What Public Relations is Not! And What it is.

Public relations suffer from a deep perception crisis, and right from the academics to media, to corporate leadership, have diverse views on what this profession is all about. 

One can gauze the understanding of the chief PR person of a public sector organisation when he, sharing his "success" story, mentioned that the best PR lesson he learnt was to take care of his boss's dog, his wife and his kids and he never ever he had any problem in his career since then. 

This shocking revelation in front of an audience left the veterans speechless, while many others just wondered at such a disclosure.  Not his fault since in many public sectors and government organisations, earlier, provided a promotional avenue to their clerical staff to get into public relations whose primary job used to be running an errand or managing the reception. 

In the last four decades of my engagement with diverse fields of communication, right from being a journalist to public relations practitioner and visiting faculty to various educational institutes, it remains an enigma for many, including some of the corporate where PR does not go beyond 'Press Release' or media relations. 

There are numerous myths that surround the profession even today to a large extent, though senior communicators and businesses are taking serious note of the practice. 

Several professional bodies like the Public Relations Council of India, Association of Business Communicators, International Public Relations Association, and Indian PR Consultants Association, are making efforts to educate the management and introduce the professional practice. 

Young communicators opting for public relations often fall prey to the whims of the uninformed management leadership and are relegated to tasks far below their roles. 

In fact, the practice of public relations profession began with their role as firefighters in an hour of crisis but a young professional Ivy Lee put to rest the misbeliefs in the minds of the managements that PR is not to hide the truth but to be honest and truthful and proactive in sharing information with stakeholders. 

Public Relations is not: 

• Advertising
• Liaison
• Lobbying
• Propaganda 
• Ensuring publication of Press Releases in media
• Manipulating facts (spin-doctoring)
• White-washing/Hiding facts, especially during a crisis  (fire-fighting)
• Entertaining media people and keeping them in good humour

Public relations practitioner is a professional who is trained to manage communication effectively between an organisation and its stakeholders (or 'publics') to achieve desired results. 

Multi-Dimensional

A professionally trained communicator with knowledge of psychology, sociology, public administration, anthropology, linguistics, behavioural sciences, management principles, technology, data mining, business environment auditing, with a vision to judge the future impact of an organisation's existence,  can make people, corporate, public bodies, the governments, effect the change, what Mahatama Gandhi said, "you want to see in the world".  

The Changemakers

The young communicators entering the professions must feel proud of the fact that they are the changemakers who can bring about the desired change in the lives of the people, their perceptions, and their thought processes, just through sound communication techniques.

PR is all Pervasive

Organisations thrive through their stakeholders, which are diverse and different for every organisation.   Their study and communication consumption patterns defines the organisation's success story. How the stakeholders perceive a brand, an event, a person, depends upon the successful communication strategy. 

So the public relations practitioners should learn the fundamental nuances of communication tools, techniques and tactics, while the managements need to learn to harness the hitherto unutilised or underutilized Power of PR. 

 

Business Model for a Successful Startup

Every time is the first time. And every new customer you meet, it is the first time that you would be making your presentation.

The key is to create your pitch to every prospect with the same spirit, hardwork, efforts, to establish your credibility.

Here is a sure-shot formula for success in your business, i.e. WxWx3Ws+H

a. The first W is the Why of your business. Mission of your organisation or your offering. Why are you in the business you are in. Be clear. Be specific. Till the time you take it beyond your own self, you won’t find the true mission of your work. This is the core, the entire spirit of your engagement, or in short, the purpose of your being.

Each one of us is Born to Serve others. Ask yourself, how does your product or service is making a difference in the life of others. What problems it is going to solve?

b. The second W is to be multiplied, because this is another crucial element to your success. Who? Who are the people whom you intend to serve. These are the people, your customers, for whom you have devised the product. Do you know all these ‘people’ who are going to make a success of your business? They are both internal and external.

Internally, they are your cofounders, collaborators, investors, board of directors, and the entire team members, down to your office boy and tea-wallah, sweeper, etc.

Externally, the ‘WHO’ form the largest chunk who are the reason for your existence. Your distributors, dealers, channel partners, logistics support, vendors, retailers, customers, and their families, the community,
the media, the government, financial institutions, etc.

Once you start drawing your list of ‘Who’, you will be surprised to know how you need to create strategy to reach out to all those people.

c. Theeafter we have 3Ws, i.e. What, When, and Where. They relate to your product/services, the team of experts, your USPs and technical advantages over competition, when can one get them (or the timing factor) and where.

d. The H, How, explains the process you are going to adopt to solve the people’s problems. In the online domain you would find thousands of replicas of various products, but only one amongst them excels and shines just because of the excellence in execution, which is the differentiator.

When you pitch to your client, your presentation should not be more than 6 to 7 slides, because no one has the patience and time to go through lengthy presentations.

Your passion and knowledge about your product and how it connects with the prospective customer, would not require longish explanations. Keep them Short and Sweet.

The first slide, Why would take care of your values and objectives, while your research on Who would matter the most.

Before the pitch, study your customer/prospect whom you are going to make the pitch.

Don’t keep it general.

Modify it to suit specific issues that your prospect is facing, which would require a little research about the organisation to whom you are approaching. Address their specific needs, and you have hit the nail.

Take care.

 

Media should report unreported India: H.K.Dua

Member of Parliament and former Resident Editor of The Tribune, Mr. H.K. Dua, addressing the students and faculty of  Whistling Woods International School of Communication at Chandigarh, vehemently underlined the media's role to provide adequate coverage of "unreported India".
There are millions of people who are unemployed, starving, and living below the poverty line, whose voice must be reported and covered by both the print and electronic media, he averred.
He lamented the fact that our Parliament, our executive and our judiciary have failed the society and have not been adequately doing justice to the people they represent, and therefore, only option left for them is to go to media, which increases the responsibility of media persons.
"We are accountable to people and we should not betray them", he reiterated. And every journalist's 'dharma' is to maintain credibility by being truthful and report only the facts instead of coloring them with bias.
Jyoti Kamal, bureau head of CNN-IBN in the city however came up with defence for the electronic media saying that even tv channels are providing adequate coverage to the 'unreported India' though it has to strike the balance between what's more demanded by the viewers as established by various baseline surveys and feedback, and the issues that face the common man.
Vivek Atray, former director of public relations and tourism, information technology for UT Administration for many years, however pointed out that looking at the convergence of  technologies the most significant skill set required would be writing appropriate content for diverse media.
CII Chandigarh Council Chairman Vikram Hans pointed out the lack of necessary skill sets amongst fresh pass outs from different institutions that the industry needs, and complimented Whistling Woods for providing students the opportunity to interact with students during their studies.
Dr. Ujjwal Chowdhury, Dean of WWI School of Communication very ably articulated the vision of the School and how the students are being empowered to balance academics with experiential learning.
Somnath Sen, Vice President of WWI, and Maitree Ramaiya provided insight into the film production, and corporate communication respectively.
I had the opportunity to share dais with the stalwart communicators, and it is indeed gratifying that WWI School of Communications has started an MBA in Communication.  This was much needed considering the fact that in any organisation or business, the man, material, machine, and money management is made possible only through effective management of communication for which the country needs experts to strategise.  Public Relations as art and science of managing communication, and as a management function, it can not only  help any organisation improve its brand image but also contribute to its productivity, profitability and convert it into a winning organisation. 
I'm sure the debate that brought together the media people on one platform provided fair idea to the younger generation aspiring to enter into the field of communication, the challenges and opportunities that exist in the field.  Congratulations to WWI for their endeavours.

PR, a Dying Art?

Every new book on social media considers PR as "dying art", the new book, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" by so-called "thought leader" on the web world, Brian Solis, is no better. The socialisation on the web has become the buzz world and panacea for every product, service, or organisation in the world to "succeed".
Unfortunately, the book having been written by an internet buff, and not a public relations practitioner, who has just peeped through the 19" window of the computer screen to sermonise on the profession, considering the Web2.0 as the ultimate solution to corporate crisis communication, has not done any justice to what the author feels as the "dying practice".
Public relations is neither media relations nor the online relations, and the 'public' here is not a teenaged geek passing comments on each and every issue, but a group of serious consumers who, not all of them, sit in front of their computers to understand the brand. They are out there in the market place where they feel, taste, breathe, see and touch the products and services and create the brands for an organisation.
Public Relations is all about people and nothing else. Web is a mere tool, and Twitter, Facebook, Orkut are the new set of screwdrivers added to its kitty which the practitioners are deploying to their best use depending upon the need, and yes, the nev-savvy 'public' is proactively engaged in this exercise.