This week in PR (19 January)

News in brief

• Open Banking, changes to Facebook’s news feed, and Carillion’s collapse have all been in the news this week. You can read more in the ‘pick of the posts’ section below.
• The PRCA/PR Week PR and Communications Census is open to anyone working in public relations. Findings will be published in April.
• A ‘Freedom to Campaign Guide’ has been published by Campaign Collective to help third sector organisations navigate the Lobbying Act. See Simon Francis’s blog post below for more on this.
• 2015 CIPR president Sarah Pinch has been appointed as a non-executive director of Anne-Marie Lacey’s Filament PR.
• Paul Webster has been promoted to editor of the Observer newspaper, succeeding John Mulholland who becomes editor of Guardian US.

Calendar

• PRCA and Golin present CSR: Lip service or force for good? London, 24 January
• Influence Live: London, 30 January
• ECREA Organisational and Strategic Communications Conference, Malaga, 1-2 February 2018
• CIPR International: Annual General Meeting 2018, London, 20 February
• CIPR Inside: Ask the Guru – from informing to engaging, London, 6 February / Newcastle, 22 March
• Commemoration service to mark CIPR’s 70th anniversary at St Bride’s church, Fleet Street, London on 9 February
• Deadline for logging annual CIPR CPD activity is end of February
• David Weinberger, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, will deliver the Sir Stephen Tallents memorial lecture on 14 March as part of the CIPR’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
• The World Public Relations Forum 2018 is in Oslo, 22-24 April
• ICA Preconference: Authentic Communication, Trust, Dialogue, and Society, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 May
• AMEC Global Summit, Barcelona, 12-14 June
• PR Fest, Edinburgh, 14-15 June
• Barcelona International Critical PR Conference is on 2-3 July. Deadline for submissions 1 March 2018 (email [email protected])
• International History of Public Relations Conference is in Bournemouth, 11-12 July.
• Comms Unplugged 2018: 13-15 September 2018 in Dorset
• EUPRERA Annual Congress, Aarhus, Denmark, 27-29 September 2018 (call for papers)

Pick of the posts

These are the editor’s pick of posts about public relations this week. Recommendations are welcome to [email protected]

• Colin Byrne: The three pronged approach to getting your first – or better – PR job (17 January)
  ‘Ask a CEO or other PR leader to be your mentor or ask for their advice – intelligent flattery will get you far with old PR hands.’
• Kerry Sheehan: With up to half of PR jobs set to be replaced by AI – Don’t let personal branding stifle your authentic voice (17 January)
  ‘A growing, fiercely competitive ‘gig economy’ has made digital profiles a crucial part of grabbing work opportunities.’
• Amanda Coleman: One from the bucket list (17 January)
  ‘I never think of myself as remotely academic as I have avoided education for many years (except my Chartered PR assessment).’
• Simon Francis: Charities must have the freedom to campaign (17 January)
  ‘Measures introduced by the Government, such as the Lobbying Act, are continuing to take a heavy toll on voluntary, charity and social enterprise (VCSE) campaigning.’
• Francis Ingham: My thoughts on Richard Bailey’s PR membership article (17 January)
  ‘I know that the PRCA represents and regulates over 24,000 practitioners. And I believe the CIPR when it says that it represents over 10,000 practitioners. So I’d say that collectively we have at least 30,000 practitioners represented and regulated by our two organisations.’
• Alastair McCapra: Why isn’t transparency working? Questions raised by Carillion’s collapse. (17 January)
  ‘Did professionals play any useful role in reducing the likelihood of collapse, or of warning when it became unavoidable?’
• Marcel Klebba: Women in PR panel: personal branding on Twitter (16 January)
  ‘Personal branding is all about other people; it’s about bringing value and engaging with them.’
• Arianne Williams: Public relations in 2018 (16 January)
  ‘To ensure the future of the profession and its professionals, the theory needs to keep up with the practice.’
• Daryl Willcox: GDPR for public relations: driving up standards (16 January)
  ‘Let me present GDPR in a way that may motivate you a little more to embrace it, and perhaps even enjoy it.’
• Simon Maule: Striking the right balance: Five steps to achieving collaboration through thought leadership (15 January)
  ‘An analysis of current thought leadership content shows that the majority of it – 58% – uses a male tone of voice. Just 37% is female, with the rest neutral.’
• Scott Guthrie: When influencers act like jerks: how brands can protect themselves (15 January)
  ‘Logan Paul is the latest influencer to act like a jerk. He won’t be the last.’
• Dave Wraith: Why three is the magic number (15 January)
  ‘Words grouped into threes are more appealing and easier to remember.  Three is the smallest number we need to create a pattern, the perfect combination of brevity and rhythm.
• Drew Benvie: Facebook has announced major changes to the News Feed: what does it mean for brands? (12 January)
  ‘It looks like the famous Facebook algorithm, which has long been in place, and which already prioritises personal posts over company page updates in the News Feed, will tighten even further.‘
• Andrew Bruce Smith: Do press releases get shared on social media? What the numbers tell us. (12 January)
  ‘Less 10pc of all PR Newswire UK releases published get any social media shares at all.’
• Mike Robb: Open Banking: Game changer or reputational minefield? (no date)
  ‘From a comms point of view Open Banking will score a big own goal if the big launch and the months thereafter are memorable only for technical failures.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

Here’s a very useful resource for PR students and graduates:

• PR Careers: 2018: 150 PR internships and graduate schemes

And here’s our pick of the best posts by those studying public relations and/or aspiring to work in PR.

• Celine Ward (Ulster, 3): ‘Always keep fighting’ an effective mental health PR campaign (18 January)
  ‘What started as a t-shirt campaign by one actor has led to the Crisis Support Network.’
• Orlagh Shanks (Liverpool John Moores, 3): Oprah Has Spoken – Your #TimeIsUp Hollywood (18 January)
  ‘Seeing Reese Witherspoon, Saoirse Ronan, Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep and so many other stars standing together in unity in black clothing was inspirational. It showed women sticking together and telling the world that sexual harassment will no longer be a taboo subject.’
• Roisin Watters (Ulster, 4): My Top Tips for Securing a Placement (18 January)
  ‘I would advise everyone not to get disheartened by rejections but to learn from them and ask yourself what you could do better or what you could do differently.’
• Mark Carrington (Manchester Metropolitan, PG): House of Lords: Communication Select Committee (15 January)
  ‘Last week I received an email inviting me to join a student panel as part of the House of Lords Communication Select Committee.’
• Caoimhe Conway (Ulster, 4): ‘Minding Your Head’ – Let’s Break The Stigma! (15 January)
  ‘A broken arm takes time and medical support to heal. A broken mind is no different.’
• Jenny Craig (Ulster, 4) A Mammoth Challenge: Alien in an Agency (15 January)
  ‘I had come to Mammoth hoping to find intelligent life, and as a result ended up feeling a little stupid myself.’
• Samha Ndossy (UWE Bristol, 3): Time’s Up H&M (12 January)
  ‘It is no longer good enough having a few people of colour or employees with different sexual orientations in the office anymore. It is about making sure your employees are culturally aware and are sensitive to cultural stereotypes.’
• Catriona McAllister (Greenwich, 2): It’s a man’s world (12 January)
  ‘Life is tough. It is unkind and hard work. Sadly, it’s even harder if you’re born a woman.’