Public Relations for Public Relations

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“The public relations industry does a terrible job of public relations.” (Wynne, 2016). I was going to try and paraphrase this quote, but then I realized that I can’t say it any better than that. It seems as though most people don’t really know what someone who works in public relations actually does. Whenever I bring up public relations to my family, I always get labeled as a “spin-doctor,” like I’m training to become some sort of master warlock who makes all of the bad things a company does disappear. It’s possible that they use the term “spin-doctor” just because they wish I was becoming a doctor of any kind, and quite frankly, I do wish that I was learning how to make things disappear, but this is Grand Valley State University, not Hogwarts.

It probably doesn’t help anyone to better understand a public relations person, when they’re not even properly represented in media. In Mordecai Lee’s study on movie depictions of public relations, he draws a few conclusions about the depictions of public relation specialists. Lee states that the majority of public relations people are male, and the movies in which they appear are disproportionately from the 1990s (Lee, 2001). Additionally, a lot of them are depicted as villains. As a man, I am heavily in the minority in all of my public relations classes, so it stands to reason, that the majority of public relations people are in fact, women. Now this could just be chalked up to the changing times, but it is still important to note. As previously stated, public relations people aren’t any eviler than your average Joe, so it is very strange that they would be represented that way.

I really like a quote from Alan Harrington which says, “Public-relations specialists make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so the wilted and less attractive petals are hidden by sturdy blooms.” (Quoted, 2007). We don’t try to be deceptive and lie to the public, but we do have to try and work with the cards (or flowers) we’re dealt. We don’t remove that bad flowers, we just try to make the good flowers more obvious. It is important, that public relations specialists correct people’s notions about public relations. Outside of people in my major, I have never heard someone say that they want to go into public relations, despite the fact that it’s a rapidly growing field, especially with the rising importance of digital marketing.

I find it ironic that people who specialize in public relations are such a mystery to the public. I dream of a world where I don’t have to describe my major to everyone I meet, and where there aren’t so many negative connotations about people who work in the field. Hopefully this change is coming, especially with the public relations field growing, like I previously mentioned. Until what public relations is becomes public knowledge, all we can do is answer the questions we are asked, and try to explain to our families and loved ones what exactly we will be doing on a daily basis.

 

Lee, M. (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration. ScienceDirect 27(3) 297-315. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811101000881.

Quoted by Auletta, K. (2007, Feb. 12). The fixer. New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/12/the-fixer.

Wynne, R. (2016, Jan. 21). Five things everyone should know about public relations. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2016/01/21/five-things-everyone-should-know-about-public-relations/#41e904112a2c.

Benefits of Research in Public Relations

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Is there anything less fun than sitting down and doing some research? Throughout my education, it feels like I’ve done hundreds of research projects, and I could count how many of them that I have enjoyed on the hand of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Research is rarely fun. It usually seems like a lot of work just to paraphrase one line, from one article on something you don’t care about. Despite my very negative attitude towards, I can recognize its importance. The biggest reason that I can give for why research is important is that you don’t want to sound like an idiot. Most people would probably word it a little differently, but that’s what it all boils down to. This applies to everything, especially public relations.

How embarrassing would it be if you went to a meeting with a client without finding any useful information? Research is really where you need to start. It’s a prerequisite for anything and everything else you need to do. In their article “Social Media Use by Public Relations Practitioners in Malaysia: An Exploratory Study,”Selvamany P. Gabriel and Chia-Hern Koh say, “The core of the PR function is best summarized as compiling information by researching all stakeholders.” While I wouldn’t go as far to say that research is the core of public relations, this just goes to show how important it is.

In the book, Primer of Public Relations Research, the author, Don Stacks, argues, “Research is essential to any public relations activity or campaign.”  (Stacks, 2016). Stacks goes on to say that research is very important to learn what you need to learn in order to help your client. The more you know, the more useful you can be. This point is furthered in an article from Fortune Public Relations, where the author lists out four of the biggest benefits that research can help you to do, which includes: “Finding your niche market… Choose your media… Build Relationships and Have a Fantastic Pitch… Be at the Cutting Edge of your Industry” (Fortune Public Relations, 2015) These are probably the most important things that you need to know in order to help your client, and they all come from research.

While research may seem very meticulous, it does have its value, especially in public relations. As someone who wants to go into public relations as a career, I need to get over my disdain for research and use it as one of my primary tools in the field. Research is incredibly valuable, and an essential part of public relations.

 

Gabriel, S. P., & Chia-Hern Koh. (2016). Social Media Use by Public Relations Practitioners in Malaysia: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Developing Areas, 50(5), 470. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/619681

Fortune Public Relations. (2015). Importance of research in PR. Retrieved from http://www.fortunepr.co.uk/blog/the-importance-of-research-in-pr/.

Stacks, D. W. (Nov. 23, 2016). Primer of Public Relations Research. Guilford Publications. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cWfSDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=research+public+relations&ots=1QNV5MNjtg&sig=UdrW-7WjQwJa0S2z4kXeOR8ymwc#v=onepage&q=research%20public%20relations&f=false.

My Thoughts on Public Relations

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Before my freshman year of college, public relations and advertising were interchangeable in my mind. That all changed once I declared public relations and advertising as my major, with an emphasis on public relations. That’s when I learned what differentiates the two. The most prominent difference is that advertising is paid for while public relations is not. Merriam-Webster defines public relations as, “the business of inducing the public to have understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm, or institution” (Public Relations, n.d.). This hints towards another difference between advertising and public relations that I came to learn in this class; public relations is more of a relationship, a form of communication between an entity and the general public. Advertising is one way, a message that an entity wants to get out to its audience.

I feel that the biggest misconception that I see and hear about the public relations field is that it’s just a bunch of “unethical spin doctors.” To be honest, this something that even I have thought at times. Then I learned about the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards, an entire board of people dedicated to ensuring that public relations remains ethical. According to the PRSA’s website, “The PRSA Code of Ethics sets out principles and guidelines that uphold the core values of the ethical practice of public relations, including advocacy, honesty, loyalty, professional development and objectivity.” (PRSA, n.d.). As anyone can see, ethics in public relations is taken very seriously. This fact undermines the stereotypical public relations spin doctors that everyone’s uncle rants about.

The biggest question I had about about public relations before my first class was this, “What exactly does a PR person do?” I had a preconceived idea that all a PR person does is tweet for a company a couple of times a day and then call it good. Last year, I began to realize that there’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes, ever tweet that is released is planned out for hours before it is even drafted, and each and every Instagram post has a planned purpose and outcome. The book, Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management says the following, “If public relations makes organizations more effective by building long-term relationships with strategic constituencies, it is only a small logical jump to deduce that public relations must participate in the organization’s strategic planning and that communication programs must be managed strategically to have that effect.” (Grunig, 2013). That’s the long way of saying that the majority of PR person’s job is strategy. This doesn’t sound as fun as what I originally thought the job would be, but I suppose that it wouldn’t make sense to hire someone just to tweet and then kick their feet up.

Those were my biggest false assumptions and questions about the public relations field before taking my first public relations class last year. I know understand public relations far better and I assume I’ll only understand it better after this semester. It’s very important for a company to have a “personality,” a brand for the public to recognize, and this might be the most important job of a PR person. The way a PR person might go about this is where the strategizing and research comes into play, and then they must decide how to approach the company’s public relations methods. Any company or other entity trying to compete in today’s world must have a great PR person/team or they will drown along with everything else that can’t get it’s name out to the public.

 

References

Grunig, J.E. (2013). Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RZKMAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA117&dq=related:VVy1638r7nwJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=sehguqKlLZ&sig=Wyd2D_bJIaRCVm8cQmFwX4W4Ftk#v=onepage&q&f=false.

PRSA. (n.d.) Ethics for an Evolving Profession. Retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/ethics/.

Public Relations. (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/public%20relations.

Blog #3

I use multiple forms of social media, multiple times a day, everyday. I have profiles on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit. FaceBook is the social media that I use the least, I only check it every couple of days. I primarily use FaceBook for connecting with family members and for being invited to events. Twitter is another social media that I check less frequently, probably only once a day or once every other day. While I use FaceBook for connecting with family, I use Twitter more for connecting with peers, specifically kids I graduated with. Even when I do check Twitter, I pretty much just search for the people I actually care about and see their updates. I check Instagram daily, and it’s the only social media that I typically see every post on. YouTube and Reddit are more for my nerd side. I check both of them multiple times throughout the day. The social medias that I actually post the most on are Reddit and Instagram.

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When I am in a business setting, I’ll have to use social media to best help the company I work for, rather than how I want to use it. Unfortunately, my favorite social medias, YouTube and Reddit, are probably the ones that I would use least in a business setting, unless I am in a position where I can make videos or commercials for YouTube.

Personal branding is how you present yourself online. My personal branding isn’t the best since I very rarely post on FaceBook, Twitter, or YouTube. Additionally, my Instagram is primarily pictures of my fiancée and I, because I’m not really a picture taker, so those are the only pictures I have, which doesn’t give much insight into me. My Reddit, would probably give the most insight, but it’s all super nerdy stuff, so I never promote it. If I wanted to brand myself better, I would have to post more across all of my social media platforms, with a wider variety of posts.

Blog #2

There are many different platforms that can be used to create digital visuals. Some of the more popular ones include Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Each of these platforms is unique and is most efficient for different tasks. For example, Photoshop is best for altering an already created image (Pluralsight). At this point, Photoshop has pretty much become synonymous with image altering, and that’s because it is a very popular platform for many individuals, both professionally and personally. Additionally, Photoshop is entirely pixel based, you change images by altering the pixels.

Illustrator is arguably the best platform for creating new images. Illustrator uses a complex vector system which is too complicated for me, quite frankly. That being said, this system allows the user to create images with much more ease and precision than they could do on Photoshop. The vector system used by Illustrator is in contrast with Photoshop’s pixel based system.

A third platform for creating digital media is InDesign. InDesign is best for creating something with either multiple pages or lots and lots of words. This makes InDesign ideal for magazines and pamphlets and things of that nature. InDesign is actually best when used in tangent with one of the other platforms like Photoshop or Illustrator. You could create an image on Illustrator and then put it into InDesign and not have to worry about your vector mumbo jumbo getting messed up.

So once you have your image or digital flyer created, you’ll need to make sure people see it, specifically when they’re scrolling through some sort of social media platform. Probably the most important thing, is making sure that it’s eye catching. When people are quickly scrolling through their Twitter or Instagram feed, you need to make sure that whatever you’ve created really grabs them. Also, it should be fairly comprehensive. Someone might only look at your post for two seconds, so you want to make sure they get the jist of it very quickly. Other than that, the same rules apply to social media posts that apply to anything else, just make sure it is appropriate for the situation and looks good.

Works Cited

Pluralsight. “What’s the Difference Between Photoshop and Illustrator?” Pluralsight.com, 19 July 2014, http://www.pluralsight.com/blog/creative-professional/whats-difference-photoshop-illustrator.

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