PR practitioners should do what's right

The realm of public relations is a delicate one that consists of many networks and intricacies. PR professionals have to convey messages for clients, keep the client’s publics in mind and maintain goodwill throughout the process.

A professor of mine said we must broker goodwill, and that message stuck to me. She said PR practitioners do what is right because it is what’s best for both parties. In doing so, PR professionals will establish goodwill.

James Hoggan applies the same message in the book “Do The Right Thing.”

Hoggan said there are three guiding rules when it comes to doing the right thing: 1) Do the right thing, 2) Be seen doing the right thing, and 3) Don’t get #1 and #2 mixed up.

The emergence of digital media has changed the way messages are sent out, and PR professionals have to be aware of it. They should be clear on their intentions and concise with delivering their message across all platforms.

There have been numerous public figures whose reputation has been stained due to social media. Twitter, for example, is a medium in which celebrities, politicians, athletes, etc. have taken a public hit.

Numerous people have had messages disseminated via social media that has harmed their reputation.

The successful PR professionals are the ones how are consistent across all platforms when they deliver messages. The must do what is right in the public and be seen doing so.

They shouldn’t do so because they want to be seen doing it, but they should be seen doing it because have good intentions. I think the people who are successful in public relations are the ones who can consistently apply these principles.

The Social Media Guide

Each student in our Research and Strategies class had to select a social media site to present to the class. Our assignment was to select a site that could benefit our peers and show them how the site can be beneficial from a PR aspect.

I chose Mashable for my site and showed my classmates how it can help us in public relations. I like mashable.com because it condenses news and blog content from the all over the web into one platform.

Mashable is particularly beneficial because it has mobile apps through subscribers can receive live updates on any topics of interest without having to jump onto a computer. It is a very convenient way to stay updated with news and inform all over the world.

Mashable, “the social media guide,” has a strong presence on Twitter as well and provides readers with yet another avenue to keep up with the news. The topics range from technology to sports, and from social media to entertainment.

This site can help PR professionals from a competition standpoint, and it is great for generating feedback for clients. Mashable posts stories and blogs about new products and technology.

PR companies can use Mashable to find out what products their competitors are releasing and what the consumers think of it. It is a new way to gather information.

Oh, How The Tables Have Turned!

The advent of social media has created a drastic shift in corporate communication. The most intriguing aspect of public relations is that it can be applied anywhere, on any platform.

As companies try to keep up with the vast switch from traditional to digital and mobile communication, they are going to need experts who know how to get their message across most effectively.

PR practitioners are the masters of communication. Regardless of which medium is used, an effective PR professional has to be able to clearly distribute the client’s message and keep its target publics in mind. From news to politics, to sports and entertainment, there seems to be a growing demand for communication professionals.

Social media encompass all facets of communication (writing, speaking and listening) and in some magnitude; most major media corporations have taken part in it. As an aspiring PR professional, I value the art and science of communication and one day I hope to master it.

The challenging part of PR and social media is finding a niche, target audience and proper medium to disseminate an intended message. Twitter, facebook, skype, fring, mashable, youtube and howcast are terrific mediums to obtaining information; but each medium has its own advantages. However, the challenge is determining which platform to use when broadcasting information.

Newspaper articles that were once printed on hard copy are now tweeted to phones and mobile devices. Newscasts that used to be aired on television are now uploaded to the web for instant access. The public expects to receive information more quickly as a result; which in turn, increases the demand for social media.

News corporations are at the forefront of this push for social media and the public is receiving information from a variety of different sources. The masters of the social media epidemic are the ones who can use all their platforms and essentially communicate to anyone, about any topic, on any forum.

ESPN is a terrific example of a brand that knows exactly what effective communication entails.

ESPN recruiters spoke to our Research and Strategies class about career opportunities and they informed students about what their company is doing to stay ahead of the social media curve.

ESPN showed students that social media are not limited to facebook and twitter. Every message has to have an audience and the people at ESPN have conceived several innovative tactics that can be applied to any company with a message.

For example, ESPN has specific, local websites for fans to keep up with the action from their favorite teams. Websites such as espndeportes.com, espnchicago.com and espndallas.com provide their subscribers with filtered information that solely pertains to what the readers want to hear about.

Narrowing an intended audience is great strategy that the folks at ESPN use, and other companies should follow suit. Social media are all around us, but it is up to us to learn how to master it and optimize its capabilities.

People Helping People

Our public relations research and strategy class recently completed the book, “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell. The book described social epidemics and it provided clear examples of how to relay messages to target audiences.

Gladwell introduced rules and theories that he believed best described the communication process. Moreover, he illustrated concrete models of effective marketing and branding that relate with the realm of public relations.

According to Gladwell, a social phenomenon does not happen on accident. Social epidemics can often be associated with effective PR campaigns, in the sense that they both take an adequate amount of research, planning and execution. Gladwell showed that in order to effectively distribute a message, everything and everybody has to be in place.

People often underestimate the power of relationships, but Gladwell went into great detail in his book and explained how crucial it is to develop quality relationships. It is not enough to just know people anymore, in this digital age where social media is prevalent. As aspiring public relations practitioners, we are faced with the challenge of having to know the right people.

Gladwell suggested there are three key people who control epidemics that are spread via “word-of-mouth.” Those people are the mavens, connectors and salesmen; while they all play a significant role in the communication process, they also differ from one another.

The mavens and the connectors, in my opinion, serve the most important functions, which are to gather the information and target the proper audiences, respectively. The salesman differs from the maven and connector because he (or she) has to have the gift to persuade. The salesman has to be able to sell ideas, messages and products to particular audiences.

They may appear as three separate entities, but with those three people in place, messages can get to audiences much more effectively. This book provided plenty of insight on how to maximize connections with peers and co-workers in order to disperse information.

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