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:

CSR

Corporations are applying Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to show to society that they are more than a company that only cares about providing products or services that produce profits. They want to do contribute to society by improving life and helping the environment. However, many critics believe that some companies apply these programmes only to get good coverage in the press and having a better reputation, and they question their motives of their honest action to help society and the environment. They also question some business’s nature arguing that they will never be credible to the public eye about the application of CSR programme. For example, oil companies by nature will never help the environment or tobacco companies will affect people’s health.

It is important all corporations have a CSR but most importantly are the companies such as British American Tobacco, petrol BP and others implement CSR programmes and not as a distraction to unethical behaviour due to their core operations. I am not saying that all corporations will be ethical and socially responsible for having a CSR programmes. On the contrary, I am saying they need one and they have to implemented ethically and not only to get good press.

Therefore it is important that the PR practitioner in the corporation has the authority to change unethical practices of their company or client. At the end of the day the costumers and the community will know if a companies is doing good through their actions and not their promises.

Most companies announce in their webpage their CSR and if you are interested in a specific company you only have to Google it!

Feminisation of PR

In the Anglo-Saxon countries the debate around the feminisation of public relations is in vogue. Interestingly enough I Google “mujeres y relaciones públicas” and I did not get a single article about this topic. This made me think that this issue (if it is an issue) was only happening in the UK and US.

After reading a few articles, statistics and studies I came to the conclusion that the feminisation of public relations is a really but, also, that they are not promoted into highest positions within the agencies and in-house organisations.

Is this bad or good? Well, I would have to say that I do not know and it is very subjective because each individual is different and maybe particular circumstances have not given the opportunity to women to be in bigger positions. I do believe that women are more than capable to excel in their work and both genders should have equal opportunities and salaries.

Once a person asked me if I was proud that Michelle Bachelet won the Chilean presidential elections. I answer that I did not mind who won as long as he or she was a good leader.

In this century in most countries, women have great opportunities to develop professionally. More and more young girls are going to university and recent graduate girls are eager to work hard. I currently we can see many examples of exceptional women leading in different industries.

Two views on "Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice" is an article reviewing the book and talking about the feminisation of public relations in the UK.

Can any industry be ethical?

That is the main question! Now a day’s is the Banking industry that is in the spotlight due to the economical crisis or credit crunch. Next, probably, it will be the Oil industry…? There is always someone to blame about unethical decisions and practice in each profession. So why mark PR as an industry that maybe will never be ethical?

Public relations department manages the communication flow between the client, shareholders and community. They are the responsible ones to communicate any type of news, from bad to good ones. In some organisation the communication director would work with CEO drafting the company’s mission statement, strategies and vision. The PR stuff is also in charge of managing a crisis. PR is the mediator between client and public. I we cannot forget our dear friends the journalist. So maybe because the PR practitioners are in that unique position they are the targets of all criticism.

I do believe that is come to each individual to blame responsibility when they have worked unethically and not the whole industry.

PR associations have created Professional Codes of Conducts as guidelines for the PR practitioners. Academics have developed and analysed several ethical frameworks to understand the origins of approaches that practitioners could use when a dilemma arises. In an essay I wrote in the first semester I discovered that the decision-making theory was the most accepted in the PR industry. Also, PR practitioners sometimes will find their self in a case of loyalty conflicts and in those cases it is important to remember that practitioners must be responsible to society and above all public interest but without living aside clients, employees and especially oneself.

A problem with the Professional Codes of Conducts is that each association has their unique approach to make their codes effective and enforce sanctions when their members have committed unethical decisions. Therefore, having o many PR associations it is difficult to who is the conscious voice in the PR industry.

To know more about Professional Codes of Conducts please click on the following associations:

PRSA

CIPR

IPRA