Engaging (and grilling) the social side of James Grunig

NOTE: Originally published on October 15, 2008. Toni Muzi Falconi writes:  Regular readers of this blog are aware of my long-term, personal relationship with the Grunigs, yet I confess surprise when I read Jim Grunig’s first comment on this earlier blog post. As one might expect, the whole PR Conversations’ co-bloggers group—from Canada to New Zealand, South Africa to Portugal, Italy to England and Austria—agreed that it would be very interesting for all the readers...

A mindful approach to using social media as professional communicators

Over the past decade or so, public relations has been in a rollercoaster relationship with social media. Nervous initially to jump onboard, since then we’ve been up the hype cycle with several peaks of inflated expectations followed by swoops down into the trough of disillusionment. Are we currently in a valley of despair following all the shenanigans of ‘fake news’ and ‘data scandals’? Or on an upwards slope of hope driven by artificial intelligence (AI)...

Six social media and digital communications trends for 2015

One of the most enjoyable hybrid academic-practitioner experiences I have had this year has been as course leader of the PR Academy Digital Communications Certificate course. The reason is that we have been able to incorporate a lot of contemporary thinking around ways of learning as well as the emerging field of digital communications and social media. This includes blended approaches to online and offline learning (with Stuart Bruce leading a face-to-face session, alongside my...

A chicken and egg conundrum for PR careers

In the run up to Easter, here’s a chicken and egg conundrum for PR careers. Should we start out as generalists before specialising or vice versa? Does the navel gazing within PR (as noted in the interesting “Endless Fight” post and comment discussion preceding this one) – and a focus on being recognised as a profession – argue that the function is a specialism seeking exclusivity, even isolation and protection of a territory which may...

An idiot's guide to PR – lessons for SEO and digital marketing

It can be difficult to define public relations, particularly as there are different perspectives regarding what it is. However, it is much easier to give guidance on what it is not. Indeed, subscribing to the view that ‘PR is what PR does‘, the following offers an idiot’s guide to what PR is not, and what is does not do, especially for those who work in SEO and digital marketing. Rule 1: PR is not free....

School's out for social media – a PR report card

As many of us take a break for Summer, it seems a good time to produce a PR report card for its performance in social media this term. Let’s look at the four As, where I’m afraid most PR practitioners would do well to score a B- at best. Attendance: Undoubtedly, PR practitioners have taken to social media in droves over the past couple of years. The late majority has arrived in terms of those...

PRoust Questionnaire: Stuart Bruce

The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as his or her professional beliefs and values. If you are not familiar with the original 19th-century Proust Questionnaire, please see details at the end of this post. PRoust Questionnaire answers from Stuart Bruce: 1. What is your most striking characteristic as a PR practitioner? Flexibility and breadth, which doesn’t mean I’m a fat gymnast. A...

The PR impact of rejection and denial

Modern media is making it ever easier for people to reject things that they don’t want to hear. We can scan and filter out sentiments or information that we find objectionable or which doesn’t fit with our existing world view. But rather than actively assess information before accepting or rejecting it (as proposed by Social Judgement Theory) people seem increasingly to avoid, filter or deny something that they reject out of hand. The phenomenon of...

Online public relations is not that different—crowdsourcing isn’t a feasible strategy

There’s an old adage that decisions by committee really aren’t that effective, particularly as the eventual outputs and outcomes tend to be second rate. Plus no one is truly accountable or assumes an authoritative role and voice. This tends to be an internal problem, perhaps reflective of a corporate culture lacking in vision and leadership. Something similar that’s perplexed me for awhile is this nascent concept about recruiting “friends” to assist in online corporate—or, more...

The final word – why PR books still matter

When was the last time you read a public relations book? I mean a proper book with pages that you turn by hand, not a representation that you flick with a finger. A real book, where the author had to make a final decision of what to include, before the editing and printing processes committed the ideas permanently to paper. Not like a blog post or other online content that can be readily edited and...