A PR Guy's Musings | Stuart Bruce » corporate communications

Tom Foremski Thought Leaders event at the CIPR

Stuart Bruce — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:44:58 +0000

Last week I chaired a ‘Thought Leaders’ event at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in London where I interviewed Tom Foremski who became the first major journalist to quit mainstream media to make a living from blogging when he left the Financial Times to found Silicon Valley Watcher.

The event did leave me with some optimism that corporate media – that is companies paying real journalists to do real reporting – might be one future for quality journalism. Where I wasn’t so optimistic was where the next generation of quality journalists will come from. The traditional training ground was local newspapers and their decline mean opportunities for that crucial early learning are becoming rare. Some see the plethora of blogs and websites covering every conceivable subject area as being the alternative. I’m not convinced as they don’t have the seasoned old hacks who can teach the tricks of the trade. And I don’t mean fiddling expenses or hacking phones, but the old journalistic craft of knowing how to sniff out the truth in a story. How to check and double check the sources and facts. How to write well (and it’s not being pedantic to say that means good grammar, doesn’t need perfect grammar).

We explored a wide range of topics including content, corporate media, ethics, reputation, SEO, ‘Every Company is a Media Company’ and ‘brand journalism’ (we both hate the term).

As I was chairing the event and interviewing Tom I didn’t take any notes or record the conversation. However, I’ve captured some of the best tweets in Storify. If the embed doesn’t work for you then you can see it on the Storify site here.

How PR can use Flipboard to create magazines

Stuart Bruce — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:48:40 +0000

Flipboard is one of the new generation of news readers that provide a slick app to let you subscribe to news and topics on media websites, blogs and other social media and social networks.

The latest updates make it really easy to create your own magazine by curating interesting content that you find.

There are already more than half a million user generated magazines available, most probably read by the editor and her mum. However, it is still potentially a useful tool for PR and corporate communications professionals. One important thing to remember is that although Flipboard call it a magazine, all you are actually doing is curating existing content and not creating new articles.

I’ve created my own magazine called PR and Corporate Comms News. You can subscribe to it here.

These are some of my initial thoughts on how corporate communications and PR professionals can use it:

Select your Flipboard sources

The first step is selecting the right sources. The easiest way is to simply to browse the categories in Flipboard to add your favourite sources. For example mine include the FT, Harvard Business Review and The Guardian.

Then you use the search bar to search lots of social networks, but more importantly it also searches for RSS feeds which nearly every media site provides. This means you can add your favourite and more niche business and professional websites and blogs. Rather annoyingly Flipboard presents these (most useful) results last so you have to click more and then scroll right down past all of the social networks to get to the best results. So to add this blog you can simply search for “Stuart Bruce” or “A PR Guy’s Musings” and it will appear in the RSS feeds list.

The RSS search frequently fails to find feeds for sites that have them. If the search does fail to find the exact publication you want then you can manually type the full URL of the RSS feed into the search bar. An easier way to do it is to go to the site in your browser and then copy the RSS link so you can paste it into Flipboard.

Within Flipboard you can also connect your other social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Seino Weibo and Renren.

However, a big time saving tip is you don’t need to add every source as you can also easily add content to your magazine using a bookmark from your desktop browser. To install it go to the Web Tools on the Flipboard website.

Create your Flipboard magazine and add content

Creating your magazine is as simple as finding the content you want to add in Flipboard and clicking on the + symbol and then choosing the magazine you want to add it to. They call this ‘+Flip It’.

At the moment it is still quite clunky and has a ‘beta’ fail to it and in the app the only way you can create your magazine is when you add your first piece of content.

You want to think carefully about the name. Remember you want it to be useful and interesting for readers so a descriptive title such as “PR and Corporate Comms News” is a better title for my Flipboard magazine than “Stuart’s PR Stuff”. You then want to write an interesting and compelling description. Mine is:

Public relations and corporate communications news and views for the digital and social era. Curated by international PR trainer and consultant Stuart Bruce.

Getting the title and the description right will make it easier for people to find you when they search and browse the user-generated magazines in Flipboard.

You will also want to go to the web tools page on the Flipboard website to add the browser bookmark tool that lets you “+Flip It” from sites you visit on your laptop.

On an Android phone or tablet you can also use the Share function to “Flip It” into your Flipboard magazine. You can also add a bookmarklet to your iPhone or iPad to do the same thing (although I haven’t tested this).

Curating the right content – including your own

The key to making your Flipboard magazine interesting is to curate useful and relevant content from lots of different sources. If you limit yourself to too few sources then your readers might as well read those publications rather than your curated one. Why listen to the monkey when you can hear the organ grinder?

The clever bit is to include some, but not too much, of your own content into your magazine. This should include:

Blog posts – contrary to what the fashion-concious social media gurus will tell you blogs are still a very important channel for publishing your own content. They are one of the best ways to demonstrate expertise, in-depth knowledge and that old PR stand-by ‘thought leadership’.
Mentions in news articles and features – in the good old days getting editorial coverage was only part of the equation. The bit that too many PR people missed was ensuring that relevant people actually saw these ‘press cuttings’. A Flipboard magazine is a great way of collating and distributing your online ‘clippings’. The fastest way to add them is simply using the ‘+Flip It’ bookmark in your browser.
News – news releases, white papers and articles from your corporate website and social media news room. Remember that this isn’t always your most compelling content so be selective and only include the best content.
Multimedia – you can include videos from your YouTube channel, photos from Flickr or Instagram, or even podcasts from SoundCloud.

Editing your magazine

You still can’t edit your magazine properly within the app, but Flipboard has now added a basic web editor tool. It lets you change the order of the stories and choose an alternative cover story. It also provides you with basic analytics showing how many readers and ‘page flips’ you’ve had, as well as how many articles you’ve curated. The web editor also enables you to create a new magazine.

Promoting your magazine

If you’ve given your magazine a good title and description then you should start to pick up some subscribers who find you directly via Flipboard. However, you can also help the process along by sharing the magazine directly with your contacts via any of the social networks you’ve connected to Flipboard. The short URL that Flipboard generates prompts people to download Flipboard and subscribe to your magazine. As with all automated services don’t just use the copy it generates, but write your own that says something relevant to your contacts.

If you are logged into Facebook the short URL it generates for you to share also shows some of your Facebook friends who already use Flipboard (or at least those who have connected it to Facebook). This means you can selectively send private messages to those people you think would be interested in subscribing. In the hurly burly of social network updates it is easy to miss what people have shared. As you know these people you should be able to judge if it is appropriate to send them the link via email, Twitter DM, LinkedIn message etc. But be sensible and don’t spam all your contacts with private messages.

And finally don’t forget the most important way to share content is still email. Simply email your relevant contacts and remember to include an explanation of what Flipboard is and why they should subscribe to your magazine.

Who uses Flipboard?

One downside is that Flipboard is only currently available for Android and iPhone so despite the fact it is a free app your magazine won’t be available to the millions of Windows Phone and Blackberry users. It’s also not the only news reader so lots of your potential audience might be using alternative readers such as Google Currents or Feedly.

Flipboard claims it has 56 million users with particularly strong markets being the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and Spain.

Please subscribe to PR and Corporate Comms News and let me know if you create your own magazine.

CIPR president election for 2014

Stuart Bruce — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:17:53 +0000

The election for the 2014 president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has sparked several fascinating debates on both public relations and the future and relevance of the CIPR. What is without question is that this time, in Dr Jon White and Stephen Waddington, we have two absolutely outstanding candidates for president. I would be delighted with either.

That said this is an election and that means a decision. I am voting for Stephen Waddington.

One criticism that some have levelled at Stephen (or Wadds as he is more commonly known) is that he is too focused on the social media and digital aspects of public relations. I do not believe this to be the case. I spent the first half to date (indeed most of my career) so far doing ‘traditional’ public relations. As has Wadds. What we have in common is an understanding of the deeper social, political and economic impact of the internet and social media, as well as the ability to translate this into successful public relations practice.

His statements on public affairs, corporate communications and internal communications all demonstrate that he is capable of leading the CIPR across the full range of public relations disciplines and practice. What’s more he understands that these old silos and specialism are not the future of the profession.

Stephen Waddington or ‘Wadds’ in his own words:

CIPR Election: 10 words and 10 pledges from Stephen Waddington

Philips infographic for first quarter financial results

Stuart Bruce — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:48:41 +0000

Infographics can be fantastic, awful or simply work. This example from Philips is the latter. It simply presents the quarter one earnings for Philips in an alternative format. It’s good to see a genuine corporate communications, rather than marketing communications example. At a time when infographics are being exploited by PR, marketing and digital people this is a what I’d like to see more of in the future – not brilliant, not awful, just good.

Corporate communications and PR conference speaking summer 2013

Stuart Bruce — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:16:43 +0000

I’ve got a few new corporate communications, PR and social media speaking engagements coming up over the next few months. I’ll also shortly be announcing dates for a series of two day online PR and corporate communications strategy master classes to be held in London in early July, Mumbai (India) in late July and Houston (Texas) in mid August. I’ve also got dates for social media master classes in Brussels in May and June. Contact me if you’re interested in attending any of these master classes and I can tell you how to register.

CIPR Thought Leaders | Can ‘corporate media’ support serious journalism. Can it win a Pulitzer?
Wednesday 8 May 2013, London

I’m speaking alongside Tom Foremski at a Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Thought Leader expert briefing that asks (and tries to answer) provocative questions such as what’s the role of corporate media, will the the rise of corporate media serve society or hinder it, can corporate media become the new funding model for serious journalism and can corporate media win a Pulitzer?

Master class on Online PR
22 May 2013, Tbilisi, Georgia

In May I’m a guest of Marketing House Georgia and will deliver a one day Online PR master class in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. The course is designed for Presidents, Vice Presidents, Directors and Heads of:

Corporate Communications, Public Relations, Corporate Affairs, External Communications, Public Affairs, Government Relations, Internal Communications, Stakeholder Relations, Investor and Analyst Relations

I’ll also be delivering a second one day online reputation management course for CEOs and senior government officials.

Cutting Edge Marketing and PR International Conference
19-21 June 2013, London

The Cutting Edge Marketing and PR International Conference is a three day conference and series of master class workshops featuring speakers from the BBC, Microsoft, Amazon, Edelman and Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS). I’m delivering a keynote presentation about ‘Global online communications: how to tackle the global vs. local challenge’ on Friday, June 21.

CIPR Annual Social Media Conference
11 July, London

The annual social media conference of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations will be based on the contents of the forthcoming Share This Too book. I’m chairing a Professional Practice Panel on ‘Putting the social into CSR’ and will be joined by two prominent experts on corporates social responsibility who will present short case studies and answer questions.

PR, Wikipedia and BP–a sorry tale

Stuart Bruce — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:12:16 +0000

I spent yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels running a training session for MEPs and their staff about Wikipedia and best practice. Most of what I said was based on the CIPR’s Wikipedia Best Practice guidelines that we produced last year in co-operation with Wikimedia and I had a small hand in helping to create.

On the Eurostar home I discovered that the training I delivered might already be out of date as yet another PR and Wikipedia ‘scandal’ had erupted this time about BP’s Wikipedia page. However, this time it appears that the ‘guilty’ parties probably aren’t BP’s PR team who appear to have followed all the best practice, but the online ‘chattering classes’ and some Wikipedians who’ve taken offence at PRs at a ‘big, bad’ corporate following Wikipedia’s own guidance.

Basically the story is that Arturo Silva, a member of BP’s corporate communications team in Houston, created the Arturo at BP Wikipedia user account and used it to interact with the Wikipedia community in order to improve the BP Wikipedia page.

His user profile is fairly comprehensive, explains what the account is for and makes it clear he will only contribute to BP’s Talk page:

“Welcome to my user page. I have established this account to help improve BP-related articles in line with Wikipedia standards and guidelines. In the interest of full transparency, I chose “Arturo at BP” as my username so that my affiliation with BP is abundantly clear to all parties I may interact with on Wikipedia. Per WP:ORGNAME, I believe that this username is appropriate, and I should point out that I will be the only person to use this account.

Out of respect for guidelines on conflict of interest and the importance of a neutral point of view, and in recognition of the ongoing debate regarding companies’ involvement on Wikipedia, I will only be editing Talk pages and will not make any edits to encyclopedia articles. My primary goal in being active on Wikipedia through this account is to improve the overall quality of BP-related articles in line with Wikipedia guidelines.

Any delays in responding to inquiries are due to my other roles and responsibilities at BP which take up a significant amount of my time, so I appreciate your patience with me. I do look forward to working with other editors, and welcome any questions you may have on my Talk page.”

Most of this is inline with Wikipedia’s own guidelines and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Wikipedia Best Practice Guide that was created last year by the CIPR’s Social Media Panel in conjunction with ‘Wikipedians’ and Wikimedia.

I’d have recommended that the user profile stated absolutely that he worked for BP’s corporate communications team and there is question mark over if the company name should have been included in the user name, but apart from that it is all pretty good.

Arturo Silva then used his ‘userspace’ on this account to draft improvements to the BP page which he then pointed to on the BP talk page. He wrote everything from a neutral point of view and importantly always provided credible third party references for everything he wrote. This is precisely what is recommended in the CIPR guidelines and the idea is that this information is then checked by independent ‘Wikipedians’ and eventually incorporated into the actual Wikipedia user page by those independent third party editors.

Where it appears to have gone wrong is that despite Wikipedia’s commitment to a ‘neutral point of view’ the reality is somewhat different. The CIPR guidelines state that the definition of a neutral point of view is:

“All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopaedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias. Fundamentally, where there is a contentious issue associated with a topic, Wikipedia content should be a good reference for the debate. In a few words, neutrality means this: report the debate, don’t take part in it.”

The problem is that people don’t agree what “representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias” actually means. However, for some Wikipedians, and some member of the social media chattering classes, big business is always suspect and they would prefer for it not to be included as a ‘significant view’. It’s fine for an environmental activist to actually edit the page (as long as they don’t actually work for Greenpeace), but not for a ‘big, bad’ company to follow Wikipedia’s own guidelines.

On reflection I think my training yesterday is still valid as I caveated the CIPR’s Wikipedia Best Practice guidelines with the advise that it was always best to err on the side of caution. There are some brilliant, sensible people who devote hours of valuable time to editing and improving Wikipedia. But, as in any community, there is also a minority (who are always the most vocal) who aren’t reasonable and want their personal micro-view of the world to be inflicted on everyone.

It’s that minority you need to be careful of and reflect in your dealings with Wikipedia which is why I advised “Just because you’re allowed to do something, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea”.

Tom Foremski and Stuart Bruce speak at CIPR event and ask could corporate media win a Pulitzer?

Stuart Bruce — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:10:53 +0000

On Wednesday May 8 I’m looking forward to speaking at a special event with Tom Foremski looking at ‘Can corporate media support serious journalism?’

The session is at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) head office and sponsored by content sharing technology provider PressPage which has posted a social media news release:

Can ‘corporate social media’ support serious journalism?

As everyone now has access to an online printing press that can potentially reach tens of millions of people, corporate media -the next step up from brand journalism- is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

PressPage, the leading provider of content sharing technology, and the CIPR are co-hosting a session on May 8 in which Tom Foremski and Stuart Bruce will explore the role and possibilities of corporate media.

As traditional media outlets shrink, corporations are stepping up their own media creation efforts. Some are starting to produce serious journalism.

During this Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) hosted session, Tom Foremski and Stuart Bruce will explore four important questions that are facing so many communications departments today:

What’s the role of corporate media?
Will the rise of corporate media serve society, or hinder it?
Could corporate media become the new funding model for serious journalism?
Could corporate media win a Pulitzer?

Interested in joining this CIPR event? Register here.

“Back in 2008, Tom’s initial ideas about the digital press release was a main inspiration for the PressPage founders. It is really exciting to see how his research and ideas are evolving towards corporate media,” said Bart Verhulst, Co-founder and CEO of PressPage.

“Stuart Bruce is the éminence grise of online newsroom technology. Having Tom’s ideas on corporate media translated into practical implementation is an exciting idea,” said Roel Cozijnsen, PressPage’s General Manager UK

About Tom Foremski

Tom Foremski is the founder and Editor of the popular and top-ranked news site Silicon Valley Watcher, reporting on the business and culture of innovation.

In May 2004, Tom became the first journalist to leave a major newspaper, the Financial Times, to make a living as a full-time journalist blogger. Tom has been reporting on Silicon Valley and the U.S. tech industry since 1984. His current focus is on the convergence of media and technology—the fuel for a new era for Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has become Media Valley, and this is affecting businesses worldwide

Foremski is also the originator of the ‘Every Company is Media Company‘ concept and actively researches the role and possibilities of ‘corporate media’.

About Stuart Bruce

Stuart Bruce MCIPR is an international trainer and consultant specialising in digital corporate communications, online PR, digital public affairs and social media for private sector and government clients in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. He is a part-time lecturer to post-graduate and under-graduate students at Leeds Metropolitan University and one of the authors of Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals.

He is a CIPR national council member and a founder member of its social media panel. He is regularly listed in PRWeek’s Power Book of the UK’s top 1% of most influential PR people and is also a frequent speaker at international PR and communications conferences. Stuart was one of the world’s first PR bloggers and has been writing stuartbruce.biz for almost 10 years.

About PressPage

PressPage offers a social media release and newsroom platform to PR agencies that can be easily branded and seamlessly integrated into the websites of an agency’s clients. The platform gives PR agencies the opportunity to create, manage and track rich multi-media (press) messages with direct integration to and from social media platforms.

PressPage partners with PR agencies, providing them with the technology to make the most of the content they develop for the brands they work with. The secure technology, enables agencies to deliver a newsroom for their clients without needing access to other parts of the website. As well as integrating with social media platforms PressPage’s technology also enables agencies to share content with clients for approval before it is published and to make changes in real time. The agency is able manage multiple client sites through a single portal while limiting access rights to those who need them. It also has the ability to collect data from users and deliver measurement.

PressPage has partnered with leading PR agencies worldwide who have integrated it into their offer for small clients through to multinationals. PressPage is also a preferred supplier of the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) and a partner of IPRA (International Public Relations Association)

Digital communications top PR skills gap

Stuart Bruce — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:12:17 +0000

New research shows that digital communications is the top skills gap amongst PR professionals. The research was conducted by PR Academy amongst its past and present students and 52% of respondents identified digital comms as the top skills gap, followed by strategic planning (46%) and measurement (44%).

This isn’t surprising as the much bigger and more authoritative European Communication Monitor 2012 showed similar results as there is a large gap between the perceived importance of social media and actual rate of implementation. My experience of counselling and training private sector and government clients throughout Europe indicate that a lack of knowledge and skills is one of the biggest reasons why we don’t see more digital communications and social media use at a corporate level.

Which is all good news for me and should continue to generate a healthy demand for my digital corporate communications, online PR and social media training.

World Communications Forum and C4F Awards in Davos

Stuart Bruce — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:46:14 +0000

The Communications on Top World Communication Forum 2013 and (C4F) Communication for Future Awards in Davos take place this week.

There is great line-up of speakers including: Paul Holmes, founder and CEO of The Holmes Report and SABRE awards; Andre Manning, vice president corporate communications for Royal Philips Electronics; Anne Villemoes, head of communications for global meat producer Danish Crown; Dr Leandro Herrero, CEO of The Chalfont Project and Managing Partner of Viral Change Global; Rui Martins, corporate communications and public affairs director at Dianova Portugal; and Francis Ingham, director general of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association and executive director of the International Communications Consultancy Association.

I’m speaking on the first day on ‘Online and social media: Smart PR and communications solutions’. It will be a short presentation followed by an interactive question and answer session. WCF Davos is attended by senior communications and public relations professionals from all around the world.

I’m also one of the 2013 nominees for the C4F Communication for Future Awards are annual global excellence awards for communications professional. The official news release says:

Among the nominees for 2013 are: Dr. Leandro Herrero, CEO The Chalfont Project Ltd. & Managing Partner Viral Change Global LLP, (UK) Gianni Catalfamo, Founder at cc:catalfamo (Italy), Evgeny Kuznetsov, Director Development & Communications Department at Russian Venture Company, Alfred Koblinger, CEO of BBDO Holding, (Austria), Anne Villemoes, Director of Corporate Communications at Danish Crown company (Denmark), Andre Manning, Global Head Corporate Communications at Philips, Global HQ (Netherlands), Jason Ng, Blogger, Twitter activist, COO of geekpark.net, Founder of Twittalk.net, Start-Upper, (China), Yogesh Joshi, President of the Association of Business Communicators of India(ABCI), Nurul Ashiqin Shamsuri, CEO of Lubri Oil Corporation Malaysia SB, and Stuart Bruce, digital corporate communications and online PR blogger, trainer and consultant (UK).

C4F Davos Awards include 6 categories, two of which will be presented for the first time:

Titan of the future is given to people, who are creative in every aspect, available 24/7 and committed to the high business and ethical standards of true global leaders. Some call them multi-taskers, but we consider them to be the re-born Leonardo da Vinci-s.
Image of the future‘s nominees are professionals who create stunning images and develop the visual communications of the future, just as Steve Jobs did.
Media of the future is mobile, interactive and social. The award in this category is granted to those who foresee the next step in media development.
Relations of the future category recognizes the masters in Reputation Management, Crisis Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, who help building up competitive advantages.
Idea of the future‘s nominees are representatives of the creative economy, where communicating what does not yet existhas become a key factor in the development of adequate communications for innovations.
Grand Davos Award is to be granted to key figures and thought leaders for their whole contribution to the communications industry.

C4F Davos Awards are the first of their kind to express recognition of outstanding communicators with creative approach and innovative visions on the future of communications. They are given to individuals with huge influence on the improvement of communications and truly effective contribution in fostering new trends in the development of the communications industry worldwide. All C4F Award holders are visionaries, challenging the status quo with their perception about future and leaving their unique impact on the world.

Public relations isn’t part of marketing

Stuart Bruce — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:44:38 +0000

This blog post started as a comment on Stephen ‘Wadds’ Waddington’s thought-provoking article about ‘The public relations industry’s confidence problem’, but it was so thought-provoking the comment rapidly became too long.

His central thesis is that public relations is too introspective and needs to have more confidence of the role it plays in the broader economy. I’d go further and say public relations doesn’t just play a significant role in the economy, but also in politics and society/social. The first three of the PEST analysis, which are all being changed by technology.

If advertising and digital agencies don’t eat PR’s lunch, then management consultants might

Wadds says there is a “turf war taking place between advertising, public relations and digital”. Another war that Wadds hints at, but doesn’t mention, is when he talks of “earns the place that it deserves as a management discipline” is with management consultants. Public relations professionals are not the only people to recognise that public relations should be a serious business discipline and that means we’re also competing with the big global management consultancies.

I think a major reason for public relations’ confidence problem is its identity problem. Public relations practitioners aren’t even sure and can’t agree on what it is we actually do. Worrying how we define ourselves seems introspective, but it’s hard to be confident about who you are if you don’t know yourself. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that others do ‘define’ public relations, usually incorrectly in narrow and derogatory ways. Too many public relations practitioners don’t do our business any favours by perpetuating the myths about what PR really is.

PR is not just part of marketing

If we are to be seen as a true management discipline as Wadds asserts then we can’t allow ourselves to be defined as mere publicists or as simply part of marketing. Public relations and marketing are totally different disciplines and the confusion arises because both will often use some of the same tactics. It’s quite legitimate for public relations to use paid media. It’s not even new, I did it 20 years ago with full-page display advertisements in trade press across the world, as part of a corporate restructuring.

Part of the challenge we have as public relations professionals is that we don’t start off with the same budgets or even ‘share of mind’ within clients as some of our competitor disciplines do. Advertising and digital agencies typically have bigger budgets so can afford to experiment. Using a small percentage of their existing spend they can try something new to see if it works in this time of massive change in society and media. In contrast you’d need a bigger percentage of most public relations budgets which means you don’t have enough left for the tried and trusted. Therefore the leviathan advertising agencies can ironically be more agile than the theoretically smaller more nimble public relations consultancies.

Wadds’s example of a retail brand working with a peer analytics firm such as Klout, Kred or PeerIndex to identify and target online influencers could be done by an advertising agency simply pulling one or two TV slots to find the budget. A PR agency might need to significantly reduce the time it spends working with influential journalists in order to spend that budget on working with the new influencers.

The challenge from management consultants is that their consultancy day rate frequently dwarfs the day rate of a public relations consultancy. This in turn means they pay bigger salaries and get better people. That’s not to criticise public relations people, but the fact is that many of the best do it because they enjoy it. They are bright enough people that if they’d entered a better paid profession such as management consultancy, law or accountancy then they’d earn a lot more. They chose public relations because they enjoy it. But this makes it hard for the public relations profession to attract the brightest and best graduates.

Is PR too introspective?

Wadds claims that the public relations industry is too introspective because it is obsessed with “inward focussed issues such as whether it is a profession and the issue of measurement”.

So what’s the answer? I think Wadd’s blog post perhaps starts to provide some of them. He’s right we need to win the professionalism debate through action. Despite being a Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) member for my whole career I didn’t complete its continuous professional development scheme until 2012. That’s wrong and I know I should become a chartered practitioner, but I’m not afraid to admit that the time involved still makes me hesitate. As a newly elected CIPR council member I feel obligated to at least complete CPD, but really I should also complete the accreditation to become a CIPR Chartered Practitioner.

He says that solid work is now being done by organisations such as AMEC to improve measurement and evaluation. This is one area where public relations could be more confident. Public relations is perceived as not being very good at measurement and evaluation. The fact is that we’re getting a lot better. The dirty little secret of much of the advertising and digital agency world is that they might be better at measuring stuff, but much of their evaluation is just as flawed as that used for public relations. Public relations needs to start being confident about what it can measure and evaluate, rather than worrying about what it can’t.

“The debate about who owns social media is flawed…”

… says Stephen as “The future will be owned by the practitioners that define it”. And he’s right. It’s also a sterile debate as social media doesn’t necessarily need to be owned by anyone. The fact is that social media needs to be used by human resources, legal, customer services, marketing, IT, public relations et al. As well as using social media itself one of the main roles of public relations is to ensure that others within the organisation don’t abuse or use social media badly, which will inevitably lead to reputational damage.

Public relations therefore has a dual role with social media. Firstly to use if effectively itself. Secondly, to coordinate and lead its use by others. In most companies and organisations public relations has a unique 360 degree perspective because reputational issues can arise from anywhere. That makes PR uniquely placed to lead on something that also has a 360 degree impact on the company or organisation. The danger is that there are disciplines out there, such as marketing and advertising, who might want to ‘own it’ and those disciplines are far more narrowly focused so while capable of doing brilliant work won’t necessarily sufficiently get the wider implications. That’s what we need to guard against.

It’s time for public relations professionals to take the advice of Mark Borkowski and Stephen Waddington and “find our swagger.”