This week in PR (24 May)

In the news

It was a BIG night for @KetchumPR Analytics! 2 Gold @AmecOrg Awards! Best use of new technology and Social Media Measurement! And I won Summit Social Media Influencer! #AMECSummit #AMECAwards pic.twitter.com/p0q5wiLRqm

— Nicole Moreo (@KikiMoreo) May 23, 2019

• • • SABRE awards winners: H+K Strategies was named EMEA Consultancy of the Year. Here’s a link to all the winners.
    • Facebook removed more than three billion fake profiles in the six months to March 2019 (BBC reports). 

Research and academic

• European Communication Monitor: 2019 results have been released, showing the challenge faced by communicators to be trusted. ‘Results show that communication professionals experience low levels of trust in their line of work. The profession is only trusted by two third of top executives (67 per cent), and by a minority of influencers and bloggers (47 per cent), journalists (39 per cent) and ordinary people (27 per cent).’ The full report is available at http://www.communicationmonitor.eu/  

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

Purpose and professionalism

• Orlagh Shanks: What Even is PR in Today’s World? (22 May)
  ‘How can I tell someone what PR is when I don’t really know myself? For me, it seems that public relations is now too broad a term.’
• Alex Malouf: Zain and the art of values-based branding in Ramadan (18 May)
  ‘I’ve often talked about the importance of telling a story through values, be it in advertising or through narrative-building. And yet, it still surprises me how few brands in the Middle East are looking to move beyond simple product marketing to embrace a bigger cause.’

Consulting, careers and skills

• Nicky Garsten: More than meets the eye: championing alumni relations (no date)
  ‘In my view, the solidifying of post-study relations is anchored in continued participation and in a sense of belonging. Relationships need to be two-way.’

Public and third sectors

• Dan Slee: VOTE: It’s official! Here are the top 10 most irritating phrases as voted by comms people (17 May)
  ‘“Can you comms it up?” Quite what this means, I’ll never know. Never in a million years. But I think the correct response needs to be: “Let’s have a talk. A frank one.”’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

Couldn’t be much happier about being paired with @GinnyPaton having successfully applied for @WIPRUK and #prweekmentoring scheme. She’s already been amazingly supportive. https://t.co/C7IabN9bGd @prweekuknews

— Isobel (@IsobelCamier) May 23, 2019

• Maya Pawinska Sims: IN2SummitEMEA: Do PR Agencies Really Care About Diversity? (22 May)
  ‘BME PR Pros founder Elizabeth Bananuka says while many agencies have diversity policies, most “just don’t get it”.’

Brands and influence

• Scott Guthrie: How UK watchdog protects consumers from poor influencer marketing (21 May)
  ‘In the UK there is a common misunderstanding that new influencer marketing laws have been introduced. There have not. There are, however, new guidelines describing how to abide by existing laws.’
• Stephen Davies: How Creators Monetize With Andrew Kamphey Of Influence Weekly [podcast] (no date)
  ‘Are creators making as much as we think? Find out in this podcast.’

Trust, crisis and reputation

• Emma Leech and others: Spottydog podcast: The Trust Debate (22 May)
  ‘Importantly, [trust] needs to be earnt and built.’
• Ella Minty: Product Promotion and the Perils of Advertising for Brands (22 May)
  ‘The lesson here is that a badly thought and untested ad can do significant harm to a brand’s reputation which, often, translates into a direct impact on the bottom line.’

Internal communication

Been thinking a lot about the silos between PR and HR, all the related problems and it just doesn’t make sense. Why aren’t they one function called Human Relations? People aren’t ‘resources’.

— Andy M Turner (@andymturner) May 17, 2019

• Katie Macaulay with Martin Fitzpatrick and Matt Batten: Internal comms at the sharp end – recorded at IoIC live [podcast] (22 May)
  ‘For the season finale of The Internal Comms Podcast, I travelled to Bath for the Institute of Internal Communication’s annual conference – IoIC Live. I wanted to get the inside track on two of this year’s conference presentations from Martin Fitzpatrick at B&Q and Matt Batten, formerly at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).’
• Martin Flegg: The IC Citizen Manifesto (19 May)
  ‘A movement needs a manifesto. A statement of intent which sets out what the movement stands for and what those who follow can do to support it.’
• Rachel Miller and Joshua Howell: Ten takeaways from the PRSAConnect conference (19 May)
  ‘As a first-timer to this conference, I hoped to attend a high-quality event with great educational offerings and plenty of excellent opportunities to network with fellow Internal Communication (IC) professionals. I’m thankful to report that the conference did not disappoint.’

Campaigns and creativity

• Jessica Pardoe: A £4,500 Mistake Worth Making? (18 May)
  ‘The unintentional coverage this mistake has generated has been far and wide, and I think it’s fair to say that Hawksmoor has handed it tremendously too.’

Research and evaluation

• Laura Joint: PRs Have Bad Mental Health, Work Too Much, and Don’t Get Paid Enough (17 May)
  ‘If we can prove the value of our work better, we wouldn’t have to work so many hours for diminishing pay. And, as a result, we’re willing to bet that mental health would start to improve, too.’

Technology and AI

• Brad Johnson: What can communications professionals learn from the IBM 2019 Marketing Trends report? (23 May)
  ‘The first trend within the report is about the “tech-savvy marketer” and how now more than ever there is a shift from marketers focussing on budget, tools and talent to a focus on how they can harness technology to create amazing customer experiences.’
• Iliyana Stareva: Getting Started with AI for Marketing and PR Agencies (21 May)
  ‘Most marketing and PR pros haven’t yet figured out the implications of AI in their jobs and there seems to be this misunderstanding that AI will replace the human.’

Media and digital

• Samantha Summers: 15 examples of great online PR – Insight Blog (22 May)
  ‘We decided to put our brains together to celebrate some of the best online PR campaigns OF ALL TIME (or at least since the emergence of the world wide web).’

   

• Gabrielle Lane: What PR pros need to know about SEO (22 May)
  ‘“Having an SEO mindset for the curation, distribution and measurement of content has to be the way forward, because it drives efficiency and measurability, and it shows your worth as an agency,” said Hawker. “PR is moving away from more traditional media into content marketing.”
• Rax Lakhani: No comment? (20 May)
  ‘For an industry that supposedly champions audience engagement, interaction, conversation and the spreading of ideas, PR does very little to facilitate discussion amongst its practitioners.’
• Marcel Klebba: Lessons Comms School taught me (20 May)
  ‘In total, we’ve gathered over 500 students and practitioners and had over 400 active members. This is something we’ve been emphasising throughout all Comms School sessions — you can do anything with a supportive and strong community.’
• Deb Sharratt: 10 ways PR can nail a broadcast pitch (19 May)
  ‘Public relations can be done very successfully without using media relations, yet media relations does not exist without PR.’