100 rpm

My fantasy PR reading list

What books do PR lecturers use and recommend?  If I had to name the most-thumbed PR books on my shelves I'd probably list Tench and Yeomans' Exploring Public Relations, Freitag and Quesinberry Stokes' Global Public Relations, Coombs and Holladay's PR Strategy and Application, Cornelissen's Corporate Communications and Kelleher's Public Relations Online.

The global library of books about PR is growing, but there are some that I wish existed  - either because they would would help me in my work, would complement those listed above, or simply because I'd like to read them. And as I'm not going to have the time in the next five years or so to remedy this by writing a book, here's a list of some that I would love to see appearing in library catalogues:

• A critical case study book.  This should have an international focus and be written by someone not involved in any of the campaigns.  As the saying goes, 'history is written by the winning side,' and this is the situation with case studies; only those deemed a success ever seem to be considered worthy of publication.  I'd like to see a book which also exposes campaign failures and analyses where campaigns went wrong.  Even when detailing successful campaigns, I'd like to see a book where the authors talk to everyone involved in the campaign - including the hapless account assistant who spends a week selling in a story to get one or two pieces of coverage.  This would help us understand what we really mean by 'success.'
• A collection of academic essays which looks at issues facing practitioners as individuals.  There is so much potential for further research on areas such as gender, communication, diversity, class, ethical practice, exploitation, education and the like. There has been some fantastic work in these spheres and I'd love to see some of these topics given more space.
• A really thorough book on strategic PR planning which addresses the subject from an organisational perspective and contains lots of examples of 'real' plans as well as a critique of their content.  Some students really struggle with writing a plan, and find past plans an invaluable resource.
• A PR lecturer's handbook featuring ideas for seminars, workshop topics and discussions.  In common with other lecturers, I've got a store of workshop and seminar material, but it would be fantastic to pool the knowledge and ideas of other PR lecturers together.
• A book on law for PR practitioners.   McNae's Essential Law for Journalists is brilliant, but a PR practitioner also needs to know about aspects of consumer and corporate law - for instance, how many PR practitioners setting up their own consultancies or working freelance really understand contract law?   Kolah's Essential Law for Marketers fills most of the gaps, but to have everything in one title would be preferable.

Some of these books might exist already - if they do, let me know.  If they don't ... I'm not precious, please borrow these ideas, I'd love to see these books in print, rather than in my head.

EUPRERA Euroblog Social Media Awards - call for entries

Last year, one of my MA in Public Relations students, Annika Wahl, was shortlisted for a EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education and Research Association) Euroblog Social Media Award for her blog Hanna La Kiw.  Although she didn't win (in her category that honour went to Laura Fischer for New Media in Practice) I was delighted that she'd made the final cut

The call for entries has just been made for the 2011 awards and the judges are looking for PR bloggers across these three categories:

• Most effective social media presence established by a communications/public relations student studying on undergraduate or post-graduate programme at a European university.
• Most innovative use of social media techniques in a communications research project or investigation
• Most valuable contribution to the academic understanding of the impact
  of social media on PR practice.

Details can be found on the Awards website.

Competitions like this are a fantastic way of discovering exciting new blogs from across Europe, so I'm looking forward to clicking on some links as the participant list is published.

 

What happened to Dave? Five videos to liven up a PR class

I'm jealous of mathematics lecturers.  I'm even jealous of people who lecture in engineering and physics.  As we grind towards the end of term, a maths lecturer can liven up a lecture with some great jokes (especially about engineers).    But PR?   Maybe it's because the subject is too new, or uncomfortable with its status, but PR jokes are few and far between.  I have to rely instead on my catalogue of anecdotes and stories about the world of PR  to raise the tempo in an end-of-term lecture.

Or, I can show a video.   And not just any old video.  These are my top five videos for livening up a PR lecture.  They are all relevant to teaching PR (not just  social media) and all manage to be engaging, humorous (although I appreciate that this is relative), relevant and informative(ish) all at once.

 1.  Research methods.
What better way to explain to students how not to compose a questionnaire.

 

2. Lobbying
Some students find the political process daunting.  This series of videos simplify the lobbying process.  Unfortunately, the series ends rather suddenly , leaving my students desperate to know what happened to Dave.

 

 Free Dave! The series

3. Flashmobs
I haven't shown this is class yet, but I will.   A neat way to illustrate aggregation ... and the "wisdom of crowds?"

 

 4. Reputation
This will usually be the first - and last - time a UK student will hear a country and western song played in class. 

 

5. Viral marketing
I'm feeling all nostaligic now.  When I first started teaching PR I had to explain what a 'viral' was.  And I used this video to illustrate it.  It also  could be used to spark a discussion about alignment of  communication channels/messages/audiences. 

 

Potential blog topics revisited

Last year I wrote a post to help my MA in PR students write their first few blog posts:  Potential blog topics – the list that PR students won’t need after a month

A year on and the post is still getting three or four hits most days (sometimes over a dozen, and from across the world - there are a lot of student bloggers out there!).  However, since a new cohort of De Montfort University MA in PR students will be setting up blogs in the next few weeks, I thought I'd revisit the list and add a few more ideas to help both them and anyone else who needs inspiration.

Ideas for PR student blog posts

• Is there a social media or PR campaign that you admire?  Critique it, and see if you can interview the person behind it.   What was their objective?  How did they manage the campaign?  Did it meet their expectations?
• Interview with one of last year’s PR graduates from your university.  How did studying PR help them find work or develop their knowledge?  What are they doing now?
• The advice you'd give to any student planning to study PR.  What do you wish you'd read or done more of before starting the programme?
• Comment on a PR issue that interests you - for instance diversity, surveys, ethics, work experience ...
• Get involved in the Twitter #Comms Chat and write about your experiences
• Attend a guest lecture held by your university (it doesn't have to be about PR) - review it and/or interview the speaker afterwards – they will (probably) be delighted to help

Whatever you write about, make your posts concise and  make sure that you focus on one main topic.  It's better to write 200 words than 2,000, and if you find yourself straying off the point ...well, that's probably another blog post.

I'd love to hear more ideas for student blog posts - please do add them!

 

PR in the real world

One of the best ways for students learn about the practice of PR is to hear from a PR practitioner what they actually do all day.  Tim Penning has taken the time to interview a PR practitioner about her work and the video is here. thanks Tim!

It's good to hear the voice of PR practitioner who works in a small team and with a small budget.  Too many applied PR texts focus on one particular aspect of the PR role - such as social media, media relations or strategy - and it's often difficult for students to see how all the approaches fit together. 

 

 

 

 

Sharing your research - IPR Best Masters Thesis Award

Our MA in PR students are working  on their dissertations at the moment.  They're not alone - PR Masters students across the country (and beyond) are busy reading, writing, interviewing and number crunching as the submission deadline draws closer.

However, unless you're aiming for an academic career where you'll develop your dissertation themes further, it's a shame that after all the hard (and occasionally innovative and academically inspiring) work, most dissertations end up on a shelf gathering dust, destined not to be read by anyone other than those who mark it.

Which is why the Institute for Public Relations'  Northwestern Mutual Best Masters Thesis Award is such a great idea.  Entering involves very little extra work, and the chance to share your research (oh, and win a trip to NYC!)  has got to be worth the time putting the entry together.

Deadline for entries is 15 September 2010.  If you're proud of your work, why not share it?

Exposing those cv porky pies

CIPR Midlands is running an event You're Hired! aimed at helping interviewers get the most out of prospective candidates - a great idea for a session, since small companies and agencies sometimes lack the ability to coach or train new managers in this area.

Unless there were blatant lies on a cv, it could take until interview stage to expose some of the best works of fiction on a cv:

Interviewer:  "You say you enjoy going to the theatre?  What's the last play you went to see?"

Interviewee:  "Um, I saw some Shakespeare at school ... I like the idea of going though."

Interviewer:  "It's great that you're interested in current affairs - did you hear our client interviewed by John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning?"

Interviewee:  "No ... I don't watch Channel 4 news" (pause as interviewer scrapes herself off the floor)

However, thanks to Twitter, we don't have to waste our time at interview stage finding out that the candidate we're talking bears no resemblence to the person on the cv. 

You say you're interested in current affairs?  I'll expect you to follow at least a couple of national daily newspapers or online news sites (and not just those recommended to you when you sign up to Twitter).   And since you're working in PR, you must be fascinated by the media in all its forms, so I'll expect to see you following @mediaguardian at the very least.   And while the sort of PR people you want to follow might depend on the nature of PR you're interested in, I'd expect you to follow at least a couple of these PR/social media people or the people they're connected to:  @stedavies, @jangles, @markpinsent, @wadds @emilycagle @mediaczar @armano, @trevoryoung, @shelholtz, @harrietcrosse @behindthespin (these names have been picked at random from people I follow who posted today, in case you were wondering why you were included or missed out).   

If you don't follow any PR people (or journalists) I'll smell a rat straight away - are you really interested in a career in PR, or did it just seem like a nice idea?  And if you say you love politics, I'll expect you to follow at least a handful of politicians.   

And  of course it's not just about following ... it's about how you use Twitter as well. 

Work placements: A lecturer's view

A 1980s TV campaign for the Guardian encouraged us to look at the wider picture before forming an opinion.   Although this is generally a good idea, sometimes this leads you to think too much about an issue, ending up without a clear perspective.

This was how I felt about the ongoing debate about work experience in the media industries (some recent articles are here and here).  My  confusion  was fuelled by having vested interests that pulled me in three different directions. 

My academic research concerns the exploitation of workers in the cultural industries (which doesn't just cover work experience but also homeworking, online work, personal branding, etc. etc.).  However, as a direct contradiction,  I also lead the work experience module on De Montfort University's MA in Public Relations, thus actively promoting placements.  You can see my dilemma. On top of this, I also used to work as a PR practitioner and consequently have met scores of work experience students, who have varied in their quality from the terrifyingly awesome to being a terrifying liability.

All this led to a lot of hand-wringing and soul-searching about where I stood in the debate.   But after listening to the experiences of my work experience students this year, and reading stories from all corners of the industry, I've decided that some of my confusion about the work experience/exploitation debate derived from the fact that I was trying to make PR 'work experience' mean one thing (we'll put to one side 'placements' and 'internships' here, which can have slightly different meanings).  For in PR, the term 'work experience' can span two types of employment - one exploitative, one not.  I will explain:

• One kind of placement is essentially symbiotic.  The organisation feels that it wants to give something back to the industry, but at the same time it needs to remain profitable, and has some minor but interesting jobs that need carrying out.  The placement student spends a lot of time shadowing and attending meetings but also contributing to team activities, sharing their new university knowledge and 'doing' PR - something that my placement students find invaluable.  

• But there's another type of placement.  I'm increasingly being phoned by organisations who have a 'project' and want a 'placement student for three months.'  No, they don't want a placement student.  They want an unpaid resource with few employment rights.  Similarly, I'm hearing stories from placement students (rarely mine, fortunately) who are working at agencies where the placement students outnumber the paid staff.  While some of these students are getting amazing experience by being allowed an awesome level of responsibility at a very early stage in their career, the agencies are simply exploiting goodwill and pocketing the cash from clients.  In one case the placement students had to vacuum the office at the end of the day!  This isn't work experience, and although 'economic downturn' might be an excuse, it doesn't make it right.  There's no mentoring, no support, and no coaching that goes beyond tearing a press release apart.  These jobs should be done by paid staff (and that includes the cleaning).

As a result of this, I've made a decision.  I'm happy to promote and encourage students to apply for the first type of internship.  After all, they enjoy the placements, apply their prior learning, find out more about PR, and acquire valuable experience and contacts - and the host organisation gets something out of it as well.  As for the second type ... I'm not going to promote their 'opportunities' to my students or retweet their vacancies via Twitter.   And if I have the chance, I'll privately explain why.  Simple as that.  It's not a particularly active stance, but it's a start.

The timesheet debate - it's not about time, it's about trust

One thing I don't miss about agency life is timesheets.  The panic at the end of the day when you realise that it's 6:00pm, you thought it was 4:00pm, and you have no idea exactly how long you've spent on anything that afternoon.  The realisation that the four hours you sat in a traffic jam on the M6 returning from a client meeting have to be assigned as 'admin' even though it was the client's fault that you were there in the first place ... It's hardly surprising that a survey published today claimed that 90% of practitioners completed timesheets incorrectly.

I could tell many tales about the wonderful works of fiction created using the platform of a timesheet but I won't.  If you work in an agency, you've seen them.   And there's a more serious debate here regarding professionalism and trust.

Since lawyers and accountants complete timesheets it's hardly surprising that, in their quest for professional status and desire for accountability, PR agencies should want to do the same. 

Students sometimes complain that they "spent three weeks on the essay and got 45%" while pointing out that their mate did it in an evening and got 75%.  Unfortunately, time and effectiveness are rarely related.  An agency can spend weeks creating and implementing a useless campaign and achieve nothing, while another makes a couple of timely calls to key influencers, or has an exchange on Twitter with a journalist and  achieves results beyond the client's dreams. 

Unfortunately (and here's the tricky bit) the people who argue that timesheets are meaningless and that results should speak for themselves  could be shooting themselves in the foot.  While some PR campaigns are required to produce immediate results, others, looking perhaps at conative change, are longer term, and measurable, results may not be seen for a year or more. And that's without talking about the time spent researching and thinking about new campaigns.  That time isn't producing results, but in the hands of a good agency, it's not unproductive. 

So perhaps it's all about trust.   However fees are assigned, a client should trust an agency enough to do a great job without having to check that they've completed their contracted 30 hours that month.  And the agency should respect the client's trust in return, work intelligently and deliver great PR.

Not "Where did you do it?" but "What did you do?"

The Times reported recently that parents were paying for students to have high profile work placements.   And to an employer, a week somewhere like Condé Nast must look pretty impressive on a cv.

But when the placement is discussed in a future job interview, and savvy employers ask what a student actually did during their placement, a breathless reply of "I attended board meetings, shadowed the MD and went to photo shoots" doesn't hide the fact that the student did very little apart from watching a glamorous corporate life unfold in front of them.

While some of our MA in PR students secure great work placements at high profile organisations (without paying, I hasten to add), many spend their four-week placements in small-ish regional agencies.    And I'm often asked: "Do you think I should be doing something in London?   Won't an employer want to see that I've worked somewhere well-known?"

My answer is ... no. Good small agencies are great places to carry out work experience simply because the organisational structure means there's no room for someone to do nothing - so students have to get stuck in to a full range of PR tasks from their first day.

This year, students carrying out placements at regional agencies helped to organise events, write blog posts for the agency blog, drafted press releases which they then saw appear in print, advised on social media strategy and tactics, talked to journalists, attending networking events and helped with client research -the sort of jobs which a large organisation might have difficulty letting a student do due to internal bureaucracies, departmentalisation or not wanting to lose control.

So while placements at large organisations can give students a brilliant hands-on experience of PR, it's important to remember that small regional agencies do the job just as well.    The question that employers should be asking a student about their placement is not:  "Where did you do it?" but "What did you do?"

I'd be interested to hear what PR employers and students think.