Give and take: a business essential

By Margaret Ritsch, APR

PRSA has just wrapped up a 12-day hunt for a newer, current definition of public relations, using cloud-sourcing to solicit involvement.  The word-cloud below shows the terms most commonly used by the 700 practitioners around the globe who submitted their definitions.

I'm thrilled that the word "mutual" is even bigger and bolder than "audience" or "profit" or "success."  Often public relations is mistakenly performed as a lop-sided function that benefits one party (X company) much, much more than another (X company's neighbors, employees, partners, and so forth).

Public relations is a communications discipline that helps companies strengthen important relationships.  And anyone who's been in a relationship for more than two weeks knows that give and take is essential. Public relations engages and informs key audiences, serves as a company's "eyes and ears" to the world outside, and brings vital information back into an organization for analysis and action. It has real, measurable impact on the achievement of strategic organizational goals. This is how the profession is currently defined. 

Now that the definition search is closed, a PRSA task force will be evaluating the word-cloud and submissions and coming up with three possible new definitions this week. The three possibilities will be posted at www.prsa.org, and once again members will pick the final version. Here's hoping the word "mutual" makes the final cut.

What it means to be a leader, in the field and throughout life

Me (left) with outgoing UTA PRSSA President, Emily Suied (right) at officer elections.By Katy Kiger

I recently attended the Public Relations Student Society of America, or PRSSA, leadership rally in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’m the incoming PRSSA President for the University of Texas at Arlington, or UTA, and fortunate enough to be a summer intern at Perception. At the leadership rally, not only did I get to meet and network with many budding public relations professionals but I learned a lot about leadership. Yet, what I ultimately took away from this experience was more than just how to be a leader in my PRSSA chapter. I learned how to empower myself as a leader.

Being a leader is more than simply managing the tasks of others. It is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in your followers, giving them the tools to succeed, providing guidance, and ultimately letting go. But for me to be truly successful I must translate these ideals to my own life, particularly recognizing my own strengths and weaknesses.

PRSSA is a national organization for public relations and communications students, made up of more than 10,000 students with 300 plus chapters in the United States. PRSSA provides professional development through education and experience, with support from its parent organization, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

My life as an entrepreneur.

Well, it's been almost 90 days since I ventured out on my own as an entrepreneur and here's what I've learned (so far):

1) Networking can be fun, especially if you focus on giving more than receiving.  Thanks for the great learning experience this morning with the "what if up" networking group!

2) One of the most difficult things about being a 'new' entrepreneur is staying focused and on task - there's so many great things I want to do!  

3) Stay open to new possibilities.  I'm thankful for the many, many great clients we are working with. It's gratifying to work with these folks - they are doing some great work in our community.

4) Caffeine is amazing.  Late at night or early in the morning, there's nothing like a little coffee to energize my thoughts. 

I promise I'll write more later. That's it for now.

Signing off,
Mark 

three little questions

Everyone talks about branding.  What exactly does it mean? Is it supposed to be an arduous process - one that only the best minds in the world can grasp?  

In my opinion, no.  Start the process by asking yourself these three little questions:

1) Who are you?

2) What do you do?

3) Why does it matter?

The first two questions are fairly easy to answer.  It's the third question that causes some headaches. Take time to really think about it.  Brainstorm. Think of these three little questions as a litmus test for what makes you different.

The business case for public relations

One of the toughest challenges in practicing public relations is educating people about what it means!  In the Fort Worth area, PR continues to be understood too often as publicity, as simply getting news coverage. While PR professionals do practice media relations, it's really a small (and shrinking) subset of the practice. 

PR is so much more than winning headlines (or avoiding them in case of a negative event). It is a communications discipline that engages and informs key audiences and builds important relationships. Public relations serves as an organization's "eyes and ears," monitoring outside events and issues that can impact an organization, and bringing the information inside for analysis and possible action.  

For example, a local manufacturer needs to know if, less than a mile from its operations, a neighborhood group is meeting regularly to plan picketing the business because of newly discovered creek run-off. Having this information in plenty of time could help the company's leadership understand its neighbors' concerns, make changes to stop the run-off, avoid possible shareholder criticism, and prevent a slew of negative news coverage.

Public relations is one of the most critical functions for businesses and organizations for building and maintaining trust. And because it is so rare these days, trust is worth a mountain of gold.