Neil Richardson - Develop Your PR Skills

Develop Your
PR Skills

Neil Richardson and Lucy Laville

Publishers note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or either of the authors.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2010 by Kogan Page Limited

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

Neil Richardson and Lucy Laville, 2010

The right of Neil Richardson and Lucy Laville to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978 0 7494 5970 3

E-ISBN 978 0 7494 5971 0

The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, and are not necessarily the same as those of Times Newspapers Ltd.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Richardson, Neil.

Develop your PR skills / Lucy Laville, Neil Richardson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-7494-5970-3 -- ISBN 978-0-7494-5971-0 (ebook) 1. Public relations. I. Laville, Lucy. II. Title.

HD59.R47 2010

659.2--dc22

2010000342

Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd

eBook by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Contents

First, thank you for buying this book. Having bought it, you are now one of our customers, which means a lot to us. Throughout the text youll see the theme of public relations (PR) being a major driver of stakeholder satisfaction and competitive advantage. These are arguably the most important factors for many professionals.

If youre not a PR practitioner, you may wonder whether it really matters. Suffice it to say that substantial research has proved the need for good-quality PR for most companies. As Senior Lecturers at Leeds Business School, we have considerable experience of teaching across the whole range of ages, industrial experiences, organisational types and markets. In teaching professional students (working towards Chartered status) we are often asked a diverse range of questions. Weve encapsulated these questions in this text and offered honest, sometimes critical, answers. The professional students, studying in their spare time, are truly representative of the whole spectrum of organisations and businesses.

PR can benefit all organisations, whether public, private or third sector. It can help you identify, build and maintain relationships with your publics, including customers and prospects, as well as wider groups of individuals who may influence your organisation. Understanding these groups and how to communicate with them effectively is crucial in maintaining and developing your organisations reputation.

This book is designed to provide those with little or no understanding of PR with a practical guide on how to use it to enhance and develop your business opportunities. So whether you work for a small company, multinational, charity or sole trader, or if you simply want to explore the opportunities of a career in PR, this book will provide you with the foundations to understanding how PR can help you build your success.

This text is aimed at practitioners who do not have the time to trawl through 1,200-page tomes. That said, our approach, using examples to apply PR theories, will offer insights into the theories missing from many key texts. Were confident you will find new information that will enable you to develop your knowledge, skills and, hopefully, attitude.

Throughout the text weve suggested activities designed to encourage you to re-evaluate your surroundings. Questions are posed throughout with answers at the back (not that youd cheat). There has to be a test! Despite having decades of private-sector experience between us, were academics, after all!

So once again, thanks for the order and enjoy the book.

Many people consider PR to be all about media relations: how to get your name in newspapers and trade magazines, or on radio or TV, whether at a local, regional or national level. Many PR practitioners do indeed spend a lot of their time developing press opportunities and they now have the added challenge and huge opportunities offered by internet communications via social networking sites and blogs as well as websites.

We explore these areas of media and new media relations in more detail in later chapters. It is, however, important to understand that PR is much more than media relations; it can be highly effective in helping you to manage relationships with staff, suppliers, members, community groups, investors, influencers, and new and existing customers as well as in dealing with crises and issues in an ever-changing world.

In its simplest form, public relations is about developing and managing relations with stakeholders. Taking a strategic approach to public relations will ensure that the tactics you implement, from sending press releases to the media to communicating with staff, investors and other audiences, are most effective and sustainable.

The profession

PRs roots in business can be traced back to the 19th century, when the showman, entrepreneur and icon of American spirit PT Barnum famously said, Without promotion something terrible happens, nothing! In the early 1900s, Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, was a publicist for the arts who wrote books about the power of persuasion and techniques for success that are still influential today.

Public relations is a relatively new profession, although fundamentally it is about engaging communication tactics to influence the public, which has been done by governments, dictators and key influencers for hundreds of years. The growing profession is represented in the United Kingdom by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), a professional body that was established in 1948 and awarded chartered status in 2005. PR is used in a vast range of industries and professions, with different skills and competences being employed by practitioners. It is still emerging as a discipline and is therefore difficult to define in a simple way.

Despite its relatively new arrival as a recognised discipline, it has become one of the most popular professions for graduates, and a range of professional and academic qualifications have been developed over the past decade.