This week in PR (13 January)

It happened this week

Prince Harry has made mistakes, the book is an error, but no single individual deserves such concerted hatred from the British press, red in tooth and claw. Moderation is needed. Hatred has consequences.

— David Yelland (@davidyelland) January 9, 2023

Profession

This is a big blow for the @PRCA_HQ on top of everything else with the review/investigation – I've always been so impressed by @KorComms and his integrity and diplomacy; any comms team would be very lucky to have him on board. https://t.co/JdUgqsuc2R

— Maja Pawinska Sims (@SparklyPinchy) January 12, 2023

• David Olajide: 2023 Predictions for the PR Industry (10 January)
  ‘We asked PR pundits to look in their crystal balls ahead of this new year, and judging from their predictions, the PR world is in for an interesting 2023.’
• PRovoke Media: 2023 Forecast: 10 PR Trends We’d Like To See (9 January)
  ‘ESG is not simply a rebrand of CSR or ‘purpose-led’ campaigns, let alone promoting ‘green’ products: it usually requires complete business transformation.’

Consulting, skills and careers

• Sam Bleazard: Candid Career Coach and LinkedIn influencer Vicki Marinker [podcast] (10 January)
  ‘January is busy for recruiters because they’re talking to candidates who want a fresh start. We are busy talking to people who are thinking ‘what next?’’
• Ella Minty: Never Be Aggressive When Pitching (9 January)
  ‘We, as advisors and consultants, must and should be able to understand what a client needs or wants – not what we want that client to “want”.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

• Dominique Rock: A tale of progress or more talk than action? Hopes and predictions for BME people in PR and beyond for 2023. (9 January)
  ‘In PR, despite attempts to address the lack of diversity in the industry, stats show that the industry is still mostly white (87%), with the pay gap in their favour, with progress to recruit and retain BME talent slow.’
• Sara Thornhurst: Turning awareness into action (7 January)
  ‘It might be unlikely anyone with a visual impairment will personally thank you for including alt text, or someone with hearing loss seeks you out to praise you for adding captions but adding them every time, until it becomes second nature is putting your disability awareness into action.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

• Joe Cooper: Government, industry, and unions hoping for strike breakthrough after another day of negotiations (12 January)
  ‘With junior doctors in England currently balloting on further strike action in the form of a 72-hour strike in March, tensions between the unions and government is only likely to heighten in the weeks ahead, putting further pressure on Ministers to come to an agreement in the public interest.’
• Karina Barcellos: Letter from Brazil… (12 January)
  ‘Even though Abracom, the Brazilian Association of Corporate Communications Agencies, has published a letter of condemnation in response to the acts on Sunday, as of the writing of this assessment, only three brands have publicly positioned themselves against the attacks and pro-Democracy, with mixed results.’
• Charlie Rattigan: Energy shakeup (10 January)
  ‘In a change up from the previous scheme, firms will now get a discount on wholesale prices rather than costs being capped. Additionally, firms will only benefit from the scheme when energy bills are high.’
• Thomas Sharpe: UK and Japan – The Quiet Relationship (10 January)
  ‘The island monarchies share similar drinking habits and traffic quirks as well as a long history and a significant economic relationship.’

Research, data, measurement and evaluation

• Adam Driver: What do I want my audience to think, feel, do? (10 January)
  ‘The key thing is to not overcomplicate such outcomes – trying to get people to think, feel AND do three entirely separate things can be complex.’

Crisis, risk and reputation

• Claire Munro: Book review: Reputation in Business (12 January)
  ‘Thomson makes a convincing case that the health of an organisation is in jeopardy without a proactive approach, stating “reputation management is risk management”.’ 

• Ben Smith with George Hutchinson: How to use risk methodology in your crisis comms strategies [podcast] (9 January)
  ‘What’s the trigger, the event, the issue or risk you’re dealing with? What are audiences going to think of that? What are the reputational risks?’

Internal communication

• Rachel Miller: Why internal communication feels tougher today (10 January)
  ‘Stakeholder mapping has taken on a whole new meaning for me with my clients. I’ve found myself challenging assumptions, testing theories and trying to gather insights and evidence to help the internal communicators I have the pleasure of advising.’
• Jenni Field: Avoiding the hurry habit – trends and why you need to slow down in 2023 (10 January)
  ‘As we try to navigate the awkwardness of a post-COVID workplace, people want choice, options, and the ability to discuss and feel heard. We must create space in organisations to do that.’
• Andrew Hesselden: Eliminating overwhelm by paring back (7 January)
  ‘My focus on comms in recent years has been about minimising overwhelm for staff and looking closely at the user experience of the Comms we push out or that employees consume.’

Media, digital and technology

• Ian Silvera: For TikTok, 2023 will be defined by regulation as EU, UK and US lawmakers circle (12 January)
  ‘TikTok is available in no less than 40 languages. This scale and growth has caught the eyes of numerous regulators across a myriad of jurisdictions and countries. The EU Commission has warned the platform over privacy.’
• Dave Turnbull: AI and climate change were the most relevant topics of Q4 2022 for the European tech community (11 January)
  ‘Let’s a take a closer look at the top topics dominating social media conversation among the European tech community,’
• Stephen Waddington: The GPT-3 marketing and public relations practitioner (11 January)
  ‘There’s a great deal of excitement about the technology as it seemingly is able to mimic human creativity and generate and edit content incredibly quickly. It generated a plausible definition of public relations from the 600 or more in literature on the click of a button.’
• Stuart Bruce: Please help complete the global CommTech survey and win a free pass to the PRovoke Global Summit (10 January)
  ‘There’s a general perception that the communications and PR industry is well behind marketing in its use of technology. MarTech has become a familiar phrase, but CommTech, PRTech or CommsTech are still new to many communications and PR professionals.’

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