PR vs. Journalism: Why Rivalry Hurts Both
While perusing my Facebook stream the other day, I came across this article on Business Insider. Its title alone (What PR People Really Think Of Journalists) told me the article was link bait.
What it didn’t tell me was that in attempting to “end” a decades, if not centuries, old rivalry, is that it would make every public relations pro look like an immature jerk.
For a very long time, public relations has used the media to tell the story of its clients. That’s changed a bit in recent years, thanks to the Internet, but that fact still holds true.
What a segment of this industry apparently doesn’t understand is that bloggers, reporters, commentators, anyone you’d define as a journalist, don’t owe us – PR pros – a damned thing. Continue reading »
Filed under Communication, Guest Posts, Matt LaCasse, Media, Public Relations | Tags: fighting, journalism, Public Relations, rivalry, working together | Comments (35)Communicating Through Change
Change is a-coming
I was reading through Lauren Drell’s overview of how to manage a re-brand in Mashable recently and began to reflect on my own experiences through a company re-brand and merger, and lessons I could pass on to fellow communicators.
As a brief back-story, in May I returned to Australia after three weeks in New York … right in the middle of a company merger. I was immediately given the opportunity to move interstate to work within a new and combined marketing and communications team of six people (a big change coming from a team of one).
The team has since launched a new corporate brand both internally (across more than 2,000 employees) and externally, as well as new brand launches for a number of consumer brands that sit under the larger corporate banner.
It’s been an experience of fitting into a new team and culture. Here’s what I’ve learned, and how communicators can embrace and make the most of such change.
Filed under Business, Communication, Guest Posts, Jamie Garantziotis, Public Relations, Shonali Burke | Tags: change communication, Lauren Drell, merger, Public Relations, working effectively with a new team | Comments (2)When Stories and Numbers Collide
What struck me most about the PRSA 2011 Conference – which was just terrific, I got to see so many old friends and meet new ones – was that there were two things you couldn’t get away from.
The first was the importance of storytelling.
Whether you went to Soledad O’Brien’s keynote (which was absolutely terrific), or sat in on Jay Baer‘s presentation, people kept talking about the importance of storytelling and how it is central to what public relations practitioners do.
The second was measurement.
Filed under Measurement, Public Relations, Shonali Burke | Tags: fairytales, Public Relations, storytelling, using numbers to tell a story | Comments (50)
