very good job of showing what it is like to work in an office setting, in a very round about way. An example of internal PR is in the parties that are thrown for Halloween, going away party for Toby and all of the ones that Michael decides to come up with.
I believe that a company’s success depends on the kind of internal PR that they have. Internal PR in essence makes an employee feel like they are worth something to the company and that the company believes in them as part of their team. That goes along way to employee productivity. I know when I feel that I am cared about as an employee I try to go the extra mile when doing my work. As I think about internal PR my mind wanders to the TV show the Office. The Office is a comedy and is not based on actual scientific facts about internal PR. However the show does do a very good job of showing what it is like to work in an office setting, in a very round about way. An example of internal PR is in the parties that are thrown for Halloween, going away party for Toby and all of the ones that Michael decides to come up with.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Many Elements of Communication
Every person communicates in their own unique way based on how they were raised and taught to communicate. Certain societies also expect certain things when it comes to communicating with people. That is why a PR person needs to know how to communicate in any type of situation and to train their spokes people as well.
The need for this is shown through the First Lady’s recent visit with Queen Elizabeth II (http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/02/1875277.aspx). One website noted it as a royal “faux pas.” Luckily this did not turn into a major crisis, as the Queen returned the first lady’s gesture of patting her on the back. Maybe it is a change of the times in communication or the ease that the First Lady projected in the situation.
This shows that when you work in PR you need to have the ability to communicate effectively in any situation. Whether it be promoting a product, creating a business transaction or making a deal with a client. You need to know what communication techniques are expected and you need to make sure that the reaction of your target audience will only benefit your cause.
The need for this is shown through the First Lady’s recent visit with Queen Elizabeth II (http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/02/1875277.aspx). One website noted it as a royal “faux pas.” Luckily this did not turn into a major crisis, as the Queen returned the first lady’s gesture of patting her on the back. Maybe it is a change of the times in communication or the ease that the First Lady projected in the situation.
This shows that when you work in PR you need to have the ability to communicate effectively in any situation. Whether it be promoting a product, creating a business transaction or making a deal with a client. You need to know what communication techniques are expected and you need to make sure that the reaction of your target audience will only benefit your cause.
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