I am not talking about book-based case studies. Those that inhabit the pages of a text book (like the classic J&J Tylenol recall) are seen as “boring, remote, couldn’t happen to me” stuff.

This is a guest post by Dr Catherine Sweet, a public relations practitioner, educator and academic with over 25 years experience.*

But, when I tell them about the time in my very first PR job when I was dragged out of the backroom to face 70 journalists and 17 camera crews to explain exactly what technically had gone wrong in the London Stock Exchange of the first 17 minutes of ‘Big Bang’ –when the new systems crashed – well, that tends to get them wide-eyed.

Or maybe it was the time when my boss was arrested at dawn by the Serious Fraud Office; or when I had the chance to sit in at the Bank of England meeting when an investment bank went bust and was sold for £1. A PR role lets you be a participant in history being made – and that’s downright exciting!

PR ‘war stories’ recounted by someone who actually survived them are the best way to reach students, because they are real, experienced by the person who is standing up in front of them. It makes PR immediate and yet accessible. “If I can do it, so can you” is the sub-text.

There is an element of trust, honesty and respect that gets wrapped into the process. Because they learn to trust my honesty, I can earn their respect. I am not afraid to tell them of the scars, the failures, the mistakes; it’s not all ‘super-hero PR’.

Students realise that professional PR people make mistakes, too – and to know the difference between an honest one, an ethical blunder and illegal stupidity.

I’ve had some career limiting moments. By sharing them, I help them realise that it isn’t always easy to make the right choice, but they need to face them bravely when they come. Maybe in the future, when they find themselves in the firing line, they will remember some of the advice and get through it all so they can tell their own stories.

From public relations storytelling to corporate narratives

My teaching has made me realise the power of ‘story telling’ as being the best form of PR and communication there is. As humans, we are hardwired to listen and learn; it’s how we acquire language in the first place. But as Richard Dawkins points out in his numerous books that followed The Selfish Gene, what separates humanity from the rest of earth’s species is our ability to pass on cultural memes (best thought of as little nuggets of insight), along with our genetic inheritance.

Storytelling as part of organisational communication theory has been around for about twenty years, evolving into a large bookshelf of books and articles about corporate narratives, sense giving and sense making, how story telling is used as a change management tool, etc. Recent debates in the field question whether corporate story telling by the dominant coalition is asymmetric communication in its worst form, a kind of corporate fantasy that is far removed from the employee experience at the coal-face.

The pedagogic treatment of story telling as an educational tool is a discipline in its own right; just try a Google search. It’s a matter of irritation that so much of the narrative of the PR profession is over promoting its own importance, or one agency succeeding at the expense of another, scoring points in the media, or squabbling amongst itself about how little respect is shown to PR in the board rooms. But, that’s another story…

The impact of social media

In a world that is going increasingly online, story telling may be more pervasive and yet less effective. “Where’s the content?”, is all too often my moan at Facebook status updates or the latest YouTube clip of dancing babies, hamsters or whatever.

We may be connected now in ways that allow the exchange of personal information, but a lot of it is too much information, just narcissism put out there for information’s sake, rather than communicating in a meaningful way. In short, where is the narrative power? Some blogs have it, but a whole lot of them don’t.

Face-to-face story telling is more persuasive because more emotional connection is possible – it’s just more personal.

I run a PR blog because I believe you can’t teach what you don’t do yourself (which is why I think every academic teaching in the discipline should have a minimum of ten years of real experience; after all, you wouldn’t let a newly licensed car driver become a driving instructor, would you?). But it is much, much harder to get my students to comment on my blog than it is to engage them in conversation in the classroom, even when I use Twitter to drive them to the blog.

Eye contact matters –it’s that trust thing and it creates a connection that online just can’t replicate.

Making it real

When it is good, face-to-face is real, symmetric, two way communication. I can challenge my students personally to think of situations in their own lives that raise the same sort of issues as corporate communications professionals face:

• How much of the truth should they tell their parents about their studies
• What are the consequences of being economical with the truth?

That brings home the lesson of crisis management communication. When the proverbial hits the fan, then how you have communicated in the past comes back to haunt you, whether you are a final year undergraduate or a Head of Corp Comms for a major oil company.

Honesty, trust and respect have to be earned over a long period of time – and can be destroyed in a moment. That makes them think – which is what we as communicators are here to do, isn’t it?

*Dr Catherine Sweet (DPhil, Oxon; MCIPR) has over 25 years’ practitioner experience in PR, public affairs, corporate communications, crisis and change management and top team coaching. Starting in financial services, she has worked for a wide variety of organisations and clients in the public and private sectors. Now Senior Lecturer and Course Leader at Southampton Solent University, teaching undergraduates and graduates, she is an American by birth, but has lived and worked in the UK for more than half her life. Catherine can be networked with on her PR blog, her LinkedIn profile and on Twitter @CSweetPR.

[This post is included, with many other posts, in a free strategic PR report that can be downloaded from this blog by email subscribing to it. The report - Public relations 2011: insights ideas issues - features professional practice-adding value from 10 global PR leaders (and me).]

Yet, according to Australia’s outgoing commissioner responsible for age discrimination, from the age of 45 employment options start to shrink for people. “From that point on, one of the greatest barriers to employment is age,” said Elizabeth Broderick, who worked in her role for three years.

Gender discrimination is not tolerated, as Ms Broderick said, so why should age discrimination be any more acceptable?

I was nearly fooled into discrimination by age

A few years ago I was recruiting for a role that reported to me. There were a number of younger, as well as an older, candidates. Compared to the others, much, much older in fact. And considerably older than most of the team I had working with me.

Yet, according to the job specs this was clearly the most qualified and suitable person for the job. But I wavered.

What if this person wouldn’t fit into the fast-moving, fluid culture of the team I already had? Would the candidate be able to offer the insights into new technology that were emerging for web and digital communication? (Somewhat ironically, this role was all to do with managing a website, supposedly young turk turf…)

But I hired the old guy (oh yes, he knows who it is!), and you know what, here’s what happened:

• He educated all of the team, but me especially, on a range of digital communication capabilities
• He was way ahead of most other IT/web-related professionals I’d interacted with
• He recognised age as a perception-barrier from other people so worked extremely hard to deliver not just what was required by the role, but to provide value-add on top of that
• His energy levels and devotion to the job meant you had to prise him out of the office and even then, as we soon learnt, he’d continue working on delivering beyond best practice outcomes at home
• His experience enabled him to navigate turbulent political waters and interact with those unhappy with change (because this guy led a huge seachange in website communication at the organisation) successfully
• He provided sage advice to me many a time, sometimes specifically relevant to his own role and sometimes in relation to leadership, management and business communication in a broader sense.

And you know what, he also became a good friend. Not just of myself, but of all those younger folk in the team as well. Multiple wins all round.

Suffice to say, lesson well learnt.

Why age rules in public relations

Hopefully (!), the more you do something the better at it you get. The flipside of this is that you can also get jaded by it, losing enthusiasm and hence an edge or creativity or freshness that is required. Like most things, it comes down to the individual and their attitude.

Certainly, as writing is PR’s number one skill, we can do with all the expertise we can get. I’ve found younger people in PR to often possess very poor writing skills. Age can be a real winner in this regard.

The more you write, the more feedback you get, the more lessons you learn – the better you get. Either that, or you get unemployed.

Dealing effectively with people – whether they be journalists, senior management, colleagues and others – is probably PR’s number two skill. And as you age you naturally encounter a range of different people and are put in a range of situations, many of them confronting. These experiences impact not just on knowledge, but in the array of responses we develop to resolve and leverage them for the best possible outcome.

This is nothing against youth (which has plenty going for it too!) it is just a simple result of aging. Age definitely wins in these regards!

Within PR, age seems to me like it should be perceived as having excellent POD. This is an industry dominated by youth. Perhaps this is partly because it is a female-centric industry and women tend to leave the workforce (due to family commitments?) as they age. I don’t know, I’m just speculating, because having a lot of women in PR is one of the best things about the industry.

The dwindling of PR professionals as we age underlines that in PR we should be trying to hang onto older workers for as long as possible. The knowledge they possess is equally important, and in many situations vastly more so, than whatever we learn from doing a Masters degree or deep-diving into social media 24/7/12/52.

Funnily enough, in my experience older people in the workforce tend to behave in a young way. That’s if you characterise the young as having:

• Energy
• Creativity
• A willingness to try something new.

We could all do with a bit more age in our workforce.

What examples do you have of either age discrimination in the workplace or where older employees have delivered excellent value? What do you think it is about older workers that adds value to the workforce? Or do you disagree; do you only want to work with young people in the PR industry?

Illustration by Guy Downes

So, really, it’s one big party, right?

Who’s the PR boss around here?

Being a sole operator is one of the career options we have in public relations. Others are being an in-house PR professional or working for a PR agency. Each have their positives and negatives, with the overarching main benefit of working for yourself being that you choose how to run your life.

Well, sort of. Because no matter whether in-house, agency or sole operator, someone pays the bills and someone directs or influences a significant portion of the traffic in your vocational motorway:

• Your boss
• Clients
• The CEO
• Shareholders.

True, as a sole operator you don’t have to accept work that you aren’t comfortable with, whether it’s because of ethical concerns (gambling/gaming is a big turn off for me), a type of work issue (e.g. sponsorship) or it involves an industry that doesn’t really thrill you to work with (e.g. accountancy – me? Hey, accountancy clients come on down!).

A bracing reality is that you are very careful as a sole operator, or an agency, not to accept work when it is offered. Because it is extremely hard to generate new business. And whilst ‘ beggars can’t be choosers’ is taking it way too far, you do not want a reputation as being precious about the work you choose to do.

Getting your ‘hands dirty’ is a must and its fun. An advantage of being a sole PR operative is that you might be fortunate enough to get both strategic and tactical work: perhaps the reasons how you got into PR and why you got into PR?

Revenue and work for PR sole operators

‘Make hay while the sun shines.’ ‘Feast or famine.’ Gee, I’m full of aphorisms, aren’t I? Both hold true in this context. And they are reasons why you need to be very careful about not accepting work when it’s offered.

It’s something of a given that when you are a sole operator you sometimes struggle to find the work and then, lo and behold, when it does appear suddenly there are offers all over the place, you’re struggle to fit it all in and any semblance of work-life balance goes AWOL. The issue is, you never know what’s around the corner so you are loathe to knock any opportunity back.

I’d say that over time you probably develop the confidence to knock work back based on your current and anticipated work load. And if you don’t, well, best if you move back to a permanent position.

Design by Pennington & Co

Work-life balance working-‘lifeing’ for yourself

This is a post in support of the notion that being a PR sole operator is the way to go, isn’t it? I thought so. Just checking.

Yes, you choose when you work. You choose how long you work. And you choose where you work (it could be in a home office like my guru graphic designer Noel Pennington, or it could be in the country like insightful illustrator Guy Downes – both of whom run their own successful solo shows).

So this is great for fitting in activities like football training with the kids, heading off early for a weekend away or generally putting yourself first (medical appointments, maybe) and not your clients.

But the clients still rule here, don’t forget. They pay the bills and your relationship with them is critical to generating ongoing work.

The work of a PR sole operator

I divide the work I do as a sole operator (yes, this is my life) into client work, marketing and new business. My line between the latter two is that marketing is branding/reputation building work and is of an anticipated medium-longer term impact. Whilst new business is more immediate and tactical in nature.

Marketing I do:

• Mainly social media-related
• My own blog, Twitter and LinkedIn
• The blog and LinkedIn get most of my attention but Twitter is an important part of the mix
• I also produce the occasional PDF report based on my work on the blog (there’s one coming up – Public relations 2011: issues, insights and ideas – so watch out for it as it is be a cracker, featuring global PR thought leaders).

Has my investment into social media paid off in commissions? It’s a difficult question to answer.

• I think it has as my involvement in, visibility through and (arguable) competence in the area has, I believe, led to work such as the commissioning of social media strategies
• It has certainly enhanced my personal brand, which is another reason why I do it as I may take a permanent position again one day
• And I highly doubt whether the global PR thought leaders I mentioned would have contributed to my upcoming report if I hadn’t been a visible contributor to public relations through social media – so it’s a circular, multi-connected thing.

The new business investment involves networking and staying in touch with potential clients. This includes cold calling (mainly in the engineering and related sectors that I have a real interest in) and maintaining contact with these people. This often includes providing information that might be of interest to them, helping them do their job, and not saying call me call me call me all the time.

The downside to much of this is that if you are busy with client work – great! – you still have to look to the medium and long term future and continue investing time into marketing yourself, meaning that evenings and weekends come into play – work-life balance, anyone?

This part of the work needs to occur continually. Not every week or so, but a few times each week. To do this, you need…

Self-discipline and motivation when working for yourself

If you do not have self-discipline and are not self-motivated you are dead in the water as a PR sole operative. Proactivity, baby!

Believe me, it is a hell of a lot easier to talk the talk than walk the walk. It’s a bit like blogging. You need to do it regularly to get in and stay in the habit; you develop a muscle for it over time; and you do get better at it over time (I wish I could say the same about new business generation – no guarantees there!).

You are your boss looking over your shoulder. It’s entirely up to you what happens to your business.

The heat in the sole operator kitchen

Tolerance of risk is what you eat for breakfast in this game. You are an iron man or woman of risk, in fact.

Anyone working on their own business has a make or break dimension introduced to their mettle. I am certainly not sure if I have what it takes. I think I’m pretty good at the PR, marcomms and corp comms dimension, but the running my own business dimension…best if you come back to me in 12 months time on that one.

Then another 12 months after that…is anything ever 100% iron clad?

The ultimate challenge…and satisfaction

There is no greater test of your ability than being a sole operator or running your own business. If you aren’t good enough at what you do then your client will not stay your client for long. And from that point on, if not before, dead in the water…again.

But I tell you what, because you are entirely self-reliant, the personal sense of satisfaction at doing a great job, at delivering best-possible-practice results and at prompting your client to applaud you is as good as it gets.

You are not relying on a team here. You are the team. Hit the highlights and you are definitely a winner and all power to you.

PR sole operator wins

So, clearly, being a sole PR operator working for yourself is the best way to be involved in the industry, isn’t it? Please, can at least someone agree with me? I’m going to have to grief counsel myself if you don’t…(I can do that as a sole operator – free!).

Have you ever worked as a sole operator and, if so, what are your experiences? Would you like to be a sole operator one day? Why, what’s the attraction for you? How much experience do you think you need before you become a sole operator? Are you brave enough?

PS: I’d welcome you joining my 1,300-strong LinkedIn network (send me an invite!) or interacting with me through Twitter.

PPS. And don’t forget you can subscribe to this blog via email or RSS at the top of the blog’s page, or Tweet about this post using the handy RT button, adding your own editorial perspectives.

You know what, I don’t think so!

Juggling the PR role and the 'real world'

If anything, I think that PR is similar to many other professions in that the challenges of having children, then raising them, leads to many women leaving the profession before they have fulfilled their potential. Or, if they don’t leave the profession, then they continue in it on a part-time basis but with responsibilities that do not reflect their talent.

I think PR should be doing a hell of a lot better in this area than it does, notwithstanding that I am sure there are plenty of good news stories out there about organisations adapting around women juggling family and work.

And nor do I think that it should necessarily be women sacrificing their careers to bring up baby.

Work-life balance: more than family

But work-life balance is about more than family. For instance, I coach an U7 football team as well as manage a group of U7 boys Nippers (surf life saving). Now, you can probably tell I just happen to have a seven year old son and that is clearly the reason why I am involved in these activities. But a large group of boys, and by extension their families and the broader community, benefit from the time I put into these activities.

This is not to pay myself on my back. I have found that these activities inspire me and the boys give a lot more back to me with their enthusiasm and openness and friendliness than I could ever hope to give to them. But it does broaden out the spectrum of work-life balance. There are many of people out there with no children selflessly serving the community in ways such as this that deserves recognition from their paid employers because of their contribution to society.

I have worked in organisations that encourage such activity and make (paid) allowances for it, but one of the tragedies is that the higher up the corporate ladder you get the less room there is for this sort of community involvement. It’s generally likely to be seen as expedient and indulgent.

What a shame, then, that those who have proved themselves in the heat of the corporate hearth, and no doubt have many management capabilities that could be put to good worth in an unpaid, community-benefitting capacity, are ruled out due to work pressures.

It’s reality. It’s life. I know. But gee, it sucks doesn’t it!

The PR options in work-life balance

I have my own business, so I have the perfect opportunity to have wonderful work-life balance – right?

Well, yes, but I fail and I fail often.

The challenges of running my own business have their own clock: doing paid work, finding new work, marketing the business. It is very, very hard being disciplined enough to stick to the schedule and make time to play with that 7 year old every afternoon!

In PR agencies it is a very pressured existence, generally more so than the in-house environment. The shifting vagaries and demands of clients…they expect you to be there when they need you, not according to any schedule that may have been set up previously and not at the whim of an agency employee’s personal life.

This is simply how agencies work. Over the longer term, the client-agency relationship becomes more fluid, but beware…any agency or consultant that does not fit in with the client’s schedule will not have that client for much longer!

Working in-house, there are the corporate, government and NFP environments. I don’t know much about NFP, but government in general is more fluid on work-life balance, with flexi-time often being an option for less experienced practitioners and the hours often being less. But this isn’t guaranteed……….

Do you keep the PR job and personal balls all in the air?

Leadership in work-life balance

Leaders (well, unfortunately these are managers all too often, rather than actual leaders) should take the lead in work-life balance. This manifests itself in two ways:

• Actually applying work-life balance themselves
• Ensuring, as best they can, those who report to them apply work-life balance.

In my experience, it’s actually more difficult to do the former than the latter.

What you can do to achieve work-life balance

At the end of the day, whilst for sure the employer/boss will make ground rules regarding work-life responsibility, it’s a two-way street and individuals, ultimately, need to take a large degree of responsibility for their own work-life balance.

• Once you are offered a position, the bargaining power is with you. You are the preferred, desired candidate. Use this power to negotiate an acceptable work-life balance
• Once you lock this work-life balance into place, make sure you apply it. Don’t get it and not use it from the very start, otherwise your habits become accepted and you lose the advantage
• Leaving early a couple of days a week (maybe starting early to go with it) and working from home one or two days a week are great options. Plenty of research has identified working from home leads to better work outcomes (just like research says offices lead to higher productivity than open-plan offices), but in both cases employers mostly prefer to ignore the evidence…

I have had an experience or two where the work-life balance options are negotiated in but the employer tries to renege. Either by blatantly roadblocking me when push comes to shove, or applying more subtle pressure.

Don’t let them get away with it. Stand up for your rights, what you have agreed to. But make sure it is in writing! And it wouldn’t hurt if the employer communicated it to other employees so they understand the situation. There are those that will look down their nose at you because they consider you a ‘slacker’.

The reality these days is that every contract is an individual one. There is no such thing as generic. All power to you for empowering yourself. Don’t feel bad that you were smart enough to negotiate a workplace agreement/contract that suits your lifestyle.

The more people that do it, the more it will occur. You are an inspiration, not a ‘golden child’.

What are your thoughts on work-life balance in PR? Have you got positive news for us, particularly if you are a woman? What are some solutions to issues I have flagged above?

PS: I’d welcome you joining my 1,200-strong LinkedIn network (send me an invite!) or interact with me through Twitter.

PPS. And don’t forget you can subscribe to this blog via email or RSS at the top of the blog’s page, or Tweet about this post using the handy RT button, adding your own editorial perspectives.

Is there a line that PR should not cross…tobacco, gambling, petrol…name your ‘poison’?

Angst-ridden PR guy...agonising

This thought was prompted by the recent discovery that a reputable organisation with a business model based on doing good environmental deeds accepted corporate sponsorship from a tobacco company. It didn’t seem like an appropriate alignment of values to me, but I sought the opinion of fellow professionals on the issue.

Also, I wonder are there any areas where PR should not tread, or it should tell its organisation not to tread? We can all get on a high moral horse at times, but when it comes to many high-carbon producing industries, for instance, most of us are part of the problem, not the solution.

This manifests itself in our lifestyles (e.g. using petrol-consuming cars) and our investments (e.g. much of our superannuation will be partly invested in ‘evil banks’, petrol producers and mining companies that often put profit above the environment or the concerns of indigenous people). So there are very few cleanskins in western society, but where do you draw the line?

The ethical decisions that all of us – not just PR pros – face in life are extremely difficult, but generally made easier by the blithe sense of self-preoccupation that characterises our human condition.

But in PR we are not just paying for a product or service, we are actively involved in promoting products and services (as well as organisations) so, I suggest, there is an even heavier moral responsibility on us (and marketers in general) than any ‘normal’ community member.

And I would suggest that because of that promotional/selling dimension of our roles, there is a higher moral burden on us than other employees of organisations who, merely by working for them, are inherently supporting the production of products and services. If you don’t support the selling of tobacco, for instance, then how can you work for a cigarette company?

If its legal, then it’s okay for PR

There is an argument that says people have freedom of choice, so we don’t need to bear responsibility for the products and services, or the organisations, we promote and/or work for: ‘it is up to individuals whether they choose to buy the product or service’, encapsulates this line of thinking. If it’s legal, then it’s fair game…

Bill Gay, in a Public Relations Professionals discussion on LinkedIn, said on this topic, “I feel that legal endeavors deserve their day in the court of public opinion. As professional communicators, we can assist them and can contribute to society in that regard. But that is where our code of ethics comes in.

“As a profession, we must embrace all of it. Our first obligation is to the broader society and to truth. Ethical public relations can further public discussion and assist the public in making proper decisions. Leave the ethical practices out and we are just hacks.

“All professional practitioners of Public Relations need to search their own conscience regarding who they can ethically represent,” Bill continued. “We should not lie for anyone.”

Bill also asked, “Who determines what is ‘inherently immoral or unethical’? Oil [producers], car manufacturers, weapons producers, environmental groups, health insurance companies, even the military could be construed by some as being bad for society. That is where personal choice as well as professional ethics becomes crucial.

PR: do we help, do we avoid, do we seek change?

Taking money from the ‘evil axis’

Going back to my original scenario, in an IABC LinkedIn discussion on this topic, Raed Gergers implied he would accept money from banks, mining companies, petrol producers (and even tobacco companies?), provided certain conditions were met:

• “No PR activities whatsoever to be done around the donation (they should not benefit positively from such donations)
• “No branding, marketing or corporate announcements…

“In brief, the transaction should be under the law, mentioned in the books only but not exploited in any way.”

If you are taking money from an organisation you consider immoral, however, I am not sure that you can be half-pregnant, so to speak. Making subtle distinctions about how the money is used, once accepted, seems hypocritical and impotent to me.

Whether used in one program and not in others, the organisation accepting the money is tacitly approving of what the sponsoring organisation does/sell etc as well as benefiting financially in a holistic sense.

Accepting money from legal organisations just because they are legal would seem to me to be, potentially, a denial of an individual’s moral or ethical beliefs (and maybe even responsibilities) as well as, potentially, contradictory to the sponsored organisation’s values. Clearly, this has profound implications for an organisation’s brand in its most holistic sense.

As Kylie Taylor said in another (PRIA) LinkedIn discussion, however, “Where do you draw the line?”

There were many more additional points of great acuity and value made in the LinkedIn discussions flagged above. I intend to return to these in a future post.

I’d welcome further perspectives on this discussion, as it is important for me (and others I suspect) both as a PR professional and as a member of society. What are your thoughts and own personal experiences? Where have you had problems with ‘where to draw the line’?
 

PS: I’d welcome you joining my 1,200-strong LinkedIn network (send me an invite!) or interact with me through Twitter.

PPS. And don’t forget you can subscribe to this blog via email or RSS at the top of the blog’s page, or Tweet about this post using the handy RT button, adding your own editorial two cents worth!

This post revisits some of these memorable posts that have each provided highly useful advice.

Angela Sinickas

Setting PR benchmarks

The visit to Australia in recent months by highly respected, world renowned PR guru Angela Sinickas was perfectly timed for this blog (though I hardly think that was the motivation for her visit!). Angela has particular expertise in the ‘niche, but sadly under-discussed, area of setting PR benchmarks.

A  lack of measurement is holding PR back, said Angela, and going by the larger than normal number of retweets (in the context of my blog) this post received  I can only assume that, firstly, many people agree with her and, secondly, this is an area that PR professionals are interested in and concerned about.

I interviewed Angela prior to her visit to Australia. One of the most impressive aspects of Angela is that she hasn’t sat back in frustration moaning about this weakness of PR, but she has proactively identified sensible, inexpensive ways in which PR can set benchmarks and evaluate them.

One of her punchlines? It’s all about behaviour, she said. Impacting on understanding and opinions are useful, but behaviour is where it’s at.

Guy Downes visualises

Visual communication helping business communication

Despite there being a prevalence of research that clearly indicates visuals facilitate understanding and communication; PR folk in particular aren’t great at incorporating this dimension into their work. Marketing does better at this. Maybe because of its larger budgets, but it’s also a stronger part of its heritage.

Guy Downes, however, wrote a series for my blog about where visual communication can help public relations in storytelling. Now storytelling is an area that public relations is strong in. But not strong enough, according to Guy.  His posts offer an entertaining point of view on how we can get better.

One reason why Guy is well worth listening to is that he is an ‘ex’ PR pro. I say ex, but despite focusing on his own illustration business, he hasn’t lost his savvy PR skills. So when he writes on visual communication, you just know he’s conscious of its application as a potentially very effective tool in the strategic PR and marketing toolkit.

What it takes to work in public relations: a recruiter’s perspective

Now this is one post that went off! And whilst I expected people to be interested in this discussion, the manner in which it went viral surprised me somewhat.

It was an interview with two of Australia’s leading PR recruiters, Richard Whitington and Di Treble from Talent2. So these are two people who seriously know what they are talking about. They have a lot of credibility and I have always found both of them very helpful and very insightful with their thoughts.

I guess lots of people in PR were very, very interested to hear from leading PR recruiters. They certainly contribute to making – if not actually breaking – careers; so it makes sense to me that people want to hear what they think ticks the boxes of a PR professional.

I think there were more than one or two people who raised a literal and metaphorical eyebrow when Richard and Di observed that, up to this point, having social media skills has only rarely emerged as being a mandatory qualification for a PR role – and this is determined by organistaions that hire Richard and Di, remember, not the pair themselves.

Graham White, a highly respected PR pro from Howorth, offered a different perspective on the necessity of having social media skills to work in PR than the Talent2 perspective, with both being well worth reading.

Laura Fayers

Annual reports as really useful communication

There are a lot of us in PR who have spent our fair share of time hunkered down over the tome known as an annual report. Sometimes mind-numbing, sometimes interesting but just about always a marathon-like process where you are left wondering: “Am I doing anything useful here?’

Well, an ex-colleague of mine, Laura Fayers, persuasively argued over two posts that annual reports DO make a contribution to winning the PR war. Laura provided us with plenty of useful tips – including focusing on that basic requirement of PR pros: telling stories – to help enhance annual reports’ utility as a communication mechanism.

Market research: can a PR pro afford not to do it?

One year ago I claimed market research is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of public relations. Without undertaking scientifically rigourous market research, it is not possible to precisely know target audience/stakeholder:

• knowledge
• perceptions
• behaviour
• issues of concern
• influences on their knowledge, perceptions, behaviour
• communication modes that they utilise and/or that contribute to influencing them.

To support my argument and add a considerable degree of value to it, I interviewed market research expert Adrian Goldsmith over a series of posts. In summary? Market research is totally a ‘must have for PR pros. This series provides an excellent complement to the perspectives of Angela’s flagged earlier.

Toni Brasch

Event management – getting it right

Visual communication, annual reports and, with this guest post, events. Three dimensions of public relations that are sometimes underestimated in their potency.

As always, what communication works best for organisational stakeholders must be considered. But then again, what has meaning for the organisation itself is also a critical factor.

Toni Brasch, who is an incredibly talented events manager (though this meagre description doesn’t do justice to the strategic approach she applies to her craft or the contribution it can make on a strategic level to an organisation’s stakeholder relationships), wrote a guest post for this blog on how events are marketing’s killer app.

Summary of PR/marketing thoughts

This is but a small selection of the rich contributions that have been made to this blog since it started by professionals other than myself. They have enriched the blog immeasurably and, as this is a social media mechanism, it seems only right that views other than my own are explored in greater depth than each post’s comment section allows.

If you want to hone in on two resources, generated at least partially by this blog that capture a range of professional communicators’ perspectives, I recommend you check out these two free and extensive reports:

• PR at war – opinion explosion at social media summit
• Crisis communication & social media summit 2009: a report

Would you like to write a guest post for this blog? Or be interviewed? If so, let me know! And of the posts noted above, which did you glean the most value from?

This is a very personal story. Not the normal gist of this blog. But, in some ways – at a sub-atomic level, perhaps – it is ALL about this blog.

It is also longer than my normal posts, but whilst it may be a mini-epic, it is no mini-series.

Fundamental messages of my story include:

• If you have a sense, an intuition, of being capable of something, exhaust that sense until you are 100% satisfied it has been resolved. Otherwise there will be a vacancy within you that will eat at you like acid
• You can begin a career later than in your 20s
• Determination and persistence get you an opportunity; hard work and talent create a career.

Looking for a career, vocation…wherefore art thou??

In my early thirties I was struggling. I had spent time as an actor, waiter and restaurant manager and stood fairly accused as the worst barista in Sydney. I was also a DJ and a journalist on popular culture (mainly rock music – starting out on punk and new wave, then evolving into soul, funk, jazz and roots/country music). I was a pretty good music writer (I thought so, anyway) and DJ and had, as you can imagine, some pretty wild times in these vocations.

In fact, I still write about music for street mag Drum Media for fun, with highlights of the 20+ gigs I have seen this year being the astonishing Wayne Shorter, the lovable Ricki Lee Jones and the unique Lyle Lovett.

Back in my early thirties, though, I couldn’t get a grip on life. I knew I needed some sort of stable vocation to get me on the straight and narrow. I dropped out of post-school college/uni (I studied drama, an early passion, acting with Glenn Robbins aka Kath and Kim in one play) and so didn’t have that elusive degree behind me. I tried to enrol in a journalism course at uni as a mature age student a couple of times, but was rejected.

I had a sort of fearful, fragile confidence in my writing skills. And I thought if I can just get a gig applying these skills in a business environment that might be my ticket out of my personal cul de sac. So I went to see a couple of careers advisers. Supposed careers advisers. I told them about my writing skills and wanting to apply them in a business context, but…

You might think the term ‘marketing’, even if not ‘public relations’, would have come up. But no, not on your life (dickheads).

Making ends meet, but what and where is ‘the end’?

So on I struggled, surviving on the dole and labouring jobs, some meagre takings from freelance rock writing and the odd restaurant gig (as by this time I couldn’t take the hospitality industry anymore: pandering to people’s inane predilections, and their condescension, takes more forbearance than I was capable of consistently delivering).

I applied for over 100 jobs, never seeming to get close to an interview.

Ex-PM/cultural-social-political icon/Australian hero Paul Keating’s Working Nation program gave me some extraordinarily rudimentary desktop publishing skills to go along with the writing skills. Then…one fateful day. I got an interview with the Retail Traders Association of NSW.

The PR ‘break’

Armed with incentives to take on unemployed people like myself, along with my new ‘graphic design’ skills (…), I scored a job – thanks Bill Healey. After three months I asked Bill, well, my probation is over, have I got the job. I loved his response and still do: “Well, you’re still here aren’t you?” Now that’s what I call a performance review!

I was writing case studies, placing them in the media and providing internal communication resources. This was pretty cool, I thought, this seemed like what I might be looking for, but wondered: what is this? What is this vocation I seem to be in?

Next thought: I’d better get a qualification in this ‘thing’ (whatever the hell it is) to make sure I can keep this baby rolling.

I saw a short course in PR and that rang a few bells. Am I in public relations? So I took the course, given by the legendary David Potts. About 10 minutes into the first session, the scales fell from my eyes: JESUS WEPT, I’M IN PUBLIC RELATIONS!

As soon as that course was over I enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Public Relations at UTS (I was too dumb, underqualified and under experienced to get into a masters). There, I had the extremely good fortune to be taught by more Australian heroes like Gael Walker and John Carr. I ate it up, then articulated the certificate into a full Masters of Communication, where more very wonderful teachers like Shirli Kirschner, Rebecca Harris and Jane Jordon shared their practical and academic knowledge with me.

The masters was the best thing I could have done. It provided me with insights into the wonderful potential of PR and the structure of strategic communication.

So I got my degree when I was just shy of 40, the first person in my family to get one. I was proud, sure, but my God I was relieved. I had something to fall back on, yes, but you know what? One of the greatest gifts that the Masters gave me was self-esteem, a belief that maybe I wasn’t as worthless as I thought I was. Sure, I had the ego to protect myself, that masculine, brittle bravado that held all doubts at arms length. But really, they were there, feasting on my psyche and soul in private moments, shaping who I was in public.

My career progressed at an exciting pace, with excellent jobs in a number of organisations such as 2iC Integrated Communication (with the inspirational Cath Stace and other wonderful colleagues) and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (where I have also made some friends with people who I hope stay in my life for as long as it lasts).

What PR means to me

Before PR came along, I was a drowning man. When it appeared, it was solid land onto which I held. And what at first seemed like a desert island that would suffice, quickly evolved into a continent that has nurtured me and allowed me to explore myself on both a personal and professional level.

PR suits me as a person. I am politically inclined towards social democracy. I believe we all have a responsibility to global society. PR, to me, has that notion embedded into it.

Fundamental elements of public relations that attract me include:

• It facilitates communication, understanding and engagement between organisations and their stakeholders
• It helps prompt organisations change as much as it prompts stakeholders to change, leading to a more equitable, responsive and respectful society
• It necessitates empathising with ‘others’ and, as such, learning from them: it is a humanising professional discipline
• The way in which it is analogous to culture or art; the way it captures elements of contemporary life and helps reflect back those elements with different emphases; and also because it can be very creative and packed full of ideas
• It is intellectually stimulating as you learn about different industries, ideas and a diverse array of people (not to mention their views of the world)
• Writing is the number one skill you need. This is the technical skill I enjoy practicing the most and have a high degree of confidence in.

Public relations and I: now

So, 16 odd years after discovering this wonderful profession called public relations, I am a much happier and more satisfied person. The last few years have been another story in itself, with me struggling to find a specific job in which to satisfactorily work. The GFC got me retrenched, but it has led to me operating my own business which has been an unplanned eye-opener and extremely rewarding. But that is a story for another day…

I was very, very lucky to find what I consider to be my ‘home in professional business communication – or public relations. Its principles have made me a better person and a better father than I would otherwise have been (as for better husband, well, my wife might want to post on that. But then again, maybe not…).

As for the future, well, let’s think about that….

How did you discover public relations? What does the discipline mean to you? Did you come to it from another profession? Are you tired of it and/or do you think you’d like to move to another profession? What would that be and why that particular profession?

If you liked this post, perhaps you have a friend who would also like it you can send a link to.

PS: I’d welcome you joining networks with me through my LinkedIn profile. Send me an invite!

PPS. And don’t forget you can subscribe to this blog via email or RSS at the top of the blog’s page, or Tweet about this post using the handy RT button, adding your own editorial two cents worth!

Working in a PR agency is one of the most exciting, valuable and positive experiences any PR professional can have. In the early years of your career, in particular, you are less hamstrung by process and get your hands on a range of projects. Agency employees are often perceived as experts; it presents a range of professional and life opportunities; and you are surrounded by peers who understand the discipline and provide excellent support.

What do you need to work in a PR agency? Hunger and a can-do attitude. Wallflowers need not apply

But what do you think?

The advantages of agency PR roles

1. As you are working at a remove from an organisation, this distance often allows you to see issues more objectively and more clearly, thus helping develop solutions that those in the ‘organisational mist’ don’t generate.

2. Without a doubt, working in an agency is a more pressurised, and hence more dynamic, environment than in-house. This can facilitate a quick learning curve because of the exposure to different responsibilities you are given and the faith that is placed in your skills.

3. You are more likely to be perceived as being an expert in a certain area of professional communication (i.e. look at how agency employees dominate speaker line ups at conferences). Social media is currently an excellent example of this, but so is government relations/lobbying, media relations and CSR.

4. Speaking of experts, Geoff Kelly made the excellent point in a Public Relations of Australia LinkedIn discussion of my preceding post that often external consultants are respected and viewed as experts partially because they are…external! Great for both self-esteem and getting relevant, productive and interesting communication programs into play.

5. Despite often being introduced to an organisation to carry out tactical projects (with media relations and social media being king and queen), this often evolves into agencies making important strategic contributions to an organisation’s communication. This can be relevant to the specific project an agency is brought on-board for, or it can evolve into a broader remit, one that impacts on the fundamental nature of an organisation’s communication.

6. Winning new business is a great buzz. It needs to be, because as you get more senior in an agency it will always part of your responsibilities. The new biz process is outside the ‘PR process’ (strategy and tactics), but PR pros’ typical skills of networking, customising activity to stakeholder needs and empathy strongly come into play in the new business process. For some, it is an additive elixir…and it is ALWAYS a challenge.

7. Through interaction with a diverse range of businesses, issues and people, you will learn a lot about the world and you will, without even trying, be presented with a range of opportunities – PR/work-related and personal. You just need to be sensitive to these opportunities and not sleep walk through life.

8. By working with a variety of clients and in a diversity of industries, it gives you a great insight into the sorts of PR areas and industries you’d like to work in. This doesn’t mean you have to devote your entire career to these niche areas or industries, but it can help you learn where you will be most fulfilled.

PR areas include media relations, social media, CSR, public affairs, issues & crisis management, publications (e.g. annual reports) community liaison, event management, consumer, B2B and many more.

Industries include FMCG, utilities, renewables, NFP, government, engineering, architecture, resources and many more.

9. You can progress your career more quickly. Opportunities tend to come up in agencies for promotion more often than in-house. The war for talent seems to be stronger in agencies than in-house and agencies work hard to offer interesting roles at competitive packages. This means you can nearly always negotiate different responsibilities, experiences and opportunities into your role, even if increased remuneration isn’t always an option on the table.

10. You are less likely to be typecast into roles, which can occur in-house. Recruiters love to pigeonhole candidates. It makes their lives easier. Working in an agency means you are perceived, as a default, as being very flexible and able to adapt to the needs of a diversity of roles and industry areas.

11. It is much easier to get an in-house role with an agency background than the other way around. The former is the more common path. The simple reason is that if you have proved yourself in the furnace of agency life, you should definitely be able to make it in the, typically, less mentally and emotionally draining/demanding world of in-house PR.

12. One of my highly respected peers, Graham White (@GWhiteOz), believes it is less lonely working in PR when you are in an agency. Possibly Graham thinks that because in an agency you will have many (or very many!) PR peers who have a good understanding of the pressures and opportunities of working in the field. Working in-house you may be a sole operator or part of a small team, which can lead to perceptions of not feeling understood or appreciated in your role. ‘MadeTheSwitch’ said as much after making the switch to in-house PR. And in the same comments section Nicola said she really struggled to get moral and professional support.

13. You can generally negotiate a greater degree of work-life balance into an agency role. This is my experience, anyway. Promises of working from home and flexible hours are easy to give, but not so easy for any organisation/agency to follow through with, no matter how well-intentioned. The employee – not the employer – really needs to ensure the promises are fulfilled. There are no free passes in this area.

14. You are less likely to waste your life away in meetings when working in an agency, according to Marc Cornelius, who flagged this in a Public Relations and Communications Professionals LinkedIn discussion. By implication, you get to spend more time on ‘doing’ and ‘achieving’ then pontificating. Fair comment, I thought.

15. You are less likely to fall victim to client internal politics when you are working in an external agency, Marc also said. I don’t think this is necessarily true; politics has a way of wending its fingers around you when you work with a client long enough!

16. Working in an agency can lead to equity in the business. This is great if you want to eventually run your own show. You can often get experience in running a business in an agency environment, which is obviously beneficial if you have ambitions to run your own show. It can also lead to you making more money than you otherwise would have, which applies to both agency and in-house experiences.

17. And one final point. If you are in a global PR agency (and there are plenty of them) there are opportunities to work overseas for the same agency. Ah, if only I was smart enough to figure that one out when I was younger!

Summary

I always counsel less experienced practitioners to get at least a few years of agency experience under their belt. It is a dynamic, fast moving, pressurised environment that is a lot of fun. You are expected to deliver and deliver fast. Working in-house can lead to this high quality delivery mentality too, but with agency you are much more likely to get there quicker and to keep it. I highly recommend it.

What are your thoughts on working in a PR agency? What are your good and bad experiences? Is there one environment you prefer working in – agency or in-house? What do you think about the positive points of working in a PR agency made in this post?

PS: I’d welcome you joining networks with me through my LinkedIn profile. Send me an invite!

PPS. And don’t forget you can subscribe to this blog via email or RSS at the top of the blog’s page, or Tweet about this post using the handy RT button, adding your own editorial two cents worth!

But what do you think?

The advantages of in-house PR roles

1. You get to devise the overarching communication strategy and strategic approach. And if you don’t actually write it, you are closest to this particular coal face and, in theory, you get to contribute to and/or participate in its implementation in the most active way possible – rather than being at arm’s length with limited control.

2. You run the communication show. Consultants/agencies report to you. They are more often your arms and legs than a significant contributor to the central planks of your communication strategy.

 3. When running the communication ‘show’, you are more likely to be able to prompt an organisation to implement two-way symmetrical communication, facilitating an organisation operating in a manner more in-line with its stakeholders’ needs and wants. This also leads to a more equitable society, which has a multiplicity of personal and professional rewards.

4. You get to immerse yourself more deeply in the widest possible range of issues and experiences relevant to an organisation, giving you the broadest possible perspective on the organisation. This helps you develop the best possible solutions to communication challenges and respond in a speedy way to them. 

5. The fact that you consistently work on one client – your organisation – means that the impact of your work is likely to have a greater and more transparent impact than if you worked occasionally on this client. 

6. If access to power is important, when working in-house you are more likely to have interactions with organisational leadership. This can make you feel good about yourself, but it can also mean your ideas are heard more easily by senior stakeholders, potentially giving you opportunities you may not have otherwise had. Mainly, however, it’s an ego thing!

7. As the work you do on your ‘client’, and the results your work delivers, is more visible, that should generate more job satisfaction than skipping across a range of clients.

8. It is a more stable environment to work in than agencies. Your job is less likely to be downsized. Agencies are more downturn-sensitive, which in business quickly equates to a redundancy. If agency billable hours are reduced then there is less money to pay the bills, so even if your performance is excellent, you may need to hit the road.

9. Professional development (e.g. university courses, short courses, conference attendance) is better funded in-house. You only need to look where most PR conference attendees come from. In-house totally dominates (although, and this is both hilarious and tells you something, it is agencies that often dominate the speaker line ups!).  Non-agency organisations also tend to provide other support such as study leave to a much higher degree than agencies.

10. As working in-house is generally not as intense a vocational experience as working in an agency, you are given time to evolve your skill set and grow into your job. Billable hours is not normally a feature of working in-house, so ‘the work’ (i.e. public relations work) is far and away the focus. Whereas when working in an agency billable hours (i.e. profit) rules all other aspects and it can be troubling to have to balance the professional communication responsibilities with business efficacy responsibilities. 

11. You don’t have to spend time on new business. That. In itself. Is. A. WIN. There will be some who find the process of scoping and securing new business for an agency rewarding. Most do not. I did a Masters of Communication, for instance, to help with my ability to practice public relations. I didn’t do a Masters of Sales. I find the process enervating and boring. 

12. The strong focus on new business in an agency can generate a culture of fear. Not enough billable hours = my job is at threat = stress and uncertainty. In-house does not have this issue anywhere near as much.

13. Unless this is part of your specific role, you do not have to spend as much time on media relations as you typically do in an agency role. Media relations is rewarding, it often delivers ROI and helps achieve organisational objectives, but it is not the be-all and end all. PR is not media relations. Whilst extensive creativity, intelligence and tenacity is required to work effectively in media relations, so does it have a strong ‘sales’ (even telesales) dimension and it also becomes tiresome putting up with the scepticism and negativity of many journalists. 

14. Organisations tend to have deeper support systems and processes in place for managing employees. This is purely a small business vs large business dichotomy, but is very relevant to PR. This means that performance reviews, counselling, support, leave provisions etc tend to be much more employee-centric when working in-house.

But what do you think?

Next week I’ll explore why working in PR agencies is an awesome, galvanising and rewarding experience.

What have I missed? What else is great about working in-house in PR? Is it better than working in an agency? And even though I will list my thoughts on the advantages of agency life next week, feel free to beat me to the punch and give me your list – I’ll include your thoughts (well, if I think they’re on the money!) in my post.

In the 21^st century, PR should be leveraging its logical leadership of social media for all its worth and use it as an opportunity to position itself more favourably as a management discipline that delivers business-relevant results.

The most potent and potentially meaningful characteristic of public relations remains its ability to transform organisations so that they are more aligned with their stakeholders’ needs and wants.

No other business discipline has this capability. Social media can help it achieve this goal and it is already – partially because it is inherently a dialogic communication mechanism, rather than a broadcast one like traditional media, direct mail and sponsorship – doing this. It is in this area of transforming organisations that PR must shine and provide business worth, or else it will become marginalised.

The social media tools I use and ‘rate’

On a professional and personal level I am very comfortable with, and pretty knowledgeable about, blogs. I contribute to a couple of professional blogs, Public relations and managing reputation and Blueblog, the home of the public affairs and corporate communication consultancy, Bluegrass, I work with. I also use Twitter on a professional and personal basis, but keep Facebook pretty much for fun and personal uses.

All of these tools have professional ‘world’ potential, depending on the business objective, the target audience preferences and what you are actually communicating about. I don’t think any one of them is necessarily any more important than the other.

If you want to generalise, however, Facebook is the medium going ballistic. I am not sure why anyone would want to use Facebook to become a fan of a service or product provider, however. That seems pretty superficial to me, other than on a fun level. I can’t see how communication for a product or service on this platform can really engage and turn people into advocates, but perhaps I am being a snob. I can see its utility for the arts, cultural and sporting entities, however.

As content is really a very important issue in this Google-censored world (if you are not ranked by Google, then you may as well not, in many senses, exist – in fact, you don’t exist!), I think blogs are extremely important. They are the quickest and easiest way to update content and by doing so this means the Google spiders love you! They provide a great platform on which to exhibit thought leadership, which helps with organisational POD and reputation enhancement.

I am also a big user of LinkedIn.

Why I use LinkedIn for strategic communication

• I promote my blog posts there
• I engage in conversation with more people here than on my actual blog
• I have started using it to try to generate new business for the public affairs and corporate communication consultancy I work for, in tandem with interpersonal contact (check back with me later 2010 to see if I have any success!)
• I ask and answer questions to enhance my professional knowledge and to help out others
• I think it’s a wonderful way to make contacts, learn and to have fun with peers all over the world
• It enhances my reputation: by having others visibly associated with me; by having recommendations from peers visible; by providing a platform through which I can exhibit my experience, qualifications and thought leadership
• I have used the input of many global peers in posts I have created for my blog, enriching the content and, hopefully, making it more attractive for professional communicators
• One day I may try to leverage it further to promote any free or paid-for books or e-books/e-reports I produce.

I find it interesting, if not surprising, that many of my blog posts create more extensive conversations on LinkedIn discussion groups than on my blog. I guess LinkedIn provides a huge chat room-like environment that cuts straight to, probably, the biggest global aggregation of its blog’s target audience: PR and marketing professionals.

(I have already written about why I think why LinkedIn is a must-do for PR and marketing pros.)

Making comments in LinkedIn discussion groups is possibly more convenient than making them on my blog, though I don’t know why. If you read the post, then you have to go to the blog. Could it be that many people are making comments based on the excerpt I provide on LinkedIn, or on other people’s comments alone rather than reading the full post. Surely not…?

The main reason I think it occurs is for a mix of ego, grandstanding and networking. By commenting on LinkedIn it is more likely their peers will note their existence than if they make it on my ‘outpost’ blog. I don’t mind – many of the discussion group participants add a lot of genuine value – but of course it would generate a greater momentum and profile for my blog if the comments were primarily there and not on LinkedIn!

PR practitioners dealing with social media successfully

Students yet to enter the profession yet need to skill up in a big way whilst you are at university. Immerse, experiment and learn. Get as much practical internship experience in this area as possible.

The most important thing for any emerging professional is to get as much hands on experience as possible. Sure, get an understanding of two-way symmetrical communication and its importance to the discipline and society, but get your hands dirty and have fun.

Also, remember whatever goes online stays online. PR people need to be more careful than most to manage their professional and personal brands. If you don’t want your girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s mother reading it, don’t put it up or don’t let it be put up.

What role do you think PR will play in the 21st century?

Because of the synergy between social media and two-way symmetrical communication, public relations is the logical owner of social media from a strategic and tactical perspective, not least because dialogue and accommodation are essential to both. As such, if the profession has a gram of sense and capability, it will leverage this for all its worth and use it as an opportunity to position itself more favourably as a management discipline that delivers business-relevant results.

The underlying characteristics of PR mean that it can make a profound difference in helping society become more equitable and help protect the natural environment. We should be more assertive in claiming this ground, this opportunity and this responsibility.

Social media and CSR, two of the most important aspects of public relations, are helping to give us this opportunity.

Sally Falkow has a really useful presentation on Slideshare called Social media: the future of PR. Obviously, quite in sync with the discussion on this post, so I encourage you to check it out.

Public relations’ most potent and potentially meaningful characteristic is its ability to transform organisations so that they are more aligned with their stakeholders’ needs and wants. At the end of the day, no matter whether it is lobbying, events, community liaison, sponsorship, website content, digital and social media communication, or any of the other dimensions of public relations, transforming both organisations and their stakeholders is what PR is about.

We can always help sell more product and services, but as a profession we have the capability to leave a much greater legacy.

What use do you get out of LinkedIn? What role do you think PR will play in the 21^st century? What social media tools offer the best ROI?