This week in PR (27 September)

News in brief

• Who offered this sound advice on grammar to communicators? “The communicator must make people understand the weight of the reality of nouns that reflect the reality of people. And this is a mission of communication: to communicate with reality, without sweetening with adjectives or adverbs.” It’s Pope Francis, according to this story in The Guardian.
• Here’s a summary of Francis Ingham’s bullish report given at the start of the PRCA Conference.
• Andrew Bloch, co-founder of Frank, appears at number 52 of a celebrity-studded list of top 100 British entrepreneurs. Evadney Campbell MBE, founder of Shiloh PR, appears at number 98.

Academic and education

The start of my 10th year teaching at Ulster, and yesterday was the first time I took a class while on a permanent contract!

— Conor McGrath (@ConorMcGrathPR) September 24, 2019

• Stephen Waddington: Report finds communicators fall short on trust and emerging areas of practice (25 September)
  ‘The European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2019 explores trust in the public relations profession and organisational advocacy. The report finds that both fall short of expectation.’
• Arianne Smart: Ten top tips for your PR degree (21 September)
  ‘PR is all about reputation and it’s not just the reputation of your clients or company that you have to think about. You need to make sure that you have a good reputation too – perhaps work on your social media presence, try networking and start making your name known.’

CIPR strategy

• Peter Holt: Has CIPR lost its way a bit? (24 September)
  ‘Another innovation: stop calling it a membership subscription and call it an annual CPD package, and chuck in membership as a fringe benefit.’
• Andy Green: Why, if you care about the future of public relations you need to act quickly to respond to the CIPR’s planned 5 year strategy (23 September)
  ‘Here’s an urgent message for members of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. You have until the end of this week to provide your views on your Institute’s strategy for the next five years.’

Ethics and professionalism

• Niki Wheeler: Ten points on tackling controversy (24 September)
  ‘When you ‘get into bed’ with a client who has a tarnished reputation, faces potential issues or is making big changes, making the wrong call can have an impact your own brand as a comms pro too.’
• Stuart Lambert: Open letter to the PR community: It’s time to focus all our efforts on making the world a better place (20 September)
  ‘Our industry is capable of driving rapid behaviour change across society, around the world. We can and should take the lead rather than be driven.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

Here’s to girly swots https://t.co/syxGQV4MvY

— Sarah Waddington (@Mrs_Wadds) September 24, 2019

• Katrina Marshall: That Time I Unplugged (22 September)
  ‘The whole point of mindfulness, being present and tapping into the feelings that the “always on” culture supresses, is to recognize that nothing’s perfect … and to be ok with that.’

Politics and public affairs 

• Simon Fitzpatrick: What did we learn at Labour Party Conference 2019 (25 September)
  ‘The ambiguous position which Labour has ended up in on Brexit – backing a second referendum but not clearly committing to campaign to remain – is perplexing to many in the party.’

Public and third sectors

And this is why good #communication matters so much. #SpeakHuman https://t.co/rygIWvvEyW

— Louise Thompson (@MsLouiseT) September 24, 2019

• Ross Wigham: Weather warnings and political engagement (26 September)
  ‘The political environment is more volatile and febrile than we’ve known for a very long time, with even veteran journalists and PR people admitting they’ve never known anything like it. This is impacting the NHS in lots of ways with Brexit sucking the time away from everything else.’
• Darren Caveney: Nominate someone brilliant in the UnAwards19 (21 September)
  ‘When I set up the UnAwards six years ago it was with the very clear mission to make them the most accessible industry awards around.  And where the community were actively involved in shaping and deciding some of the winners.’

Issue, Crisis and Reputation management

• Maja Pawinska Sims with Arun Sudhaman: Hong Kong’s Reputation Challenge [podcast] (23 September)
  ‘What’s in the brief is a description of the challenge Hong Kong is facing… It’s an assignment for global PR firms that’s more trouble than it’s worth. No one turns this assignment down because they’re worried about the reputation of the industry. They’re worried about their own reputations.’

Internal communication

• Katie Macaulay with Nita Clarke: How to start a movement [podcast] (24 September)
  ‘We’ve always had a huge productivity gap in this country. It seemed to me it could be related to the fact that only about a third of the UK workforce are actively engaged.’
• Rachel Miller: Thomas Cook’s Sunny Heart breaks for employees (23 September)
  ‘Employees are taking to Twitter to express their pride in the brand, sadness at the end of the company they know and love and concern for customers and their own financial futures.’
• Agnes Costa: Effective line manager communication – John Clegg, Oxford University Press (23 September)
  ‘Line managers are individuals, and each approaches their communication responsibilities differently, based on their individual background and skillset.’

Brands and influence

• Adam Williams: Beyond the scenes of #ad: the trust gap between influencers and brands (26 September)
  ‘The influencer marketing industry is under greater scrutiny than ever before. Question marks remain over authenticity, resulting in mounting criticism from consumers.’
• Orlagh Shanks: Influencers with a Social Cause: The No Filter No Future Campaign (23 September)
  ‘The campaign itself was carried out by Brita who teamed up with Social Chain to encourage consumers not to use single-use plastic and instead use their filtered, reusable water bottles to help the environment.’

Campaigns and creativity

• Dan Slee: LONG READ: What links PR awards, Greta Thunberg’s climate strike, going carbon neutral and a crowdfunder you can get behind? (23 September)
  ‘The one campaign that may end up making the most difference won’t win a PR award because there’s no agency or team behind it.’
• Alex Malouf: The Importance of Execution: Lessons from the Night of McDonald’s Giveaways (21 September)
  ‘Getting campaigns right takes a great deal of planning and experience. But there are a couple of basic pointers to bear in mind.’

Media and digital

Ok it’s out. @DigitalPREx is me. I started this back in Feb to help keep people in the loop of what’s happening in the industry,share campaigns from all agencies and inspire. I have alerts set up for every brand actively link building so I’m aware of new trends + what works. (1/3 pic.twitter.com/qVcB2SjT2V

— Carrie Rose (@CarrieRosePR) September 25, 2019

• Ste Davies: Why I’m A Practicing Digital Minimalist (no date)
  ‘The first step to conquering an addiction is to first admit you have a problem. My name is Stephen and I’m addicted to technology.’
• Tim Williams: Media 102? A brief update to media 101 (24 September)
  ‘A story that is right for social media and has the potential to go viral may not immediately capture the imagination of a traditional journalist.’
• Paul Sutton with Euan Semple: Is social media broken, or are people broken? [podcast] (22 September)
  ‘In some ways the internet is a mirror and it’s showing our true nature. Just to blame somebody else or to expect the social media companies to tidy it up seems a missed opportunity. It’s our human characteristics we should be dealing with.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

It’s early days. We’re in discovery mode for new PR student bloggers and social media communicators. You can read more about our contest and community here.

• Niamh Murray (Ulster): The rise of the millennial (22 September)
  ‘Millennials:  we’re a “live in the moment” kind of generation – and we spend accordingly; because thanks to previous generations, we’ve no idea how many moments we’re going to have.’