My experience on the London PR Seminar (and why I recommend it to others)

Last summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the London PR Seminar as a graduate student from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

At first, I admit I was nervous about going to London for three weeks (the only other country I’d been to was Canada…to Niagara Falls…with my parents). And I was even more nervous about forking over a few thousand dollars for the trip.

But it was worth every penny. Here’s why:

• With advancements in technology, it’s becoming easier to communicate globally – increasing the need to understand the PR practice in a complex international environment.

• If you’re going to study international PR, doesn’t it make sense to study it internationally? During the trip, students interacted with several UK-based practitioners and made site visits to places such as The Times, Ketchum Pleon, the US Embassy and Bank of America.

• It looks good on a resume. Less than 5% of American students study abroad; having this experience shows you’re motivated, independent, and willing to face challenges.

• By submersing yourself in a different culture for three weeks, you learn more about the culture and expand your worldview. A great way to do this is by interacting with the locals at pubs, on trains, and even on campus on topics from President Obama's foreign policy to the old argument: which is better - soccer or American football?

• It gets you out of your comfort zone. Though intimidating, by being 3,000+ miles away from home for nearly three weeks, you become more independent and start to challenge the way you used to think about things.

• You get an opportunity to meet friends from around the US and the world (and with global technology, it’s easy to keep in touch!).

• It’s a great way to travel. During our trip, students went to Paris, Rome, Dublin, and Barcelona while others stayed in the country and traveled to local destinations such as Stonehenge, Bath, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, and Brighton Beach.

And finally:

Take it from me: if you don’t, you may regret it. One of my greatest regrets after graduating with my Bachelor’s degree was not studying abroad. So when I was offered the chance to study a subject I love in a city as awesome as London, I jumped at the chance.

Given the chance, I'd do it again. No questions asked.

For more information, visit http://www.edabroad.uncc.edu/prel.

By Chelsea Wilde
Manager

Handling Stress in Crisis Communication

Did you know that, “CareerCast.com named public relations officer the second-most stressful profession in America?” If you talk to any Crisis Communication professional you will realize how this rating is accurate. Crisis Communication is a field that is surrounded with constant worry.

There are numerous pressures that arise each day demanding immediate attention. At what point does it become too much?

Categorized into four groups, PRSA details how to manage and be proactive in the battle against stress. Preparation, teamwork, perspective, and practice are techniques used to handle each situation with an open-mind and make beneficial decisions. This article details the struggles, outcomes, and preventative measures of handling stressful situations and clients.

http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/9444/1037/Stress_and_Crisis_in_Public_Relations_Staying_Cool

By Anna Craver

Associate Manager

Ethics and International Public Relations

For public relations practitioners working in International Public Relations, practicing ethical behavior is vital. The success of practicing ethical behavior can be measured by how trusted an organization, company, etc. is. Trust must be present in order to establish strong, long-lasting relationships with publics. When working internationally, trust may be harder to achieve due to the amount unfamiliarity and skeptics involved.

The presence of ethics in public relations is often times questioned. Public Relations practitioners should strive to prove the existence of ethics in this field.

In the IPRA’s “Code of Conduct”, the following are areas in which public relations practitioners should be aware of: observance, integrity, dialogue, transparency, conflict, confidentiality, accuracy, falsehood, deception, disclosure, profit, remuneration, inducement, influence, competitors, poaching, employment and colleagues. This “Code of Conduct” can be found at http://www.ipra.org/detail.asp?articleid=31

September was PRSA’s ethics awareness month. Here is an interesting post from PRSA’s blog relating to International Public Relations and ethics: http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2011/09/21/global-ethics-standar-for-public-relations/

Do you think it is possible to achieve an International Public Relations code of ethics?


By Sammie Jo Dellinger
Associate Manager

Are Pictures Really Worth 1,000 Words?

There have been rumors going around that the press release is dead, but ask any public relations practitioner and they will whole-heartedly disagree. The press release is one of our most commonly used communication tools. The press release isn’t dead; it’s just changing.

Instead of the traditional press release, new social media releases with attached video and infographics are growing in popularity.

Infographics are visual representations of information. They can be used to explain complex issues and can be read quickly. They are relished for creativity and stand out from the traditional press release by drawing attention. Infographics also tend to be great marketing tools for viral campaigns. They are fun to look at and people love to share them.

Have you ever used an infographic release? Was it successful? Do you think a pictorial representation of the information you need to communicate can be just as successful as the written word?

By Kate Brissenden
Associate Manager

Five pillars of online reputation management: a pragmatic approach.

With people spending more and more time online and 70% of consumers trusting other people’s online opinion (Nielsen 2009), the social web is definitely an interesting playground for reputation building and management. Here are five pillars for a pragmatic approach to online reputation management:

1. Mix hard and soft management.
On one side, organizational communication consists of lots of micro-stories told by stakeholders, therefore communication management should shift from a logic of command to coordination. In this peripheral model, an organization trains people to participate to conversations in the social media and the PR function acquires a leadership role. On the other side, the traditional rationality is always valid: planning, efficient resource management and measurement with hard metrics remain important tasks.

2. Listen.
First of all: people talk about brands and organizations online. Organizations can listen to them, try to answer and put into practice the insights they get. Conversation monitoring must be done analyzing content with a mix of software tools and the human sensitiveness of people who hang around the web and know its dynamics. Finally, also online conversations are mediated: organizations must know who the key influencer for their areas are.

3. Participate in all channels.
Both owned and non-controllable channels are relevant. Organizations must participate in all channels being transparent about the identity of their online spokespersons and ambassadors. However, the best case is to try to convey conversations on the owned channels, transforming them into online stakeholder relationships centers.

4. Engage your stakeholders.
Many stakeholders are not satisfied with being a mere communication target: they want to be involved, to become ambassadors, to contribute to organizational change. The web allows managing extremely effective engagement projects, such as those based on crowdsourcing. With the typical online interactivity you can make information readily available and in a more appealing shape, you can build gaming environments and you can leverage social influence and word of mouth.

5. Measure.
Organizations should keep an eye on awareness and preference. A more holistic measurement is the assessment of relationships. Finally, they should measure the level of engagement, actions and advocacy.

By Marcello Coppa
Managing partner, Anteprima LAB, Italy

Global Affiliate, The Center for Global Public Relations