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Behind the Spin, the quaterly magazine for PR students from the College of St. Mark and St. John recently printed key points from research carried out from UK PR employers:

1. PR education is valued by the majority of employers.
2. Most employers welcome the increased commitment of PR graduates to the industry.
3. Most employers see PR graduates as contibuting to the development in the field.
4. Many employers are concerened that PR graduates do not recognise that they have to do menial as well as management-level tasks.
5. Some employers are concerend that PR graduates think they “know it all”.
6. Literacy is the most valued skill, followed by team working.
7. Writing skills and media relations are considered most important to the PR curriculum, followed by public relations practice and one year placements.
8. Most employers agreed PR degrees should include a dissertation, though in-house employers were more enthusiastic than consultancies.
9. Public relations practice is valued very highly by employers.

Behind the Spin, Feb 2005, Issue 9

“I always thought it ironic that journalism schools house News writers, Advertising dreamers and PR people-in-training. It creates a never ending cycle of chasing each other and training none to trust the other”
“Besides this evil cycle, PR is caught in the problem that while housed within liberal arts colleges few of the PR graduates that I have met in the past 10 years can actually think critically or for that matter, creatively.”
“PR students are taught about the style, and tactics, but few are taught to think or challenged to think about an actual campaign, or what life is like day-to-day in the PR world. ”

A recent post by Blois Olson.

PR Blogger says:

True, students don’t learn what life is like day-to-day in the PR world at college/university. That’s why a lot of them give up their valuable time to work for free in PR departments when they arn’t studying or working in their paid jobs.
Who would you rather employ? Someone with a PR degree and 5 years PR experience or someone with 5 years PR experience?

Read the full article here

Only yesterday I said podcasting was the “in” thing, now I’m afraid podcasting is so yesterday. Make way for Microcasting.
Microcasting is the new term to describe the evolution of podcasting and includes all rich media including audio, video and applications.
Only today I was going to order this book too!
But then again all the hype seems to be coming from here

Wayne Hurlbert gives an excellent account on how blogging in public relations is essential. From receiving traditional exposure through a blog, to blogging through a crisis.

Read Wayne Hurlbert’s blogging for public relations here

Gerry McCusker, author of Talespin: PR Disasters says that five of the top 10 PR conultancies in the world have been involved in supposed PR disasters.

He’s named seven principle reasons for causing a disaster:
1. Acts of God
Even when natural disasters – such as a Tsunami – cause unforeseeable real life crises (and even if no-one was directly responsible for the incident) pockets of the media frequently describe how it’s a PR disaster of some sort; for tourism or even for the governments of the countries involved.

2. Business operations
This is where corporate activity adversely impacts on stakeholder groups, such as when Coca Cola and Pepsi had to defend themselves in India against allegations that their soft drinks contained excess levels of toxins. From a PR disaster viewpoint, both companies managed to fan the flames or discontent, rather than calm matters down.

3. Corporate moves
Around the time of acquisitions, mergers or takeovers, there’s plenty of room for dissatisfaction and even scandal, such as when a London PR man found himself rumbled, tried and prosecuted after indulging in a bit of insider trading. This happened after a client had confidentially told him of its plan to take over a competitor organization.

4. Legalities
When contentious issues are debated in court, then reported in the media – such as in the notorious McDonald’s ‘McLibel’ case – the potential for PR disasters is massive. Media watchers labeled this case ‘the world’s biggest corporate PR disaster’.

5. Rumours
Gossip can be highly damaging for brand reputation, as Procter & Gamble found when malicious rumours of Satanism – in part propagated by a P&G competitor – dogged the company for decades, forcing a worldwide logo redesign and extensive counter PR efforts.

6. Staff
When New York’s Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11, staff at one of the city’s Starbucks charged rescue workers for bottled water they needed to treat victims of the attack. When word got out ‘virally’ about this incident, the PR fallout was highly damaging.

7. Scandal
Financial or sexual shenanigans generally capture the media’s attention, such as when basketball star Kobe Bryant faced allegations of sexual assault. ‘PR disaster’ the media screamed, as Bryant’s lucrative sponsorship deals and image as an all-round good guy were jeopardised.

Read the full article here

Julian Henry, owner of Henry’s House PR recently said in the Media Guardian: “Shady trading and underhand dealing with newspaper people is an essential part of being an effective PR practitioner and though many of the big agencies might look down their noses at him, there is a lot to be learnt from the technique and application of someone like Clifford.”
Why thank you Julian! So everything I’m learning at university about being ethical, how to strategise, communicate and evaluate has been for nothing? Perhaps I should be studying a degree in “shady trading and underhand dealing” instead?
Isn’t Clifford a publicist anyway?

To read the full article click here (Registration needed)

It’s official! Blogging is out and podcasting is in. Well not just yet, but continued growth of RSS and the drive to communicate quicker and easier has brought in a new breed. Yes, it’s the PR podcasters! Click here for Ian Lipman’s article on podcasting.

I recently attended a CIPR Creative Writing Course courtesy of CIPR North East deputy chair, Laurel Hetherington.
The course is run by Andy Green FCIPR and was held at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, and focused on bringing confidence when writing, and how to apply creativity in writing.
Andy’s bizarre yet effective methods had us talking to walls, writing love poems, playing with juggling balls and writing a lonely hearts add to name a few.
When Andy asked what their biggest problem was with regard to writing, a lot of PR professionals mentioned confidence as the main issue. This indeed was a surprise to me and strangely give me a lot more confidence about my own ability.
To view Andy Green’s book click here.