❈ The Reality - Public Relations' Responsibilities

Remember PRSA?

Ya, this PRSA. 

 (I don't know why when I googled 'PRSA' to get images, a bunch of pictures of women clad in bras popped out! NSFW man!) 

Yes, so, according to them once more, Public Relations comprises of several duties such as: 

-Anticipating, analyzing, and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues.

-Counseling management within the organisation with regard to the company's policies and rules.

-Researching, conducting and evaluating programs of action and communication to achieve the informed public understanding. 

-Planning and implementing the organisation's works to influence public policy. 

-Planning, budgeting, recruiting, and training staff.

In America's Job Exchange Website, they presented a PR specialist's job description.

Here's a list of other responsibilities a PR practitioner has to execute:
-Plan & direct PR programs that is capable of maintaining a favorable public image for the client/ company.
-Create marketing and promotional materials (print & electronic)
-Copyedit, proofread, and revise communications.
-Design and launch e-mail marketing campaigns.
-Recommend, implement and maintain site design and operation.
-Work with manager and business units to determine event budget and manage expenses to that budget.
-Promote products and services through pr initiatives.

-Develop marketing communications campaigns.
-Create and deliver press releases, media relations content, case studies, white papers, executive bios, corporate newsletter content, social media content, and speaking proposals.
-Develop fresh story ideas.
-Prepare briefing materials.
-Identify , develop and execute communications strategy for key media contacts and customer references.
-Help to clarify the organisation's point of view to their main constituencies.


Anddddd according to the Learn.org website, it states that a PR specialist generally works for an organisation by helping to maintain a positive image to the publics. ( This sentence would sound familiar by now.) The most typical jobs for a PR specialist are : 

i) Writing Press Releases- Press releases focus on a manufacturer's product or product development, a government official's response to a public policy issue, or a company's internal business policies. It is normally short but provides enough of the necessary information to persuade an editor to release that information. This way, your news gets out and it will reach a mass audience.

ii) Developing Media Contacts- Editors and producers are the ones who decide whether your release will be printed or broadcasted. It will be helpful to develop a network circle of editors and/or producers who will be receptive toward your press releases because they know your work is well-written and researched.

iii) Planning Events- PR specialists are responsible for planning the venue of events, designing and constructing a display, and coordinating and recruiting other organisations to participate in an event. In these events/conventions, products and services are usually displayed to the public eye. By maintaining a good relationship with your client, it will increase the chances of that individual in relying on your expertise in forming a public image. 



Looking at all these job responsibilities, it seems like a PR specialist has so many different and diversed skills to adopt and practice. And to think that I had once thought that PR was all fun and games! Heck, no. It is a rather challenging and hectic, but active job lifestyle. You go from writing press releases to actually planning an event. It's kinda like...'it escalated quickly' sort of feel because the jobs are quite different from one another. 

However, my perspective (when I've started taking PR classes) and the reality of PR is similar with one another because, you will notice a lot of repetitions like, "PR helps maintain good relationship with the public," or "PR helps to build a company's reputation," or "PR has many different jobs and responsibilities." Haha, but no, seriously, the reality of PR is all about maintaining good image in the publics' eyes, building the company's reputation, creating new events to increase brand exposure/advertising, recognizing their internal and external publics and handling them well, functioning with effective management and leadership roles, and many more as stated. 






Well, I hope you had fun reading my posts and maybe learned a few things from it. 

See you next time!

♔Reality-Internal & External Publics

After doing some research on the Web, the publics of public relations refer to the people/audiences who are interested in an organisation (Lyngdoh, 2014); including current customers, employees, management, investors, suppliers, etc. Publics can either be internal (within an organisation) or external (not within an organisation). 

Internal Public

Internal Public Relations are a special PR discipline that ensures good communication among the management and the employees within an organisation (Lyngdoh, 2014). They provide accurate information to the employees and help boost their morale. 

Who are the internal publics of an organisation? 

i)Stakeholders/ Investors - They are the legal owner of the company as they provide finances to the company either as shareholder or as long-term or short-term creditor (Lyngdoh, 2014). Shareholders deserve and will most probably get a fair amount of good treatment, accurate information, and transfers of shares. 

ii)Employees- They are a company's assets, as well as the hands and feet of one. Without them, the company will not be able to fulfill their goals or meet certain objectives. If the company manages to communicate excellently with their employees and seek their cooperation, employees might become secret pr agents for the company while talking to their friends, family members, neighbors etc. 

iii)Suppliers- They are business associates of the company who provides raw material for business activities of the company (Lyngdoh, 2014). Suppliers and the company are like "soul mates" somehow because they need each otherrrr. If the relationship is stained and the suppliers are not happy with the company, then the company will not be able to make a profit since the materials are not being supplied nicely to them.
iv)Distributors/ Dealers/ Retailers- They are the link between the company and its dealers. The success of the company also depends on them. 

Internal Public of PR should always share and inform key messages with their members in order to keep things in check. They should also focus on the goodwill of its collaborators and maintain good relationships with them.

External Public

External public are the clients of an organisation/firm that are doing business with them. They focus on issues regarding the values, procedures, values, and attitude of the company toward multiple groups of people in society (Lyngdoh, 2014). 

Who are the external publics of an organisation?

i) Consumer- A person who purchases goods and services from the company. PR practitioners have to educate and inform their consumers about the product or organisation in order to produce a loyal customer. When a consumer perceives in-depth knowledge about a company and understands its mission, they are more likely to become devoted to the company.

ii) Media- Media (both print and electronic) gives mass exposure to a company's activities. Mass media is a very strong source to voice out opinions at. It is easy to build propaganda to influence the public in masses, therefore external pr must be very careful in handling the media. If anything goes wrong and the media portrays your company in a bad light, you're most probably doomed!

iii) Government- The government controls trade, business and industry of major institutions. The main reason why a company should develop good mutual relationship with the government is because of vested interest of individual or corporate. PR professionals need to make sure they don't break any rules or cause any mishaps to the balanced relationship with the government, or else they are unable to pursue the objectives of their company.

iv) Action Groups/ Activists- They are a group of people that come together to bring about change in relation with a particular situation. Action groups have the potential to build or expose malpractices or inflict setback to the image and reputation of a company they do not favor in. They have strong ego and high self-esteem because they possess the ability to influence masses (Lyngdoh, 2014). That's why PR practitioners take the time to include them in the PR list and appreciate them, in case they threaten to harm the company.

External Public of PR should really consider what Websites, newspapers, radio stations, TV stations etc provides news of their company. They should really make a list of them and find contact information to build relationships. And as always, they should evaluate and consider their audiences.


References:
Lyngdoh, S. (2014). Internal and External Public of Public Relations. Retrieved from http://shaining.blogspot.com/2014/02/internal-and-external-public-of-public.html

✽ The Reality

WHOOP WHOOP!

CAUTION.

Reality check about PR beyond this point. 

Proceed at own risk.

_____________________________________________________________________

Congratulations for stepping into the reality zone. 

Let me begin. 

So, there's this community for all public relations and communications professionals of the United States called PRSA- Public Relations Society of America. The PRSA is the world's largest leading organisation of pr professionals, and it provides professional development, sets standards of supremacy and upholds the fundamental ethics for its members. They act as advocates for the adoption of greater understanding of pubic relations services, and also represents as the voice for the public relations industry.

What is Public Relations? 

In the year 2011/12, PRSA directed an international effort to revamp/refresh the definition of public relations. They launched a crowdsourcing campaign and public vote that came up with the following definition for the term 'public relations' : 

"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics." 

                                                             Source: www.prsa.org

For this definition, we can see that the light is shining on the basic concepts of PR :

-strategic in nature and 

-focusing on creating mutually beneficial relationships. 

The word "process" here can be related to the "management function", which induces the interpretation of top-down (one-way) communications. As for the term "relationships", it relates to PR's role in being the 'glue' and bringing organisations or individuals together with their constituencies/stakeholders. In turn, their constituencies/stakeholders are regarded to as "publics", as they are the most important audience to an organisation. 

According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (UK based professional body for PR practitioners), they too, had their own definition of PR. To them, PR is more about reputation. With good reputation, the organisation will survive longer and be more successful. Now, what do they mean by reputation? Reputation is the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you. PR is in charge of looking after, managing, and building reputation for it acts as a company's biggest asset. With PR aiming towards gaining understanding, influencing opinion and behavior, establishing goodwill and mutual understanding, they will be able to impact the publics' perception of an organisation in a positive light. This way, PR will be proven EFFECTIVE and more of the public will want to work with, shop with, and support these organisations. *thumbs up* 

In both of these definitions, Public Relations displayed the management and leadership function by being responsible for maintaining reputation of an organisation and for building good relationships between the organisation and their publics. 

How about the other functions of management and leadership? 

Well, first off, there's the planning function. The planning function of management supervises and oversee all types of planning that will allow the organisation to run as smoothly as possible (Roberts, n.d.). Planning comprises of defining goals and determining the most effective and sufficient route/course to reach the goal. Normally, planning would need a lot of flexibility (and patience, man) as the planner must coordinate, cooperate, and sometimes compromise with all different levels of  management & leadership in the organisation. Lastly, the planning function involves knowledge of a company's resources and future mission or objectives of the business. 

As for the organising function of leadership, it controls the structure of the company thoroughly (Roberts, n.d.). Without the presence of the organisational structure, everyday operation of the business will be tough and unsuccessful. Organising involves designating tasks & responsibilities to the minions employees with the definite skill sets needed to carry out the tasks. It also comprises of the development of the organisational structure within the company. 

Then, there's also the staffing function of management who controls all recruitment and personnel needs of the organisation (Roberts, n.d.). Main goal of staffing is to hire awesome people. By hiring the right people for the right jobs, of course, the company's objectives will be achieved with much more efficiency. Staffing also encompasses of : 

-staff's training & development

-staff's promotions & transfers

-staff's performance assessment & evaluation

If there were no staffing function in the organisation, the business would start to crumble because a business is not able to operate properly without the appropriate staff to meet the company's goals.

Next, there is the coordinating function of leadership. This function controls all the organising, planning, and staffing activities of the company and makes sure that all these activities function together as a whole for the benefit of the organisation (Roberts, n.d.). Usually, coordinating will take place in meetings or planning sessions with the department heads to ensure that all different departments of the organisation are on the same page in terms of the company's objectives and goals. It involves communication, supervision, and proper direction by management.

The controlling function of management is favorable for ensuring ALL other functions of the organisations are in control and are operating successfully (Roberts, n.d.). The controlling function establishes performance standards and monitors the output of employees to make sure their performance meets those standards since, the employees' performances affects the excellency of the organisation.

Without proper management and leadership within an organisation, objectives and goals will not be met no matter how well-planned or how well-organized your objectives and resources are.

References:

Roberts, C. Five Functions of Management & Leading. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved 13 June 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-functions-management-leading-56418.html

PR Definition [Karla & Jamie]

I've just watched this video featuring some PR specialists who gives us their definition of PR. (quite soft leh the video zzz) According to that Karla girl, PR is when you take an idea you have and make other people think about it the specific way you want them to think it is. Wah, sounds like brainwash. No la, she's actually trying to say that by brainwashing making the public think of your marketing in a way you want them to think like, they will sort of get/understand the message of what you're trying to tell them and be more receptive of it.
However, at the end of her part, she sounds quite materialistic. Lol. Because she said, "The whole purpose of business PR is to make sure you get a better return in investment for your marketing dollars." Haha, but I guess, that's what's most important lah. No matter how much a company tells you, "The customers are our number 1 priority", they actually mean, "The customers' MONEY are our number 1 priority." #liarliarpantsonfire
Jokes aside, she's emphasizing the importance of getting benefits (and ka-chings) by highlighting the key messages to your public.

The next girl guy, Jamie, states that PR and marketing goes hand in hand wor. He said if a person has been doing marketing a lot but haven't been doing PR, then that means their messages are out there but they don't really get clients. So how ah, Jamie?

"You create PR campaigns." 

Ohhhhh, I see. But why PR campaigns? 

"Walao, you never watched my video meh?!" 

Ok, sorry. The reason why we should have PR campaigns is so that you can gain credibility. Because in PR campaigns, you promote your company; how good it is, what good work it has done, how awesome and cool your company is etc. When clients are exposed to your company's syiok sendiri advertising, they might actually be impressed and shake hands to cooperate with your company. Now, you have credibility!  

The rest of the video is of Jamie telling us about his friend who did a PR campaign which landed him an interview in Fox News and had people (big time clients with $$$$$$) calling in to become his clients. That's not the type of advertising where you can simply pay to get, but thank God for him it was a success in increasing his bank's credibility. Or else really jialat.

★ After -My Perspective

Ladies and Gentlemen; 

YES?

OK. Here we go! 

Alright, so, what are my perspectives of public relations? 

Well, after I had attended a few lectures, I kinda grasped an idea about the introduction of pr. You know, like the beginning stuff about pr → what is pr, what do they do, what skills must they be equipped with and etc. It isn't just about being stressed and working round the clock because PR practitioners actually have various roles and responsibilities to carry out. There are also challenges that PR practitioners will have to face in our current era and they are expected to meet certain criterias to overcome them. Sounds exhausting, yeah? 

The definition of PR:

"Public relations is a leadership and management function that helps achieve organisational objectives, define philosophy, and facilitate organisational change. Practitioners communicate with all relevant internal and external publics to develop positive relationships and to create consistency between organisational goals and societal expectations. Public relations practitioners develop, execute, and evaluate organisational programs that promote the exchange of influence and understanding among an organisation's constituent parts and publics."
                                                                                                        -Lattimore et al., 2012

By being a leadership and management function, it means that PR holds the position in giving orders. They are the ones who layout ideas and organize communication programs and campaigns. PR managers and leaders normally invest most of their time on planning things such as coming up with marketing plans, determining key messages for an organisation's training plan, or coming up with content guidelines for a company's Web page. They are also in charge of building and maintaining the long-term reputation of an organization, helping to increase profit and meeting profit goals, and giving advise to organisations on how to perform responsibly in accordance to the public's interest. 

Seemingly, you might think that PR leaders are the ones in charge and will make all the decisions that leads to change within an organisation. Actually, they do not. But, because of how they consistently oversee and engage with the publics in the organisation's environment, they often acquire information that:

• suggests a need for change.
• point out the direction in which change should take.

The late renowned public relations educator, Scott Cutlip, once declared that the PR practitioner's most important responsibility was to "interpret the public opinion climate to management". Since they understand what the interests of the publics are, they can then help to set up policies, plan strategies, establish philosophies, achieve objectives, accustom to fit changing environments, and strongly compete in markets. 

It is important for PR practitioners to communicate with their internal and external public to build good relationships for long-term purposes. Now, who or what exactly are an organisations internal and external public? 

Internal Public: They are the people from within the same organisation. They are colleagues from other departments who carry the same brand.

External Public: They are people from outside the organisation. Eg: The government, media, community leaders.

A person/community will become a public once the regconise an issue and understand its relevance in them, and then continue to talk about it or even construct a movement to do something about it. PR practitioners who are sharp enough will communicate early with these groups and try to stop the formation of them becoming activists and turning against the organisation. When society learns about an issue, they will begin to automatically express opinions, discuss with others about the issue, and reconcile their opinions with lasting attitudes, values, and group affiliations. Sounds pretty dangerous for PR practitioners as things can go wrong if they don't monitor public opinion properly. 

As mentioned before, a PR practitioner is busy and has no time to waste! Indeed, they have A LOT of work to do and are equipped with skills ranging from designing and editing pictures to writing and doing public speaking. #winliaolo

Some of PR's jobs & responsibilities: 

• research [ getting new info by being knowledgeable in research ]
• counseling/ advising [ counsel bigger issues to reduce damage ]
• government relations [ lobbying to create goodwill with the government ]
• investor relations 
• development/ fund-raising
• issues management
• media relations
• public affairs [also dealing with the gov, but is meant more for those in corporate sector ]
• community relations [ dealing with the community at large. eg: helping schools, fundraising ]
• employee relations [ internal relations. Eg: informing employees about benefits or how they     can contribute to the company etc. ]
• publicity [ create awareness by promoting ]
• marketing communication 
• promotion [ discounts ]

How does PR function in large organisations? 
Normally, the PR function will be led by a vice president who is the BOSS of developing overall policies. Large organisations would also incorporate other pr managers at both CORPORATE and DIVISION levels, and they may also employ other minions (pr specialists) to carry out writing work, research work, or even be representatives to the media. 

What about the smaller organisations? 
It's quite sad for a pr person to be working in a small organisation because he/she (one person) has to be responsible for handling ALL PR activities. Kesiannya.

For PR counseling firms, they have separations of different practice areas such as financial services, health care etc. Also, they consist of functional specialists who manages the corporate culture change or even the coordination of content on the Web.

PR's Fuctions :

1. Programming [ analyzing problems and opportunities, defining goals, defining the publics, executing activities.]
2. Relationships [ build relationships to strengthen an organisation's connection with their internal and external groups. ]
3. Writing & Editing [ printed word is vital in creating management communications. ]
4. Information Dissemination [ relevant for PR practitioners to share information. It can even be shared via social media.]
5. Production [ PR practitioners need to possess the expertise of art, layout, photography, etc including the background info of it all. ]
6. Special Events [ Used to gain attention and acceptance. Requires attentive planning. ]
7. Speaking [ Public speaking skills pose as an advantage because face-to-face communication is important. ]
8. Research and Evaluation [ They need to research plenty of different topics including reviewing library materials, databases, and Websites. Evaluation can be conducted in the form of surveys or opinion research. ]

In summary, PR is a very diversified area that can be found in almost every industry. I mean, hey, everyone needs PR now since competition for advertising and exposure is high. With the help of excellent communication skills and the ability to build good relationships between an organisation and their publics from PR practitioners, companies can afford to compete strongly amongst themselves in the market. 

Those companies should really thank their PR team for working so hard...

(Trends in PR? )

♦ Before - A General Idea

Here's a video I would like to share about my perspective of public relations BEFORE I even started attending PR classes: 

WARNING WARNING: Might have to turn down volume during the party part at 1:50!!!! SORRY about that :(

Yup... it's actually pretty general since I didn't have much insight of PR before my degree. To be honest, I didn't even want to bother finding out what the actual reality of PR was. I really thought it was a simple subject about...hosting events, planning events, and having lots of fun basically. It was going to be easy, right? WRONG. SO SO WRONG.

On the first day of PR tutorial when Mr. Alex started asking the class, "Guys, what is PR?", my mind was BLANK. 

Huh? PR si ha mi? Can eat one ah? 

I didn't know what to answer and began to panic even more when my other classmates were giving professional answers like, "It's a communication process of how an organization maintain its relationship with the public." Most of the answers they gave sounded so foreign to me that I think my brain produced more question marks than it had ever did before. I thought it would be over after 3 students gave their opinions, but Mr. Alex kept looking around the class and dug for more info from the rest of us. Like a caterpillar in its cocoon, I tried to hide myself at the corner of the class and just prayed that Mr.Alex would stop asking soon. But, nope nope nope nope. He suddenly turned to me and asked his golden question, 

"YOU. What about you? What is PR???" 

Haih, I think this bad luck is the result of that day during Chinese New Year when I washed my clothes cause' of the ugly soya sauce stain. Damn it.

Mr.Alex was waiting for my answer. Takkan I don't answer him right? So, I said, "Uh.....", and at that moment, I suddenly thought of my previous Maxis job when all I had to do was pass out flyers and try to con recruit people into signing up for our wifi promotion. It was a fun job since my colleague and I were assigned a deserted place where people rarely came to, and so most of the time we just sat down and rest only lol. Hmm, since we pass out flyers to promote the message of the company to the customers, it's somewhat linked to PR right?

"Passing out flyers......?" 

Yeah, I really gave him that answer. I was unsure about it and watched his response to see if I was right or wrong. Well, some of my classmates laughed at the answer so maybe it's wrong? But, Mr. Alex said it was sort of correct. So, in conclusion, 1/2 correct, 1/2 wrong lah? 

Later, Mr. Alex went on to explain some more about what Public Relations really is. I can't really remember what he said exactly but he did mention that PR practitioners have to maintain and build a good relationship for long term purposes with its constituencies. He also taught us the differences between PR, Advertising, and Corporate Communication. All in all, most of the jobs they carry out are the same; especially for PR and Corporate Communication. 

For PR and Corporate Communication, they are both similar in being audience-centred. The audience-centred approach is just like what it sounds like. The messages of the company are conveyed or altered to match the needs or preferences of the audience. Besides that, he also told us the importance of inverted pyramid writing style for news. We have to write the most important stuff first before slowly filling up the rest of the article with not-so-important info. This old 'trick' will manage to attract readers to continue reading your news article. 

For example, if you have news about... a cat who ate a dog, you have to start off with, "Yesterday, at 1.06 p.m., a stray cat was spotted chewing the carcass of a dog behind an alley." This surely drag attention as compared to, "Yesterday, a cat was seen walking around an alley by a witness. Then, the witness followed the cat because it looked suspicious. After following the ca-" Wah, maybe some of your readers will have stopped reading by that point already because they will think, what's so special about a person following a cat? Lol, I also got follow cats before la and their reaction is always the same. They run away. And why is the writer of the article so chiong hei (long winded)?! 

My time is not FOC.

Well, unless you've got a great headline then yeah, maybe they'll continue reading on. But, no doubt, sure kena hentam for being long winded. 

Back to Mr. Alex's class, it got me thinking more about what PR really is. The first tutorial class opened my mind about how there's more to PR than meets the eye. It is a challenging and stressful profession that you have to start off by cutting newspaper articles in a corner. Yes, I am not lying! Mr. Alex added that beginners of public relations all start off by cutting newspaper and magazine articles that have info about your company or your clients' companies. I could see that most of my classmates were horrified (including myself) after he'd mentioned it. I mean, who wants to sit in a lonely corner all day holding nothing but a pair of scissors and hearing the sound of paper being cut for the whole day?? Can go crazy one you know.

Oh well, who knows one day I'll be able to sit at my executive office with an awesome view overlooking the city and rap out the lyrics, "Started from the newspapers, now I'm here!" LOLOLOL. EH, WAIT. I forgot that someone mentioned before (was it Ms. Catherine or Mr. Alex...?) about how PR is not a job where you get to sit in your office all day and do work. You actually have to run around and go places to conduct events, meet with clients etc. 

SIGH. 

After this, I have learned not to look down on the PR profession and call it 'easy' anymore. It really sounds hectic! Alright, I will be back soon to elaborate more on my perspective of PR in a more formal scale. Wait up for it.

Thanks for reading.

♠ Welcome Note

Shout out to all the public relation lovers out here!

Yes, welcome to my blog everyone!!! 
Is you hongray (hungry)for PR INFO?! I KNOW YOU ARE.

First off, I will not be introducing myself because I know you guys are here just for PR information so, that's what you're going to get and nothing else! Starting from the next post on wards, I will be feeding you information about the perspective of Public Relations from a series different angles. 

Why only the perspectives, you ask? 

To put it simply, that's all I have to do to get marks.........

Ahaahaaaa...#truestory

Anyways, I still hope that you will be contented with what I have prepared and will be willing enough to relish in all the glory of these luxurious information about a lovely subject named, 

"Public Relations". 

Thanks for reading!