Hello all!!
It’s week 3 in my Leadership and Media class and this week’s topic is all about PR agents and how they can help promote a business, company, or government sector.
Let’s begin, shall we?
As you all know, one of my career goals is to become a PR agent and to have a PR agency. I love the world of Public Relations especially when it pertains to the world of media and entertainment. During this week, I researched the role of a PR team. I did alot of reading that discussed how PR is still needed in today’s society. Many people think that all PR people do is answer telephone calls and manage social media pages for a company. As a Public Relations Coordinator for a small business, I can tell you that we do a lot more than that. It is our main goal to make our companies and employers look good to the public. It is out job to make the public feel good about the products that said company is selling to their clients. We have to make everyone look their best and mediate any problem that arises. We are modern-day superheroes, and the world needs us. Ok, I know that sounded a little corny, but you will see what I mean as we go along this blog post.
According to http://www.poynter.org/, the jobs of PR people and journalists are to:
-
“Know your audience. The reader is no longer your primary target. In PR, it’s a combination of client, employer and a variety of new audiences that can shift daily. Your storytelling skills will be invaluable, but so will your ability to change directions at a moment’s notice.
-
Understand the short- and long-term business implications of your work. If you work at a PR agency, you will be making hundreds of decisions a day on behalf of clients. Not every decision will be grand, but each will impact the client’s business. A mistake in an article you write may lead to a correction in the next day’s paper; a mistake in a new business pitch could cost your employer hundreds of thousands of dollars.
-
Know, respect and appreciate PR’s ethics code. Like journalism, our profession is based on stringent ethical standards. We expect every professional to uphold those standards.”
That article’s main focus was to differentiate the role of a Journalist and Publicist, but both professionals go by the same rules. We are all playing the same game, just on different teams. Another article I read stated that PR is not a dying art form. As I stated above, we are heavily needed in today’s society. There are companies that need PR people to ensure that their company’s well-being and public persona remains in tact. Do you know what happens to companies without PR teams or that have terrible publicity? Well, I do not know either. It it likely that they have faded into oblivion which was caused by a terrible scandal.
During this week’s discussion, my classmates and I were stating different ways that companies can utilize strategic communication professionals such as ourselves, in order to improve their established image. Needless to say, my classmates and I came up with TONS and TONS and TONS of solutions for that one question. Another question we were discussing was this: how can companies use online platforms to further their business? Here are a few of my tips that coincide with the quoted article above:
1. Develop professional social media pages: Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn are all greats social media pages that are used to promote people and their business.
2. Designate a set PR Team: Get a good group of creative PR people to manage those pages and your image. You may think that you can do the work yourself, but it will be a huge task. Trust me, you will need them to do that you cannot do. They will see things that you will not. They will come up with innovative ways to promote your business.
3. FILTER: I am not just talking about those filters that help our selfies look their best on Instagram. I am taking about filtering out all unneeded and mostly negative info that can sneak its way on your social media page. It can and will happen. And when it does, STOP IT! Negative social media posts by a companies’ employees or one viral YouTube video concerning said employees or company will cause a CEO’s hard work to crumble like a foil house. Trust me when I say, I have seen some pretty bad statuses and videos about companies via their employees. It is not a good look for anyone involved.
According to http://cdn2.hubspot.net/ “People have always said good – and bad – things about brands, and now that social media has risen in popularity, it means people have another platform to talk about your company and products/services. The major difference, however, is in the viral nature of this platform. When someone mentions your brand in social media, there is much more potential for other people to notice, and it‟s monumentally easier for conversations to spread much more quickly and easily. In addition, these conversations have the potential to reach a much larger audience than ever before. If your company is not participating in social media today, it‟s missing an opportunity to spread its message and missing valuable – and even damaging – conversations that could be taking place about your brand.”
There is a place for PR in this world and it is now involving social media. As strategic communication professionals, our job is to stay one step away of our competition and to dominate the social media playing field-with all fairness of course. Just don’t “accidentally” knock someone’s tooth out while playing this aggressive game, ok? If you do that, you will be all good in my book. All joking aside, PR is needed and wanted. We must filter out the bad, be honest with the public and represent those companies we work for to the fullest. And of course you must look good at all times. As the saying goes, “a PR agent’s work is never done, darling.” 😉
-Shenika(THE Strategic Communication Professionalist aka THE Ms. Communicator.)
*The image above is no-way affiliated with or own by this blog or SRW Ent.
*Link to quoted article #1 : http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/142682/why-journalists-dont-always-make-the-best-pr-pros/
*Link to quoted article #2: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/docs/hubspot_social_media_pr_ebook.pdf
Ms. Communicator 