This week in PR (21 September)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
21st September 2018 12 min read

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He teaches and assesses undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

Burnbake campsite @CommsUnplugged
Burnbake campsite @CommsUnplugged

Behind the headlines

  • CIPR elections: Jenni Field is standing unopposed as 2019 president-elect of the CIPR. Here are those nominated for election to the CIPR council.
  • The CIPR has initiated a #PRpays campaign to showcase the value of public relations to business.
  • APPC members have until 4 October to vote on the proposal to merge with the PRCA.
  • CIPR AIinPR Panel is seeking contributions to a literature review on the effect of AI on the professions (see more from Stephen Waddington below).
  • Aedhmar Hynes is to leave Text 100 after 28 years (18 as CEO) (Holmes Report). See her personal post below.
  • Nicky Wake, co-founder of Don’t Panic Events, is the new managing director of Manchester-based publishing company Prolific North.

Academic

  • Bledcom July 4-6 2019 call for papers. Theme: Trust and Reputation. Deadline for abstracts: 14 January 2019.
  • The open access Journal of Public Interest Communications Volume 2 Issue 2 is available now.
  • The open access PR Journal is available here.
  • There is free access to an article by the European Communication Monitor research team in Public Relations Review: Public relations and the rise of hypermodern values: Exploring the profession in Europe. ‘Modernization, postmodernization and hyper modernization theory provide an interesting macro theoretical framework to study PR and communications management because it is the cultural context for professionals in a global economy.’

Insights and opinions: Pick of the posts

These are the editor’s pick of posts about public relations this week (UK focused, but with a global outlook). Recommendations are welcome to editor@prplace.com or @pr_place

Consulting, careers and skills

  • Aedhmar Hynes: Another step in the journey (20 September)
    ‘As [Text 100] CEO for the last 18 years, I’ve known that my role is to do my best to advance that team and vision, until it’s time for someone else to carry it forward. That time has now come. It is with mixed emotions that I share the news that now feels like the right time for me to leave the company.’
  • Amy Bell: What is a communications audit? (18 September)
    ‘One of the main things that I took away from my time at Toyota was the idea of Genchi Genbutsu – going to the source. This is the idea that a problem is best solved if you see it for yourself.’
  • Ronke Lawal: How To Get Over the Fear of Failure [vlog] (17 September)
    ‘When you’re learning how to walk – can you imagine giving up because of fear of failure?’ You have to take those first few steps, like a child. Get over the idea that failing makes you a failure.’

Politics and public affairs

  • Aidan Muller: A new model for think-tank communications (Part 1) (19 September)
    ‘Policy makers want policy researchers to provide them with a narrative: a ‘story’. And in the context of politics, the best story – not the best facts – wins. This has always been the case, but it has never been truer than today.’

Ethics and professionalism

  • Paul Wilkinson: PR: proud, practical, not propagandists (17 September)
    ‘This is the first time research has been carried out with the niche group of women who work in construction PR.’
  • Advita Patel: The Fear of Failing – Getting Chartered (17 September)
    ‘I want to be part of a ‘movement’ that’s making a difference and I want to be at the top of my profession. I want Internal Communicators to be taken seriously in businesses and not be seen as the ‘fluffy’ bit of the organisation or just a nice to have.’

Public and third sectors

  • Katie Marlow: In a field, in Dorset (20 September)
    ‘CommsUnplugged provides all the ingredients for great communicators to take their whole selves to an event…I’ll be back, and next time I need to take a tent.’

Gender, age and diversity

Measurement and evaluation

Brands and influence

  • Roger Darashah: Communication by Numbers (20 September)
    ‘The reality is that most consumers don’t talk about light fittings, factor 3 levels of encryption, bank accounts, payment systems, SIM cards, Google Chrome, car tyres, or whatever else your client is selling… People talk about relationships, holidays, cricket, who they like and work with and who they don’t.’
  • Paul Sutton with Stephen Houraghan: Nike, Kaepernick, and the use of brand archetypes [podcast] (19 September)
    ‘Nike is the modern brand. They know exactly who their audience is; it’s very calculated.’

Technology and AI

  • Stephen Waddington: Professions versus machines (20 September)
    ‘A CIPR project led by Professor Anne Gregory is set to explore the impact of AI on the professions.’
  • Hamish Thompson: Some mistakes tech start-ups make (18 September)
    ‘I’ve met with hundreds of start-ups and worked with many. I’ve also witnessed some common mistakes. The ones that don’t make them, do better.’

Internal communication

  • Sarah Rosalind Roberts: What comms pros can learn from coaching (19 September)
    ‘There are so many ways to use coaching and I’d suggest you read up (I recommend Coaching for Performance and The Coaching Habit), get yourself onto a course, and most importantly put it into practice.’
  • Lisa Pantelli: Why internal communication strategies matter (18 September)
    ‘In my experience, few internal communications teams conduct any formal research. Research is often limited to anecdotal feedback, gut feel and outputs from a staff survey (which may not always be the biggest issues facing the business).’
  • Jenni Kampf: Making our teams (18 September)
    ‘We should be auditing our internal communications team, their skills and expertise in the same way that we’d audit our communications.’
  • Blaire Rowland with Stephen Jolly: What’s the future of internal communications? (17 September)
    ‘Just look at challenges facing organisations today: artificial intelligence, economic and political disruption, and demographic shifts are all changing expectations and attitudes around key issues such as organisational purpose, equality, inclusion and fairness.’
  • Ross Wigham: Exploring the importance of internal comms (15 September)
    ‘Many organisations have a strong, positive external brand with the public but then a completely different experience for staff who work there and the challenge now is to provide seamless internal and external communications.’

Media and digital

  • Laura Crimmons: How Content Can Save Your Company Money (20 September)
    ‘We see a lot written about how content can improve SEO, is key for successful social campaigns etc. But I haven’t seen as much on how content can actually save your company money – and it definitely can.’
  • Arianne Williams: To schedule or not to schedule? (19 September)
    ‘I asked my Twitter followers do you ever schedule tweets for your personal Twitter account? and below are the results.’
  • Jenni Field: Get Social by Michelle Carvill: Social media strategy and tactics for leaders (19 September)
    ‘Exploring the balance between curation, repurposed, created and spontaneous content and keeping your goal to engage a reader top of mind will help you map out the content strategy for the channels.’

PR student advice

Reminder – #prstudent #bestPRblogs will resume in October, so we’re keen to discover new PR student voices

Related topics

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