Cadence’s PR Blog

This chapter harps on the importance of targeting publics individually. Sometimes companies try to implement a tactic that is expected to reach a variety of publics because they have chosen to be cheap rather than values-driven and relationally focused. Publics need to feel positively affected or influenced by a tactic in order to mutually benefit and prolong the relationship between the targeted public and the organization. Sometimes tactics are used to drive a public to movement, while other tactics are used to maintain positive reputation or display concern. Whatever the tactic implemented, it should always reflect the values of the organization. Often, the more intentional and personal tactics becomes, the more effective they become.

The first example I thought of while reading through the text was within the context of grassroots lobbying. As I have mentioned before, the non-profit organization known as Invisible Children deploys a variety of Public Relations tactics that have been extremely effective; grassroots lobbying is one of their most successful tactics. The organization holds awareness events on a yearly basis where supporters can come together and make a statement to the media and to their government officials. At these events, they hand out letter-writing materials to attendees and ask them to write to specific governments officials who represent their residential state. The message informs leaders about the organization’s values and why we’re asking for the government’s help. These letters have proved their effectiveness by the number of state representatives who stood up for Invisible Children at the “Lobby Days” event held this past summer. It is obvious that this tactic has been representative of the values this organization holds and communicative to this specific public, the government.

The second series of tactics I found interesting were the tactics targeting news media. These tactics were intriguing in relation to my current employment, because I am a part of the “news media public” that Clemson Athletics exercises these tactics for on a weekly basis. I work for CUTigers.com, which is a news media website focused around Clemson sporting news. Each week, I attend a press conference where the Clemson Athletic department utilizes a variety of tactics to cater to the needs of the news media public. The actual press conference consists of one speaker, the head coach, who keeps the conference under time constraint and holds it in a room with plenty of outlets and room for cameras. Also, media kits are distributed to the new media to supplement the conference. As a part of the news media boy, we are all served Chik-Fil-A for lunch as well. This serves as a double tactic; Chik-Fil-A is created good relations with its consumer public, and Clemson Football is using this tactic to create good relations with its news media public. The department also offers up some of its best athletes for interviews before and after the conference. This allows the media to gather different perspectives on the team’s status that their consumer public would request. By meeting the needs of the news media, the athletic department maintains a positive image and relationship with this public.

This chapter educated me about how specific tactics have to be used for specific publics. The communicative process of tactics is one that should be fully researched and potentially beneficial to both parties. I thought of a variety of examples while reading through the text and I am now more aware of when I am being targeted as a consumer through texting, email, and other media outlets.

Public Relations professionals implement a variety of plans to maintain relationships, prompt ideas, and provide support for their publics. When learning about the standing plan in the book, I thought of an organization called Compassion International. This organization has developed a blog site that is updated multiple times a week in order to communicate the organization’s values as well as maintain its relationship with its publics. They also exhibit how other media sources, people, and organizations are contributing to their goals; this creates positive media for their partners and keeps their sponsors constantly informed so that they are motivated to maintain their relationship with the organization. Compassion International now uses Twitter as well to maintain and stir interest and support from their publics. As a sponsor for the organization, I have discovered how their Twitter updates to be an essential tool to maintaining awareness and support from their publics. They post links to recent stories and statistics about child poverty that encourage me to keep my bond with the organization and to feel confidently on board with its mission. 

When evaluating the idea of planning, another non-profit organization came to mind. Invisible Children does an excellent job of communicating the organization’s values and goals to its publics. They have written many proposals to politicians and government officials in order to reach the goals they have developed through the values-driven approach. They also provide their supporters with step-by-step plans for awareness campaigns that have resulted in an abundance of success over the last few years. Public Relations techniques, such as thorough investigation of the Ugandan war and its effects on the people of Uganda, have equipped them to implement plans that are well-organized and set on a realistic timetable.

These two organizations have done a phenomenal job of creating plans that expand their publics and continue to maintain invaluable relationships with their sponsors and advocates.

In this chapter, the authors dig deeper into the importance of the research process in PR. I found the research methods used in PR to be interesting due to their equivalence to the methods used by marketers and their audiences. Once again though, the difference lies in the publics. While marketers use research methods such as focus groups to learn more about how to target their product to their consumers, PR professionals use the same method to learn about better communication methods with consumers as well as other clientele. That clientele may include employees, community leaders, and other possible sponsors. 

Two examples I immediately thought of when reading about PR research were the iPhone and Facebook. A huge element of PR research in a company is being values-driven and using that research to constantly integrate and stay attentive to publics’ desires and goals. Apple has done an excellent job of researching their publics in order to continually integrate the product’s features to the publics needs and to reflect their own values of providing a useful, dependable, effortless, and edgy technological device. They research society’s social needs in order to provide a device that can meet the majority of these needs. By providing such a unique product, they form relationships with clients and sponsors whom they also research and target in order to keep good relations.

Facebook also does an excellent job of researching its users through voluntary surveying. The ads that appear on a users facebook page are targeted towards the information that is gathered from the individual user’s profile. The PR messages tagged with the advertisements are developed to catch the user’s attention and depict the relevance of the ad to the user. Then, Facebook allows you to “grade” these ads voluntarily on their relevance. This method of research is designed for PR professionals to connect to their publics and to approach them more affectively in the future through campaigns. Also, Facebook’s growing similarity to Twitter and iPhone app integration techniques show how its PR professionals have researched and payed attention to social media trends and the focus of attention in their publics.

Both the iPhone and Facebook have teams of PR professionals who have mastered the efficiency of implicating research in order to fulfill the PR process.

The history of Public Relations has been an evolutionary process. After reading the chapter in the book, I began to realize how large of a factor PR has been in the growth of media and democracy in the United States. When organizations are going through major social changes or advancements, the guidance from a PR professional is absolutely invaluable. If incentives, morals, and motives are not communicated affectively between parties, success of a company is limited. In Lindemann’s essay he talked about how through media’s evolutionary advancements, methods of measuring and evaluating PR are constantly being molded. I think this is a direct reflection of how the internet and social networking tools are being invented and discovered on a consistent basis. Just because the Public Relations field is always being reformed and re-evaluated doesn’t mean that we should neglect the patterns it has created over the past. If the PR field has taught us anything, it has been how to properly manage the influence it possesses. Crucial events in history have had their societal responses determined by how accurately or sincerely PR techniques were implemented. If a company is not honest and upfront with it’s publics, they can potentially suffer irreversible damage. So I believe our job as future PR professionals is to reflect on those historic failures and learn from them to as greatly as an extent possible. Although outlets and forms of media are always changing, the mistakes of PR representatives are more preserved. Therefore, our biggest benefit from PR history is seemingly the lesson to re-invent and re-build it’s reputation that is so often misunderstood due to past events. I found a blog that made an interesting argument pertaining to this outlook on history as well as a different perspective from the book. The book reflects on a number of events that were products of PR, but this blog argues that a simple recording of events limits our knowledge and creative outlook on the field. Instead, the author of the blog suggests that interviews with successful professionals would be much more insightful. I agreed with this point because I think learning about the tactics and values of a successful PR representative would not only be helpful in providing insight to past events, but it would also cultivate new insight on how to approach future PR responsibilities. Overall, I think the best lesson Public Relations history can teach us is how to avoid repeating it’s history. If we can focus less on our past reputation and our field’s lack of definition, we can focus more on being values-driven and technologically creative. By implementing the latter focuses, we allow this field to positively evolve with society, therefore naturally accomplishing the positive results we are drawn to discover.

A common theme of skill requirements found in the PR job ads I found stressed transparency with consumers and knowledge or experience with the media. A requisite to integrate with marketing and event planning strategies was mentioned frequently along with the necessity of superior writing skills. The first public relations ad I found was for a staffing agency named Paladin. The skill requirements for this job were different from my other findings in that they accentuated a desire for the applicant to have experience with government and financial services. The PR job seemed to be focused around more old school practices in the field with little room for creativity and social media innovation. 

Then I found a job ad that required much less experience and seemed more open to creative innovation and networking. This job was more appealing for someone close to my age who may be entering the field and can utilize their experience and capabilities in the social media realm. I think new Public Relations jobs will start emphasizing familiarity with social media as a requisite more and more over the next few years. This field of work is obviously evolving with communication advancements in society in order to reach audiences engaging in all different portals. 

Overall, there are a wide range of jobs in the PR field that prefer experience with the media. That is why it’s important for us as students to learn and utilize social media outlets now in order to be able to master their PR uses by the time we enter this competitive market. As PR professionals, we must be constantly evolving and communicating with society. Portals such as Twitter and blogging are some of today’s strongest examples.

This chapter was insightful for me. I never understood how advertising, marketing, and public relations could be so distinct from one another. While reading the chapter, I began to mentally cite how companies have used consumer-focused marketing to target me. Without the influence of public relations on the marketing sector, old marketing techniques wouldn’t be meeting the needs of the consumer. We learn from public relations research what the consumer desires or needs before they can fully understand or be open to an advertisement or marketed product. Also this PRSSA blog makes an excellent point when it examines the economic relationship I mentioned in my previous blog. If an organization has to make cut-backs in advertising, marketing, or PR…they will sacrifice PR last. This is how crucial it is to have effective communication in order for a company to thrive. Marketing and advertising only cover consumer relations, while PR covers relations with all the other publics that are equally important.

As I previously mentioned, I have been targeted by consumer-focused marketing. I have received magazines and coupons targeting college students and their needs for the last two years. Also, my favorite clothing brands send me personalized emails when they receive new shipments on products I’ve previously shopped for. And I have to admit, this form of public relations marketing has worked on me. These companies have used databases to determine my needs and desires through communicative strategies. I have voluntarily signed up to receive updates about a company’s products I know I may be interested in. This newer form of marketing is genius and satisfying for both the company and it’s consumers. While the book uses Sheryl Crowe as an example of public relations marketing, other celebrity spokespersons popped into my mind. The key detail that made Sheryl’s company endorsement a PR tactic was the lack of payment and personal incentive she created through a strong relationship with Revlon. Pete Wentz is another good example of public relations marketing. He wrote an outstanding blog demonstrating his support for an organization called Invisible Children. He explains his personal experience with the organization and through his status automatically influences an audience to gain interest in the organization’s efforts and needs. Invisible Children doesn’t have to pay him a cent. 

This chapter showed me how the relationship of status figures and an organizations can create huge PR advantages for these companies. Also, the more we take advantage of databases for consumer-focused marketing, the more we utilize the importance of PR in the marketing process as a whole.

After reading Chapter one, I was able to better understand why PR is so difficult to define. When the author mentions the Four-Step process and how it’s constantly being rearranged, it becomes clear why no set method can really be placed on how the industry works. But isn’t that what makes so many of us intrigued by the Public Relations or Communications field in general? It’s a process that can be as unpredictable, insightful, and relational as any other social relationship we experience on a daily basis. By embracing flexibility and full adherence to an organization’s values, we create a successful communicative relationship and therefore a successful career in PR. 

Public Relations is being transformed by the the internet and digital world as we speak. As the book points out, organizations’ dependence on PR representatives is rapidly growing and becoming more competitive. Wherein the past only certain modes of communication were used in PR, now there are social media channels being discovered at a constant rate. In order to be competitive in this industry, a professional must be not only familiar with a variety of social media but skilled in their effective uses as well. Jeremy Pepper’s blog touches on how integration of social media platforms are allowing individuals and organizations to reach their publics easier and on a much grander scale. If we learn how to use these platforms as reflections of our organization’s and publics’ values, we increase credibility and interest.

My realization about social media advancement also reminded me of the importance of PR in recent economic hardships. When organizations and their publics are suffering financially, many of these relationships can be pulled apart. However, if a PR professional effectively utilizes the values-driven approach to create a beneficial and dependable bond between an organization and it’s publics, the relationships will more likely withstand hardships. As a result, both parties can stand confidently and maintain vital economic needs.

Lastly, I wanted to discuss licensing in Public Relations. This seems to be a debated effort in our textbook as well as on the web. David Reich blogged about licensing almost two years ago, but I found his entry to still be of interest in this on-going argument. While the PRSA advocates the importance of licensing in the field, they haven’t even effectively promoted the certification program they’ve had activated for over 30 years. This made me think back to what the book said about our actions speaking louder than words in PR. If concern is about there being accreditation in the field, why haven’t they done a better job of promoting the accreditation program they’ve already had in place? 

Public Relations is a profession that would be difficult to regulate, which is why I think that step is still far from being taken. The process of this field is constantly changing and adapting as a communicative relationship should.