I think the two important key points from this week’s readings are how a good PR practitioner should have a crisis management plan ready, and the rise and impact of technology.
Crises can never be predicted therefore it is prudent that the organisation should be prepared for anything that might go wrong. Causes of crises are pretty varied, with some examples being takeover bids, product tampering, or fires from electrical trips. How these crises are being dealt with can be important to the continued existence and success of the organisation.
The readings made me think more about public relations practices in that as stated in my second key point, the rise and impact of technology definitely changed the way the world works now.
The most significant technological advancement is no doubt the computer and subsequently, the emergence of the Internet.
I for one advocate the rise of technology, and believe that its importance and helpfulness far outweighs any negativity that can be brought up.
In regards to practicing public relations, the internet is a godsend for communicating to and WITH the audience. Especially in times of crisis, the internet can be used to quickly disseminate information to appease the panicked crowd, much faster and effectively as compared to tuning in to the TV or radio for news coverage.
The organisation gets to single-handedly assure the public, and they in turn could reply back with concerns that needs answering.
Technology allows many creative means to a PR campaign, and thus should not be ignored. PR practitioners and their organisations should keep up with the times and educate and re-orientate themselves with the rest of the world.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Week 9
I think the two key points from this week’s readings are knowing how to set clear and realistic objectives and knowing your audience well.
It is basically everything we need to know from our textbook, but to rehash and summarise my key points, knowing your audience and who and how to target is a step towards creating your realistic objectives.
The reading made me think about public relations practice more in that while having objectives, it all boils down to how well you’ve researched and found out, in order to make the most of the situation and work towards the objectives with the proper information needed.
Research on your target audience should be talked about as they are the people you should be focusing your attention to. Ways of researching them that requires you to actively participate are interviews, group discussions and surveys, to name a few.
Observation should be done beforehand, to help you with pointing out the patterns to behaviour that your target audience tend to exhibit. Even so, it is not safe to assume that such ‘results’ are concrete, thus the need for further research like surveys and interviews as mentioned above.
It should really be made clear that PR plans and campaigns need research to back them up.
It is basically everything we need to know from our textbook, but to rehash and summarise my key points, knowing your audience and who and how to target is a step towards creating your realistic objectives.
The reading made me think about public relations practice more in that while having objectives, it all boils down to how well you’ve researched and found out, in order to make the most of the situation and work towards the objectives with the proper information needed.
Research on your target audience should be talked about as they are the people you should be focusing your attention to. Ways of researching them that requires you to actively participate are interviews, group discussions and surveys, to name a few.
Observation should be done beforehand, to help you with pointing out the patterns to behaviour that your target audience tend to exhibit. Even so, it is not safe to assume that such ‘results’ are concrete, thus the need for further research like surveys and interviews as mentioned above.
It should really be made clear that PR plans and campaigns need research to back them up.
Week 8
I think the two key points to remember from this week’s readings are how important researches are and how innovation helps with the publicity of your events.
Research can cover a lot of aspect – from past case studies that has a PR plan which worked impressively and you can learn from their ideas, to statistics and information needed that is detrimental to formulating the right PR plan.
The readings made me think about public relations practices in that experiential marketing is now the norm to successful PR campaigns, as the world is now more technologically-savvy and appreciates being able to participate in events as it helps them to connect and understand the organisation better.
When someone feels like they are a part of the event, it makes everything more memorable for them, and this is a great way of branding an image in a person’s mind… for eternity! Or for a pretty long period of time at least, as long as future campaigns are as memorable and innovative as the last one.
There are a bunch of experiential marketing tactics, some of which involves guerrilla marketing, roach marketing and viral marketing.
The textbook mentioned ambush marketing, which I feel should have a mention because while it doesn’t exactly connect people to the brand, intentionally using this tactic is rather sly of the organisation. Not an ethical practice of course, but having the public associate your brand with the event shows how much of an impact your presence has.
Research can cover a lot of aspect – from past case studies that has a PR plan which worked impressively and you can learn from their ideas, to statistics and information needed that is detrimental to formulating the right PR plan.
The readings made me think about public relations practices in that experiential marketing is now the norm to successful PR campaigns, as the world is now more technologically-savvy and appreciates being able to participate in events as it helps them to connect and understand the organisation better.
When someone feels like they are a part of the event, it makes everything more memorable for them, and this is a great way of branding an image in a person’s mind… for eternity! Or for a pretty long period of time at least, as long as future campaigns are as memorable and innovative as the last one.
There are a bunch of experiential marketing tactics, some of which involves guerrilla marketing, roach marketing and viral marketing.
The textbook mentioned ambush marketing, which I feel should have a mention because while it doesn’t exactly connect people to the brand, intentionally using this tactic is rather sly of the organisation. Not an ethical practice of course, but having the public associate your brand with the event shows how much of an impact your presence has.
Week 7
I think the two key points to remember are having the correct set of tactics are beneficial, as well as being well-versed in the business world.
Many confuse tactics with strategies, and vice-versa, but tactics are basically the action being carried out to work towards the goal and objectives set at the beginning of the day.
The reading made me think about public relations practices in that while tactics may seem pretty clear and defined, there are still 2 groups of tactics to consider while devising a PR plan.
We have the controlled and uncontrolled tactics (or communication), of which the former has the public relations practitioner having complete control over every aspect of the process, from message creation to delivery of message and then the latter, which is being left entirely up to the Gods.
However, I feel uncontrolled tactics are much more dynamic or sensational since most of the time, it involves media relation. That is why PR practitioners need to exercise their creativity in order to pick up positive reviews. This encourages much more impactful and meaningful campaigns, which is infinitely much better than having people pass around flyers or newsletters.
Many confuse tactics with strategies, and vice-versa, but tactics are basically the action being carried out to work towards the goal and objectives set at the beginning of the day.
The reading made me think about public relations practices in that while tactics may seem pretty clear and defined, there are still 2 groups of tactics to consider while devising a PR plan.
We have the controlled and uncontrolled tactics (or communication), of which the former has the public relations practitioner having complete control over every aspect of the process, from message creation to delivery of message and then the latter, which is being left entirely up to the Gods.
However, I feel uncontrolled tactics are much more dynamic or sensational since most of the time, it involves media relation. That is why PR practitioners need to exercise their creativity in order to pick up positive reviews. This encourages much more impactful and meaningful campaigns, which is infinitely much better than having people pass around flyers or newsletters.
Week 6
I think the two important key points to remember from the reading are how knowing the community is not just simply talking to them, but connecting with them and how getting them to be active in a campaign is the way to go.
The reading made me think about public relations practices in a way that as time progresses, so do the people. Therefore, it is essential that PR practitioners get on with the program and adapt themselves to the changing times in order to connect to the public.
We learnt in communication about the types of communication models, and this clearly shows the step up from a one-way transmission model of the publics just taking in information to the two-way model, where people want to be heard and give feedback – that they are individual beings and not just a collective mass having one giant brain representing all their thoughts.
What connects the people to organisations now are being able to feel a sense of being part of the process, either in just giving feedback or participating in events that are being organised. However, as communities go, they are diverse therefore PR practitioners need to be aware of what is right or popular with the crowd then, and act appropriately.
The reading made me think about public relations practices in a way that as time progresses, so do the people. Therefore, it is essential that PR practitioners get on with the program and adapt themselves to the changing times in order to connect to the public.
We learnt in communication about the types of communication models, and this clearly shows the step up from a one-way transmission model of the publics just taking in information to the two-way model, where people want to be heard and give feedback – that they are individual beings and not just a collective mass having one giant brain representing all their thoughts.
What connects the people to organisations now are being able to feel a sense of being part of the process, either in just giving feedback or participating in events that are being organised. However, as communities go, they are diverse therefore PR practitioners need to be aware of what is right or popular with the crowd then, and act appropriately.
Week 5
I think the two key points to remember from this week’s readings are the various roles of ethics in public relations and how PR practitioners have to exercise ethical practices in order to communicate well with the publics.
Ethics in general refers to personal values that determine the behaviour and moral choices made by someone to respond to a certain situation. In public relations practice, ethical behaviour concerns both the practitioner and its organisation This concerns the personal ethics of the individual and the work or institutional ethics of the organisation.
The readings then made me think of the various roles that public relations practitioner take up. Public relations in today’s context is to “build bridges and alliances with different publics to create a conducive environment in which businesses, government … and other institutions can operate”, as stated in our textbook.
Therefore, four major roles have been identified, in which each of them have their own ethical implications.
1)Role of the counsellor
This involves objective observation and analysis of a situation, and then the advise of strategic solutions to the management. It is absolutely important that the counsellor remain objective and have a broad perspective on an entire industry rather than just their own client’s. Thus good judgement are to be exercised regarding various publics’ expectations about an organisation’s activities.
2)Role of advocate
This is to publicly represent the organisation and their ideas, and then impress this upon the public. Advocacy on the public practitioner’s part is not entirely wrong, but facts and information shouldn’t be distorted, nor should the publics be deceived into believing something that is a lie.
3)Role of corporate monitor
This has the PR practitioner to be duly informed of all activities, so they can interpret and guide the organisation’s actions and policies to match the public’s expectations. Therefore, pro-active behaviour is needed instead of just waiting for mistakes to happen. Reflecting the public’s opinion is one thing, interpreting it and exercising informed judgement is another.
4)Role of corporate conscience
The PR practitioner will be serving as the moral keeper for both the organisation’s communications and actions. They need to look at decisions, policies and actions not only through the eyes of the stakeholders, but also in terms of whether they are the ethical way of behaving.
Most ethical dilemmas comes from social responsibility or relationship issues with the client and its publics. Therefore bridging good relationship between everyone is essential for the success of a PR plan, and for avoiding ethical issues.
Ethics in general refers to personal values that determine the behaviour and moral choices made by someone to respond to a certain situation. In public relations practice, ethical behaviour concerns both the practitioner and its organisation This concerns the personal ethics of the individual and the work or institutional ethics of the organisation.
The readings then made me think of the various roles that public relations practitioner take up. Public relations in today’s context is to “build bridges and alliances with different publics to create a conducive environment in which businesses, government … and other institutions can operate”, as stated in our textbook.
Therefore, four major roles have been identified, in which each of them have their own ethical implications.
1)Role of the counsellor
This involves objective observation and analysis of a situation, and then the advise of strategic solutions to the management. It is absolutely important that the counsellor remain objective and have a broad perspective on an entire industry rather than just their own client’s. Thus good judgement are to be exercised regarding various publics’ expectations about an organisation’s activities.
2)Role of advocate
This is to publicly represent the organisation and their ideas, and then impress this upon the public. Advocacy on the public practitioner’s part is not entirely wrong, but facts and information shouldn’t be distorted, nor should the publics be deceived into believing something that is a lie.
3)Role of corporate monitor
This has the PR practitioner to be duly informed of all activities, so they can interpret and guide the organisation’s actions and policies to match the public’s expectations. Therefore, pro-active behaviour is needed instead of just waiting for mistakes to happen. Reflecting the public’s opinion is one thing, interpreting it and exercising informed judgement is another.
4)Role of corporate conscience
The PR practitioner will be serving as the moral keeper for both the organisation’s communications and actions. They need to look at decisions, policies and actions not only through the eyes of the stakeholders, but also in terms of whether they are the ethical way of behaving.
Most ethical dilemmas comes from social responsibility or relationship issues with the client and its publics. Therefore bridging good relationship between everyone is essential for the success of a PR plan, and for avoiding ethical issues.
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