Posted on PR Mediums

A cautionary conversation about PR and social media, part I

With Twitter recently turning five years old, PR Conversations feels it’s time to consider whether it – and other social media platforms – are now serious channels for public relations. Judy Gombita and Heather Yaxley share their views in a two-part blog post. We’re in agreement that 2011 is definitely the year when there will be a tipping point with organizations taking a more serious look at social media, across the generations. This view appears...

Posted on PR Motion

PR – it's a woman's world

It is nearly 25 years since the publication of Cline’s ‘Velvet Ghetto’ study of women in public relations which responded to the increasing feminisation of the occupation.  Undeniably today, the field is one dominated by women – indeed, based on my UK experience, 90% of the students on undergraduate PR degree courses and studying for professional qualifications are female. Both professional bodies here have women in senior positions: Sally Costerton (chairman and CEO of Hill...

Posted on PR Axis

The serious business of public relations

It is interesting that the word ‘consultant’ derives from the Latin, consultare, meaning to debate or discuss.  That implies its function is to assist in two-way communications – yet, the role of management consultancy is positioned as assisting organizations to improve performance, through logical analysis and development of plans.  The focus is more on management rather than consultancy. The history of management consultancy is tied closely to analytical processes and a rational, scientific approach to...

Posted on PR Nexus

Tiny bites of differentiation, feeding the business body and soul

Cross-posted from Ellen (Elli) St. George Godfrey’s Ability, Success Growth blog, this is the “framing” post for this week’s #kaizenblog chat (where I’m joining regular host, Elli, as the guest moderator). This is not a typical PR Conversations post, but it does fall within the areas of “reflect a wide variety of voices” (i.e., including boundary spanning beyond traditional public relations) and “bring a sense of fun and excitement into debate” as per Our Vision...

Posted on PR Sphere

War Child Canada's creative fight for attention

Madeline Lunney interviews James Topham, War Child Canada’s director of communications and marketing Backgrounder Inspired by altruism, faith, family or end-of-year taking stock (and income tax receipts), the majority of people in Canada choose December to make financial contributions to charities. Realizing this, some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) run special, targeted campaigns during the holidays. Others anticipate that their outreach and communication efforts carried out throughout the year will have an impact. Whether a short- or...

Posted on PR Vision

PR lessons from 2010 – the year of the mega crisis

Undoubtedly 2010 has been the year of the mega crisis, which as the Guardian’s City editor, Richard Wachman recently commented [when talking about BP’s reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill] provide ‘a textbook example of how not to do things and will be studied by students of PR for years to come’. Not suprisingly, the PR advice from Wachman is to be high profile and apologise.  If only life was that simple –...

Posted on PR Sphere PRoust Questionnaire

PRoust Questionnaire: Peter V. Stanton

The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as their 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. 1. What is your most striking characteristic as a PR practitioner? The belief that I set and adhere to a high ethical standard. 2. What is your principal fault as...

Posted on PR Motion

Facing up to the PR talent challenge

One of the interesting outcomes of my position on the boundary of PR academia and practice is that I’m often asked for recommendations about finding PR talent. This frequently applies to recruiting placement students (interns) or young graduate practitioners.  However, at the PR career starting point, there are many who advocate a specialist degree is not important.  For example, a study by the PRCA in 2009 found three-quarters of its PR Leaders’ panel were unimpressed...

Posted on PR Vision

Sliding doors: Italian PR

By Toni Muzi Falconi Way back in 1983, the young Italian sociologist, Emanuele Invernizzi (current president of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (Euprera), carried out on behalf of the Italian Federation of Public Relations (Ferpi) his first research project in the public relations domain, titled “Terziario Avanzato e Nuove Professioni: il caso delle rp,” published by Franco Angeli Editore. (The English translation is “Advanced tertiary sector: the case of PR.”) He researched...

Posted on PR Mediums

Engineering Search: The story of the algorithm that changed the world

New radio documentary from Ira Basen airs on December 5th This coming Sunday (December 5th), a new, one-hour documentary is set to air on CBC Radio One’s The Sunday Edition. Engineering Search: The story of the algorithm that changed the world, tracks the evolution of search engine optimization, particularly in regards to Google. More details are found below. Update: The online version of Engineering Search now available from a dedicated CBC website page. The producer and...