I am challenged by the idea that public relations is media relations and that business owners think that they can do it on their own. Something that has taken me years to perfect and is always work in progress through relationship building. I loved a comment by Doug Haslam, in which he used the word facilitates.
I am constantly having to define what I teach and do to my family and friends. It reminds me that potential clients may not understand public relations either. I love my profession because it gives me the opportunity to serve others, which is why the word facilitate sparked my interest.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I enjoy thoroughly looking up words in the dictionary. Even the words I use everyday, a thousand times a day. My heart for service loves the definition of facilitate in Dictionary.com, “to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.)…”
How would perceptions of those around us change if we used facilitate to define public relations?
Public relations is not just about media relations. When I am helping out an organization, I always start with the basics. You know that whole research, action, communication and evaluation thing. But if public relations is about relationships, how about starting with this?
1) How can I make things easier or less difficult for the organization?
2) How can I serve this organization to help them move forward?
3) What is “our” action plan?
4) How do we get the process going?
Sometimes these questions involve media relations, but most of the time it does not. So if you are a business person reading this, next time you come across a public relations professional who is ready to serve you, give them a chance to be your facilitator. I promise your will be blown away with the results!
3 comments:
Hi Cherisse,
Thanks for commenting on my post!
I like the word "facilitate" as it does describe much of what PR does. But I think as an industry our problem is actually a PR problem, as ironic as that sounds.
For years we have promoted media relations as akin to PR. We have focused on getting "hits," measured those as our results and rewarded internally on that metric. Clients too have come to expect a large clip book or a wall full of framed clips as a return on a large monthly retainer check.
We have to look harder at business results and how we can deliver those results.
Chuck,
I agree. It is what we teach up and coming public relations students.
I think conversations like these need to happen more often in order to bring about change in our industry.
I think this where social media plays a big role. Once companies starting taking notice (Story in WSJ today, http://tinyurl.com/y8e7htk), expectation are going to change, both within the pr industry and our clients.
I think the "media relations = PR" issue is a product of outdated marketing mentality.
With the onset of social media a marketer must have more than a media message today: There must now be an engagement of the market in order to deliver the message that sells the product.
An understanding of PR as separate from media management is critical today in my opinion.