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Social media has become a prevalent part of public relations practice. Research and observation suggest young public relations practitioners are often the ones to perform social media tasks. Guided by literature on public relations roles, millennials, and pigeon-holing, this qualitative study explored whether new professionals are in fact relegated to being social media practitioners. Analysis revealed several factors, including agency billing rates, mentorship, and personal attributes, which impact the tasks new professionals are assigned....
Key Findings
- Several participants admitted that they used social media for one-way message dissemination, although they recognized that this might not be the best use of such platforms.
- Although many participants spent more time on social media than they did on traditional tasks, very few of them did social media exclusively.
- Many participants attributed their social media use to agency billing rates, rather than specialized expertise. Senior practitioners have higher billing rates that do not fit into the client budgets allocated for social media.
- Several young practitioners discussed the role of mentorship in their professional development. Those with strong mentors and advocates shared more diverse professional experience.
In an age of public conversations, ethical decision making and accurate communications are top of mind for the PR professional. With the public accessing social media for their news and information, the topic of ethics is even more prominent.
The major professional associations provide a Code of Ethics to educate and guide PR professionals on the subject. However, with the shifting media landscape and technology advancing rapidly, communications ethics are challenged....
No kid dreams of being a PR person. And trust me, no PR practitioner wants his kids to follow in his footsteps either. Instead, most of us, I suspect, discover the field by accident.... Here’s the point, or, more like the paradox. Tech PR has never been both less important and more important than it is today. It’s seen as a commodity business, retainers are frozen or have actually decreased, with some clients asking for success fees (kind of like going to a contingency lawyer). It has been overtaken by social, search, and Google analytics. In its insecurity, PR tries to act more like a science than the art it really is, and comes up with KPIs (key performance indicators) to prove its value and keep away the dreaded 30-day termination notice. The PR training courses (from writing to client management) at Burson are now a relic, as the bean counters, squeezing all the billable hours, have no time to educate the young generation and instead throw them straight into the fire....
If you work in public relations (or are a business or marketing client who works with PR practitioners), you know full well the industry has been morphing and changing at a rapid rate. However, what might not be fully apparent is how deeply and radically things have changed as the industry adapts to a real-time hyper-connected environment. The infographic below - produced by Beth Monaghan and her company Inkhouse Media + Marketing - shows the profound impact new media and social technologies have had on the PR profession....
Lark: Creative agencies still want to spend all the money on TV The chief marketing officer of CommBank has warned the public relations industry... Lark said that many PR agencies were not maximising their strategic and creative capabilities and said that creative agencies were a threat. “You should be the owners of content, you should be developing content and managing communities, driving conversations… but I’m terrified as a recovering PR that you won’t get with the program,” he said. L ark held a senior role in the US at PR agency agency Fleishman-Hillard. He was also chairman of the juries for the CommsCon Awards. He cited PR agency One Green Bean’s recent campaign around the Commonwealth Bank’s Kaching app as an example of where an agency – led by executive creative director Kat Thomas – was using its strategic and creative muscle....
...We, as public relations professionals, are trained and empowered to help clients or employers reach a level of understanding with their stakeholders…their target audiences…that can pave the way for better relationships, better cooperation, and better success.
When you take all that into consideration, there is a lot to be proud of.
From the Olympics to presidential elections and enough headlines and scandals to entertain us for years to come, 2012 was a busy year for public relations professionals. Fortunately, for those looking to break into the business and those hoping to move up, job prospects continue to look promising for 2013. A new research study by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) highlighted the top 18 occupations with the most growth (most added jobs) since 2010. With 8,541 jobs added over the past two years, Public Relations Specialist snagged a place at #13 for the best jobs of 2013. This year, we can expect a continuation of this trajectory, especially if PR proceeds to gain leeway in the battle against marketing and others over control of social media....
Public relations professionals who have provided ethics counsel to senior management are at least as fervent about serving the public interest -- sometimes even more so -- as they are about their duty to their organizations, according to a Baylor University researcher. A new study of 30 senior public relations professionals, most of whom had served as an "organizational conscience," showed the individuals viewed themselves as an "independent voice" in the organization and not "mired by its perspective or politics," said study author Marlene S. Neill, Ph.D., a lecturer in the department of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences....
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) today issued a statement condemning the unethical communication practices of Mike Winder, mayor of West Valley City, Utah. Mr. [Speaking of bad PR... JD]
Is traditional PR dead? What role does social media play? I remember conversations a few years back when I sat around a table with a group of colleagues and asked “is traditional PR dying?” With the declining newspaper industry, and increasing digital world, it seemed that traditional PR may go by the wayside. I’m happy to report that it is not dead. But it definitely is evolving....
A very thoughtful post on the future of PR by Heather Yaxley... The answer: “I don’t know – I’ll get back to you on that”. This joke is a reminder of the importance of having a solid understanding of your subject matter in PR practice. This is the topic of my second post looking at the future of work in public relations. When looking at the traditional academic models of working in PR, a division is made between manager and technician. The distinction here is between having the competencies (behaviour patterns that reflect knowledge and skill) to conceptualise and direct PR activities or to carry out communications activities at the behest of others. Knowledge and skills tends to be PR specific (albeit with relevant administrative expertise for the more senior role). Expertise is emphasised in media relations, communications and relationship management; alongside competency in planning, implementing, and (at least in theory) evaluating PR programmes....
What struck me recently in conversation with a few thoughtful PR pros was that we should be concentrating on adding values as well as value to programs. When you look at a grove of old growth trees do you see value or values? That may define the true PR professional...
Ethics: The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. This small six-letter word packs a whole lot of meaning behind it, particularly in the PR and journalism world....
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Even as economic power has become increasingly concentrated in large corporations, communication power has become more diffuse. Most of us now carry global publishing power in our pockets, and we are connected to one another like never before. This combination of access and interconnection gives us the ability to make or break reputations and brands.
For the last two years, I’ve had a unique vantage point on this tumultuous change, as chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the confederation of the world’s PR and communications professional associations.Professional business communicators are on the front lines of the communications revolution. The Global Alliance represents 160,000 practitioners and academics around the globe and I’ve been able to meet thousands of communicators on every continent, from at least 30 different countries and many different cultures. Based on that experience, I can share a few insights about how communication is changing the world of business — and how business communication itself must change as a consequence....
...Traditionally, the ROI of PR that focused on Old Media was measured by a simple comparison of the size and number of mentions in a publication to the cost of advertising for that placement. What’s more, retaining an Old Media PR firm tended to cost upwards of $5,000 per month on a 6-month agreement with no guarantees. In short, calculating ROI for Old Media PR was crude and relied on a lot of ifs. Enter New Media PR. With the ever-growing fragmentation in how we consume media, it only makes since for PR firms to focus on serving content in real-time via the litany of technologies that allow for media consumption. What’s more, ROI is much more easily calculable. Where Old Media PR left a lot of ifs, New Media PR offers more substance. Need to know how many people read your press release online? Wondering how many Twitter followers you gained after an Internet-based publicity stunt? Done and done, all at the drop of a hat. Old Media PR isn’t dead, but it’s on the way out. New Media PR is the future. Adapt or die....
Are London and New York still the dominant worldwide hubs of PR? Why do certain parts of the world lead in PR?... ... Today’s digital media means it is less vital to be close to key media producers, but agencies have yet to move out of New York. One reason is because of the other businesses located there. Yann explains: “There is a concentration of major global firms and brands. New York remains home to 42 corporations listed on the Fortune 500, making prospecting and networking geographically convenient and advantageous.” And because New York is a buzzing city, it attracts talent, as Yann says: “The same things that draw tourists from the world over to New York – world-class cultural attractions, Broadway entertainment and dining – make it a sought-after destination for young professionals and a rich source of diverse local talent.” Why London rules London is also a centre of media, business and culture, which explains why it has such worldwide PR force. One way that the UK is different from other countries is the style of its media....
Hubspot managed (under the stewardship of my friend Laura Pistachio Fitton) to completely surprise me today with a custom care package delivered to my door. ... One of the clear opportunities of social media is that we all have a chance to be more human brands, and that applies whether you’re in marketing, in PR, or in any kind of business online. I also love that Laura took the opportunity to practice some “real-time PR” or “real-time outreach,” delivering the right thing to me at the right time. Skeptics might argue that this kind of outreach isn’t scalable… and maybe it’s not. But what is scalable is the notion of listening, empathizing, and responding....
Major companies and big media bring financial rewards to pros in the Northeast and on the Pacific Coast, a PR Daily survey shows. ... The recruiting challenge is just one result of regional salary variations—a matter explored by the PR Daily Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey of 2,787 industry professionals ranging from associates to company presidents and chief executives. The online survey showed that the Northeast and West Coast mostly dominated the high salary categories, with one possible outlier in the upper range, the Midwest. Respondents to the questionnaire on PR salary and job satisfaction largely came from the U.S. and Canada, with contingents from Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Africa. ...
FOR every reporter employed in America, around six people work in public relations: a few too many, some might think. But it was not like that when Daniel Edelman launched his PR firm in Chicago in 1952, a time when the job mostly involved writing speeches for the chief executive, putting out press releases and taking journalists to lunch. Mr Edelman, who died on January 15th, aged 92, was a pioneer, introducing innovations that reflected his bigger vision of PR as a more effective way to market a company’s reputation and brands than its fancier (and costlier) big brother, advertising. His role in creating the modern PR business, which spans everything from crisis management to political lobbying, is described in a new book, “Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations”, by Franz Wisner....
I was fascinated by a new global study of trends in public relations by the University of Alabama Plank Center. The study, authored by Dr. Bruce Berger, reveals digital, gender and generational shifts that may give my generation of PR leaders heartburn. His research identifies 10 critical issues. The real news in the report though is its in-depth look at gender and generational gaps in our profession on these important issues. We’re not going to like what the next generation thinks about the current generation of PR leaders. Berger’s report says: “Leaders drink too much of their own Kool-Aid. Leaders and followers hold different views about the 10 most important issues, how future leaders should be developed, and the extent to which their organizations support two-way communication and shared power. Their views diverge even more regarding the quality of leadership performance. Leaders often rate their own performance higher than do their followers, but the divide between the two in this study is Grand-Canyon sized—a very steep, very deep divide. Many participants also rated the organizational CEO’s understanding of communication higher than they rated the performance of the communication leader.”... [Makes interesting reading especially for today's PR leaders who may have missed the memo...~ Jeff]
As an industry PR is challenged: it struggles with who we are, what we do and how to measure our work. It should be no surprise then that there’s a great deal of discrepancy to be found in the methods and results of sizing up the PR industry.
Case in point? The latest VSS Communications Industry Forecast: “The only Traditional Marketing segment to outperform the economy, Public Relations & Word-of-Mouth Marketing, will see CAGR of 14.0% in the forecast period to $10.96 billion in 2015, as the role of PR in integrated marketing campaigns expands and social media fuels gains in WoMM spending.”...
That was the question posed by PRNewswer Editor Tonya Garcia in an article about what she called the "ongoing feud" between the J.R. To answer Ms. Garcia’s question, yes, I am tired of it. PRSA members also are tired of it, especially those who have been personally targeted by Publisher Jack O’Dwyer, but more on that later. The latest shotgun blast in this “feud” stems from PRSA’s decision not to extend press credentials to Mr. O’Dwyer, which would have allowed him to “report” on our Leadership Assembly meeting and International Conference, which took place Oct. 15-18, in Orlando, Fla....
What’s the state of public relations jobs in the last quarter of 2011 and looking ahead to 2012? In a word – opportunities. All created by a ‘perfect storm’ of social media, business hiring to stay competitive and retirements generating new public relations jobs. As I carried out research for my new book, four factors caught my attention...
Check out this infographic for a brief history of top PR campaigns. Their success indicates that the principles of PR remain the same.
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Research indicates juniors get social media role because of lower billing rates for social media functions. Iandicates PR agencies aand organizations haven't bought into the value of social media.