Much of the best PR work is not visible
This week I heard someone once again talking about something a company had done that was just a “PR strategy” or a “PR tactic” – basically asserting that is was something that was not genuine.
I’m not knowledgeable enough on what the company did to know whether it was genuine or not, but what bothers me is when people generalize PR as being something superficial with the end goal of just making people believe something at any cost. That’s not what ethical PR practitioners do.
If I could simplify my job to one statement, it is to make sure the communication is flowing both in and out with the people affected. That’s the whole “relations” part of public relations.
There seems to be a belief that PR is just traditional media relations – which happens to be one of the most visible parts of what some of us do.
But the thing is some of us don’t even work with traditional media at all. In fact, some of the best PR ever done is not visible to the masses and doesn’t get any media coverage because the goal is making sure the communication is flowing both in and out with the people affected – regardless of if the information is considered good, bad or neutral.
Back in 2002 or 2003 I woke up one morning to news that chambers of commerce across Alberta and BC were receiving mysterious packages in the mail. I worked for the Alberta umbrella organization representing over 100 of community chambers that were getting these packages that supposedly had cryptic messages and mysterious objects in them.
Turns out it was a religious organization that was trying to get a message out. Fortunately, they didn’t pose any kind of threat to anyone’s health or safety.
The story completely died but it took all day to get to that point and of course people were panicking in the meantime.
Because technology wasn’t what it’s like today, we simply sent update emails throughout the day as things progressed. When everything was done, I remember getting notes of thanks about how scared chamber managers were about their own safety and they were just so grateful (especially the very isolated ones) that we made sure they were informed.
That made my day, to know we actually made a difference and that we did our job.
In that position I also first experienced social media. Because of the isolation felt by our chamber managers, we experienced great success through launching online discussion forums to give them a platform.
While I value what traditional media brings to PR, the immediacy of social media in getting in touch with the people who want to get in touch with you and vice versa is invaluable for a PR practitioner.
Fast forward to a few years later… I was part of a crisis communications team at a post-secondary institution.
A colleague informed us that campus security told her that a gunman had just run onto campus. It was the result of a police chase that happened to end on campus.
Fortunately again it was no longer a threat, but quite literally just as she finished telling us, there were two posts on Twitter with people asking what was going on because they saw it happen.
Fortunately we were able to respond quickly, with accurate information and to alleviate any fear of further threat.
Again, fulfilling our role as people making sure the communication was flowing both in and out with the people affected made my day.
Crisis communications is but one area of PR where we use those darn “PR strategies” or “PR tactics.”
PR is continually evolving and social media has already made PR more visible and transparent by outing some unethical practices.
Hopefully one day it will also mean that PR is also viewed as something less superficial and much more genuine too.
