PR degree: to study or not?

I read in Rock Star PR about the some argument we had in class: Is a PR degree necessary or not? As a graduate Journalism student and a current PR student I would like to think yes but in reality I believe it depends on each person. For example some of my Indian classmates argued that a PR degree is necessary because their industry it is still growing. However in the UK the PR industry is mature and most PR practitioners in junior position do not come from a PR degree.

A believe a degree in PR is the some as a degree in Journalism, Arts and Humanities they are general topic where student acquire general knowledge but it is working where they gain experience. Also I share the opinion of the Rock Star PR's author that to become a good PR practitioner you need to have a certain personality and that cannot be thought in any higher education college. You can come from any graduate degree and all the PR technicalities can be learned throughout work but you are born with a personality.

I believe PR should be a postgraduate degree and not undergraduate because people need to learn other skills and know how to do a good research, have excellent writing skills and be able to argue and have their own opinions.

I am studying a postgraduate PR degree because I come from Spain and I wanted to understand the UK PR industry, develop my English and learn new skills. At the end of the day I think it depends on where you are and where you want to go and if a PR degree is going to take you there, I say go for it!

Social Media: democratisation of the media

One day in Corporate PR an expert in social media asked who likes blogs and most of my classmates said yes, apart from some classmate and me. I have always felt that blogs, and social media in general, are overwhelming and crowded with so much information. I thought that a was never going to love this “social media” phenomenon but without realising that I was really a big fun of some social media sites such as Youtube, Wikipedia and Facebook.

While studying Journalism we analysed the social media phenomenon and we learned how to search, write and create blogs, podcasts and web pages. Anybody can create and write a blog or a podcast and anybody can upload a video in Youtube. That is the magic! However there is so much information that it is really difficult to select the ones that you are interested.

From the point of view of a PR practitioner I think it is important to find where your target audience goes so you can build a two-way dialogue, get to know their opinions of your client or organisation. Organisation and companies need to have a proactive approach. Though, it is essential PR or marketing practitioner know that the social media has it own rules and that it belongs to the people. People feel this media is theirs and that it is an alternative to official information coming from governments and organisations.

The following Youtube video is about PR and Social media and the changes in the PR practice due to this phenomenon.

We have to be honest where are we coming from and I think official sources have the right to defend their point of view with arguments and respect. We need to be able to share information, create interesting dialogues and find interesting and odd facts from places around the world. It is now that two-way symmetric communication truly exists.

Communication in moments of crisis

The added value of SMEs and multimillion pound businesses lies less and less on their products or services instated it is their intangible assets (corporate image and reputation) that are gaining more importance. During a crisis a company has to pay special attention to their intangible assets and protect the organisation, their employees, shareholders and general public.

Experts have identified many types of crisis but all of them have common elements: it is a threat the company, it has the element of surprise and the employees have a short period of time to make decisions. However, it is important that the company affected by the crisis understands the nature of the crisis so their can tackle the problem appropriately and implement the necessary strategies to succeed from the crisis.

Scholars have created several models and theoretical bases for crisis management. In theory most companies should have a crisis management plan establishing basic procedures to follow during a crisis. Getting ready a contingency plans in advance will help the crisis management team and the organisation to be prepare in case of a crisis. It is important that the crisis management team understands all possible crisis that their company or organisation could undergo. The clue is to be calm and prepared.

However, the advances in communication and new media could be an allied or an enemy for an organisation during a crisis management. The major inconveniences are the capacity to magnify a minor problem into something much bigger among the general public. Also the sources of many (not all of course) crises are the rumours created by people in the web through web pages, emails and blogs. The advantages are that the company’s spokesperson or team can communicate in real time how the situation is developing and also they can reach a bigger audience.

The Windsor Tower fire in Madrid in February 2005 turned one of the capital’s skyscrapers into ashes. The international consulting group Deloitte and tree departments of the Garrigues law firm had their offices within the Windsor Tower. They lost important documents and database files that they will never recover. This fire produced an enormous financial lost only within the clients but also the companies and its employees. In this case each company had a contingency plan and back-up centres that help them to start operation in a matter of hours. These companies implemented the crisis management plan successfully however authorities could never determine the cause of the fire.

Also this case is an example of what modern communication can do. This incident happened during Saturday night and lost of pedestrians had the opportunity to take pictures and videos with their mobile phone and home cameras. The Spanish newspaper El Pais gather together the images taken by the general public. The photo gallery is El Incendio del Edificio Windsor visto por los Lectores.

If you want to know more about Crisis Management and read about successful and not so successful crisis management cases you can click of Crisis Management and it will send you to Wikipedia. There you can find a clear explanation of all basic things you need to know of a crisis, theories and real cases.

Global PR does exist!

Global PR is a fantasy dreamed by International PR companies to generate business? I believe that global public relations is a reality because in today’s world, multinational organisations have the need to communicate with an enormous amount of audiences.

International PR agencies can offer this type of service. Not only to generate business but also, and most importantly to make good use of the money and time of their clients.

International PR agencies can develop and implement an effective PR campaign for an organisation that operates and targets audiences situated in different countries.

How can they do that? International PR agencies have an international network with local offices in different countries. These local branches have a deeper knowledge, including language, culture and values, also having already gained experience and built contact networks and relations. Therefore, an international PR agency can tailor the messages to the needs of a specific public.

An organisation and its PR agency will create objectives that are global, but some strategies and tactics will be local and tailored to audiences.

This idea can be understood in four simple words “THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.”

In the last few decades the necessity of communicating with international audiences has created the need for effective global PR campaigns and international PR agencies to implement them. International PR has been shaped by today’s world. Governments, organisations and multinationals should always thinking globally but act locally.

Check out how a Pete Pederson, Edelman Seattle, explains how they did the global PR campaign for the launch of Halo 2: