Brittany’s Blog!

I came across The Bad Pitch Blog’s post “And They Say Reporters Don’t Care” and I thought of Dr. V because she has always told us a big part of PR is to get to the point of your message quickly and clearly, especially when pitching. The post shows the first paragraph of a pitch which is so ambiguous, including “gobbledygook” (or unneeded fluff) using the phrase “place-based out-of-home digital network” which is basically just a “video billboard.” I feel like some people/companies get so caught up being “professional” they forget to talk like humans-afterall, that’s who their audience ultimately is, right?

PR uses the LESS IS MORE strategy in news releases because every word is practically costing the organization. To keep your audience’s attention, you must introduce the facts up front (hints the one sentence lead in a news release) and follow up with the less important information towards the end. Also, as we discussed in class, when dealing with a crisis in the PR world, you must communicate clearly and quickly. Gobbledygook just does not cut it in PR…how do you form relationships when you can barely filter out the message?

Cheryl Harrison’s post about “blogging into a corner” reminds me about how we have talked about what to include in our blog. I think we have a huge overall niche of Public Relations which can include so many things: examples, thoughts, and social media. Therefore, it’s easy for us in our blogs to not be “backed into a corner” maybe because most of our blog posts aren’t so much of our own new ideas, such as Cheryl’s blog, but more of responses on other people’s actions in the PR world or summaries of what we have learned.

Basically, I think it’s easy for our class to have many opportunities on our own blogs to have countless posts about a variety of topics…especially since we have a “personal” category to talk about anything! I feel like a blog not related to this class would be so much harder to conduct because like Cheryl said-blog 101 says that you should have a niche- and without a professor leading us in a specific direction it would be challenging to find that niche and “stick to it.”

So Dr. V. has always stressed to us the responsibility which public relations must have to their publics in spreading messages and promoting certain attitudes.  While researching skin cancer and the causes of the rise of skin cancer in younger adults I have found that media, believe it or not, is indirectly responsible for much of this trend of being tan.  Media promotes tan celebrities and tanning products through movie stars or in magazines.  When skin cancer is the most common form of cancer-yes greater than breast cancer-you would think that our youth (including me) would be more concerned about the largest organ of our body.  Is that the price we pay for beauty??

Dr. V. has taught us an INCREDIBLE amount about PR through other sources which she has referred us to as well.  I want to sum up all of this information about PR (in no order):

1. Social Media is redefining PR because there is a deep shift in power dynamics.  Old PR there was only one voice that controlled the message and filtered out information.  Now, the new PR consists of conversations and more human voices. (2-way information flow)

2. PR is supposed to give a face to the organization and draw attention to their client.  This comes from the relational perspective which states that public relations should build and maintain mutually beneficial, positive relationships.

3. If you want to cover an issue you should catch it at the dormant phase (where no one has thought about it yet) so you can frame the issue towards your clients’ advantage.

4. The theory of stakeholder salience: In dealing with a mini PR crisis, you should first discuss the stakeholder attributes and decide which public needs to be addressed first.  For example, a public which has power and a legitimate concern would need to be addressed before a  public which  only has urgency.

5. Good strategic PR begins and ends with research.

6.  When making a PR plan, you should focus on goals, objectives, strategies, then tactics.

7. Always evaluate the results of your PR campaign through different types of evaluation.

8.  Because PR can have great effects on a mass amount of people, the most important part of Public Relations is assuming corporate responsibility.  This means caring about the greater good of the public.