Tough to define, sometimes difficult to understand, the field, along with the related professions of marketing and advertising, fosters some thoughtful appraisal under a theoretical and practical microscope.
The greatest speaker on the subject of public relations I have ever seen was Pat Jackson. No one else has even come close. If Jackson, principal of his own PR firm and former president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), was in the lineup at a conference sponsored by PRSA or the Council [...]
Read more →One of the theoretical underpinnings of behavioral public relations has long been the well established diffusion process of decision-making. Diffusion process, introduced in 1960 by Iowa State sociologists and economists George Beal and Joe Bohlen of Iowa State University , demonstrated how media and mass communication built awareness and interest in a subject or proposed [...]
Read more →Many years ago when I told my mother I was working for UPI in my first job out of college she figured I was delivering packages door to door. I decided explaining the work of a wire service journalist and how it differs from what your friendly neighborhood UPS does was too confusing and complex [...]
Read more →In my many years of counseling presidents and engaging with top management at major universities I have been fortunate to watch outstanding leadership in action. Though higher education has not been generally blessed with great leaders, I have seen some truly remarkable ones. A close friend once told me, “You could put a grapefruit in [...]
Read more →Public relations professionals have long understood that they are involved in one of the world’s most stressful professions. Conflict, change and uncertainty are a daily part of a PR person’s life. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on the latest evidence that our feelings about stress aren’t all in our minds. In a Dec. 29, 2011 column [...]
Read more →Opinion leaders are a crucial target for any public relations program. Why? Because they have the ability to influence other people’s actions through interpersonal contact. The challenge for PR professionals is identifying these opinion leaders so they can build their understanding of and support for their organizations, enabling them to be advocates for those organizations [...]
Read more →Smarter people than us have worked over the years to develop a concise definition of the field of public relations. Here is a collection of definitions harvested from textbooks, presentations and professional journals. Public relations is the management of communications between an organization and its publics. Public relations is the attempt to create opportunities or [...]
Read more →The intense and growing interest in marketing among the leadership of colleges and universities has led to a merger of public relations and marketing in the minds of folks who have a superficial knowledge of the fields. These are two distinct functions that have a connection, but it is important to understand they also have [...]
Read more →Gleaned from a speech by incomparable public relations guru and speaker Patrick Jackson, here are his “nine ways PR affects the bottom line.” Builds awareness and interest. Builds morale and increases productivity. Anticipates issues. Discovers opportunities. Eliminates executive isolation. Handles crises. Advocates and effects change. Advocates social responsibility. Influences public policy.
Read more →Right there with “flack” on the list of derogatory terms for publicists and PR professionals are “spin doctor” and “spinmeister.” Nationally regarded PR guy Robert Dilenschneider took this on in a June 1, 1998, op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal headlined “Spin Doctors Practice Public Relations Quackery.” “Spin is to public relations what pornography [...]
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