Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a crystal ball that could predict the future? Crystal ball or not—you can’t talk about the future of public relations without including social media.

PR really has changed a great deal just during my 17-plus years in the field. I remember working as an intern preparing news releases for distribution via only snail mail and fax (gasp!).

Now, you cannot conduct a successful PR campaign without some aspect of social media unless you want to miss a huge opportunity.

Like anything else, I think the key to remaining viable and successful is continuous improvement and reinventing yourself when necessary.

Nick Sherwin, one of my former management professors, always said, “Adapt to change or die.” Of course he was referring to a company or organization and not speaking literally, but his tagline always stood out to me and is relevant to the social media invasion of recent years.

I think any profession, including PR, must strive to continuously improve or something else better will come along and pass you by.

Author and CEO of Advanced Human Technologies Ross Dawson describes his take on the future of the PR industry (http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2011/09/revisiting-the-future-of-pr.html).

Dawson said, “Those that re-conceive their role and potential impact could well be masters of the universe…The continually emerging opportunities in a world of ever-unfolding public communication are still there to be seized. Let’s see if the PR industry – or others – best take them.”

My vote is for PR, but of course I am biased!

From my experience, many people have preconceived notions about public relations (PR) and PR professionals; some may be correct, but some may be way off…

According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” This definition describes PR in a nutshell, but there are many, many elements that go into supporting a true understanding of PR.

Some people base their opinion of PR and PR professionals on past encounters or relationships with other PR people. So, depending on what type of experience you had will dictate what you think about PR.

According to marketing.about.com, one PR myth states “Public Relations is Spin, Slogans and Propaganda.”

In a past life at a former employer, I actually would have employees ask me, “What propaganda are you communicating today?” While I’m sure this cynicism was driven by other factors, the idea of being a propaganda-pusher really offended me as I was communicating pertinent information about the company, which was important for employees to know. More importantly, I was communicating feedback from employees back to management, helping make two-way employee communications a crucial part of the company’s success.

Whether you are communicating with employees or the media, I think ethical behavior plays a key role in how you are viewed. Unfortunately, I know there are some “bad apples” out there practicing PR, and their behaviors tend to hurt the reputation of the larger profession to a very disproportionate degree.

Some journalists have had a bad experience with a PR person, then refuse to work with other PR people. I would venture to say that every PR person knows at least one or two members of the media like this. I really think that this is too bad since the PR and media relationship can be a win-win for all involved.

While unprofessional practices may earn some public relations practitioners their own well-deserved reputations, it’s important to remember that we are all individuals and should be judged on our own merits.

When Travis Parman’s presence became known as a student in the UT College of Communications in the early 1990s, that program was never quite the same (and neither was I). 

This Thanksgiving, one of the many blessings I hold closely is the set of friendships I’ve developed over the years as a result of choosing public relations as my career path when I was 18.   

At the old PRSA headquarters on Irving Place in New York, 1993.

Almost 20 years ago, Travis and I found ourselves as two PR peas in a pod, both at UT and through our involvement in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), where we both served on the national committee (Travis went on to be elected the first national president of PRSSA from the University of Tennessee). 

During those years, we probably took 20 trips together to PRSSA conferences and leadership meetings across the country, often with other good friends in tow, like Jennifer Miller Fesmire, Jackie Carpenter Cavnar, Amy Jones Schwinge (who now is a co-worker with me), and our friend from Ball State, Sonja Popp-Stahly, among many others.

Travis and I had a special connection because we probably recognized in one other an almost mirror-image wiring for the public relations business and the places we each wanted to pursue in it.

Our individual careers have taken several twists and turns – mine ultimately in an entrepreneurial direction and his on the corporate mover-and-shaker circuit (you can check out one of the industry reflections when he took his leave as General Motors CGO at jalopnik.com, which I’ll pass on hyperlinking to for those with more delicate sensibilities).

Suffice to say, Travis’s professional accomplishments have been typified by much of the same zest and zing as he brings to his friendships.  There’s never a dull moment.

Together at the Washington Hilton for the 2010 PRSA Conference. Photo courtesy of Sonja Popp-Stahly.

It was terrific seeing Travis as well as our friend Sonja in October at the 2010 PRSA / PRSSA Conferences in Washington – our old stomping ground, of sorts.  It’s an event that always brings about some sentimentality for me tied to the collegiate glory days.  I look forward to seeing what the next 20 years will bring.

By Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA; Director, Partnership Development, HGTV; 2010 PRSA Chair/CEO

I recently had the opportunity to ring the opening bell for the NASDAQ – a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I clearly had never placed on my bucket list. Even more curious, it was done for an organization that is not a listed or public company. I was there representing a professional association of public relations professionals, which represents a multibillion-dollar global industry.

So how did this happen? It was the result of an advocacy program for public relations launched by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) to outline the value and impact that public relations has on an organization’s success – The Business Case for Public Relations^TM.

Many don’t understand the essence of our business. Stylized notions of celebrity publicists and Beltway spokespeople pervade the news and popular culture, and the term “PR” itself has become common shorthand for the impression – good or bad – that organizations create.

That’s why PRSA developed The Business Case for Public Relations^TM. The program showcases the role of public relations and the professional value it delivers to essential business outcomes:

• Distinct skills provide services like crisis mitigation, reputation and brand building, wealth creation and consumer engagement.
• More than other communications and marketing disciplines, public relations engages all stakeholders of an organization, identifying and delivering impacts that are strategically aligned with concerns of the boardroom, employees, customers and investors.
• Public relations skills are critical to restoring waning public confidence in government and financial institutions as well as being essential to define, develop and maintain the transparency that consumers expect from the companies with whom they choose to do business.

Today more than ever before, companies and organizations need the value that public relations can deliver. As consumer engagement grows through social media, companies will need to outline an increased ability to manage the relationship and conversation that impacts their success in the marketplace. But companies need to engage a public relations professional that understands how to research, plan, execute and evaluate based upon the organization’s defined objectives in order to achieve value.

If your public relations activities are focused on business output and media clips instead of business outcomes, then you are coming up short in a return on your investment. On the other hand, your investment in public relations will garner attention when you can show how that investment delivers value in financial performance by generating sales, revenue and profit; improves your brand equity and reputation; allows for stronger and more efficient employee recruitment and retention; and increases the support you seek for policy decisions or achieving market position.

I hope that you will take time to find out more about the value of public relations on an organization’s performance by visiting www.prsa.org/intelligence/businesscase/.  Moreover, I hope that you find and define the value that public relations is currently delivering or can definitely deliver in your organization.

Several members of our team attended the February PRSA Volunteer Chapter meeting, where Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA – this year’s national PRSA chair / CEO and Knoxville-based Scripps communications exec – shared insights on the 2010 outlook shaping the public relations profession.

Among his recommendations on navigating social media relationship management, Gary urged the audience to consider developing “listening points,” not just talking points, in order to manage dialogue with diverse audiences who undoubtedly are calling the shots like never before.

To us, the idea of listening points draws upon an oldie but a goodie – the issues management playbook – whereby the PR team identifies and constantly monitors outside issues impacting, or potentially impacting, an organization’s world and that of its stakeholders. 

The process involves taking those issues and helping an organization stay one or more steps ahead, not just via messages, but via policies, procedures and behaviors that stakeholder groups view as the only legitimate evidence of where an organization really stands. 

Hence, the role of listening . . . after all, you can’t effectively advocate for an organization’s position if you’re deaf to the voices and points of view around you.  In equal measure, you can’t help guide an organization’s decision-making toward the best business decisions if management can’t (or won’t) hear, comprehend and hold some level of empathy for how stakeholder groups absorb the impact of those decisions.

Great case in point: the apparent lack of effective listening going on in much of the financial sector regarding executive compensation. 

Chapter President Susanne Dupes, APR, closed the meeting by announcing a $1,000 gift given to the UT College of Communication & Information’s public relations program in Gary’s honor, a gift in which our firm was proud to take part.  A terrific leader like Gary, who is keeping our profession’s best practices front-and-center, couldn’t be more deserving.