Redefining Public Relations

 

The profession of Public Relations is changing. The industry is figuring out how to redefine that change. PR still has roots in the news, persuasion and crisis management, no doubt. But PR 2.0 of course-includes the internet, social media, blogs, tweets, likes, page views, pod casts, videos and more. For decades the process of communicating messages of companies to the public traditionally went one way. The former monologue is now a dialogue.

“In a world where the ordinary consumer is walking around with global publishing power in his or her pocket,” said Dan Tisch, chairman of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management in a recent article by the New York Times, “the role of public relations and corporate communications has shifted from creating content to attempting to influence the content that’s created by others [1]”.

The effort to redefine PR is led by the Public Relations Society of America, where a section of their site recently went live, prdefinition.prsa.org, encouraging visitors to submit their suggestion of what PR is. Suggestions may be submitted until December 2nd. The organization hopes to choose a winner by the end of the year.

We see this change as an opportunity for our clients. Loaded Creative and our strategic partners not only reach out to newspapers and other print media, but we embrace conversations with consumers through social media.

How do you define PR of the 21^st century? How have you seen PR contribute to your company or organization through techniques initiated by your company or the consumer his or herself?

Link:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/media/redefining-public-relations-…

 

The New Normal: On Succeeding

The world economy has had a few rough years. Getting back to normal takes time. Brian Bronaugh, President and Executive Creative Director of Mullen’s Pittsburgh office, shared ideas on how to succeed regardless.

“Everyone’s feeling it. This is the new normal” said Bronaugh at the October 20th i99 Ad Club event. Here are a few ways Bronaugh offered attendees to make lemonade out of lemons.

DIVERSIFY what your offerings can be: 

Find different ways to do what we do. Craft things. Be able to wear many hats. Being good at it all helps in remaining flexible and staying on top of the ever changing possibilities of promotion. Bronaugh highlighted on a creative agency that built a street painting device. They painted contest-winning twitter posts of encouragement from fans on the roads of a professional bike race. They got creative. 

 

SWITCH it up: 

Don’t get stuck in patterns. Don’t get too comfortable. Tangible ways that Bronaugh implements this mindset is to have his employees change offices every so often, encouraging employees of different departments to connect with one another. Employees cross paths with different people every day. Also, the team has weekly meetings 

to share interesting observations they have had. Open your eyes to keep things fresh. Notice anything new lately?

 

Words are MOST important: 

Words are the single most critical way to communicate. Humans love stories. We love listening to them. We love sharing them. How to tell your clients’ stories are crucially dependent upon the words you use. You may not need to use many, but they are nonetheless most important.

Have you learned of a strategy or tactic that has brought forth change and success for you, your company, or organization?