It’s hideous to countenance the possibility that corporate social responsibility has been a passing fashion for public relations, for its diminishing profile in business communication has struck me as both mystifying and disappointing. A new study underlining the impact that CSR has on perceptions of the reliability of a company’s products will hopefully contribute to getting the discipline back on PR’s agenda.

Marketing should be the brains of the outfit, including a deep concern for customer relationships. Marketing, in an ideal scenario, should provide clear direction for any communications function, including PR.

PRs, of all people, should not take things at face value. Supposedly, there’s a crisis of trust in society. The way to fix it, we are told, is to advocate more transparency, more corporate responsibility, more fairness and better corporate governance. Let’s plaster the whole edifice with apple pie whilst we’re at it. But is there really a crisis of trust? Or are we in danger of making the wrong diagnosis and recommending the wrong remedies?

Letter to my readers: I am extremely happy – oh, okay thrilled then – to introduce you to a free report I’ve coordinated and edited: Public relations 2011: issues, insights and ideas. The report’s 15 articles discuss topics such as why PR agencies lead and in-house practitioners follow, why working in PR is a waste of space if you want to change organisations/society for the better, why more theory – not less – will benefit the industry and the fallacy of transparency being necessary for best practice PR.

Drawing an ethical or moral line in the sand for which organisations it is appropriate for me, as a public relations professional, to work with or for has long been something I have agonised over. I have refused to work with tobacco and gambling organisations in the past, yet have been comfortable working with a nuclear reactor and high-greenhouse gas emitting companies. Is there a line that PR should not cross…tobacco, gambling, petrol…name your ‘poison’?

Along with eye-rolling, can-you-believe-it dumb marketing and/or PR moments in 2009 (think loser marketers, the GFC and social media) there have, thankfully, been plenty of inspirational examples of best practice professional communication too. Most importantly, what have we learnt during the year and how will it make us better communicators?

An organisation should customise stakeholder communication in respect of, and in response to, stakeholders’ core values. This means aligning an organisation with societal and stakeholder expectations. This is often driven by CSR and thought leadership which, when strategically applied, will lessen the impact of a crisis and lead to a faster ‘reputational’ recovery post-crisis. All of which will be enhanced by the involvement of a best practice public relations professional.

Public relations is both a positive social force and a facilitator for helping positive social forces take place. Climate change is a perfect example of how public relations can make, and help make, a positive difference to the world. This post discusses how this can occur at both a strategic and tactical level.

Looking at social media as both an awareness and fund raising tool among not-for-profits (NFPs). Key reasons for this are social media’s: Interactivity, mass communication/reach, ‘instantaneousnous’, anonymity and its transactional dimension.

Marketing has not always had the best interests of society at heart. Social media is helping to change this. Marketers face a great many moral challenges in formulating and promoting products and services. They frequently fail in meeting these moral challenges.