This week in PR (31 August)

Behind the headlines

• Rachel Whetstone is to leave Facebook to become chief communications officer at Netflix. She had earlier spent a decade at Google having started out in UK politics. (Holmes Report)
• 30 prominent practitioners have signed a letter supporting the merger between APPC and PRCA (Public Affairs News).

Academic

• Open access: The whole of Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations for the Non-Profit Sector by Nicky Garsten and Ian Bruce is available for free online via this link (until 21 October).
• Stephen Waddington has shared the paper he wrote for his CIPR Chartered Practitoner assessment in 2012: A critical review of Excellence Theory in a world of Digital Communication

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 [email protected] or @pr_place

Business / profession / consulting

• Ella Minty: Will your online communities be there for you? (30 August)
  ‘The more you talk and engage with people, the more likely they are to want to talk to you. Use the channels you have wisely and remember that the quality of communication is far more important than quantity of it.’
• Kelly Atkin: PR Interview with Brendon Craigie, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Tyto PR (29 August)
  ‘I think you need to surround yourself with a diversity of perspectives. Lots of agencies are very homogenous. They are comprised of similar people, from similar backgrounds, often working from one metropolitan hub.’
• Anna McDonald: How communications differ between Canada and the UK (28 August)
  ‘From the variations between regions across the UK to the bigger differences between Scotland and Canada, it’s key to not just understand a market, but make sure you’re speaking in its language, too.’

Careers and skills

• Ross Wigham: The Art of perception: A leaf from Bob’s PR book (30 August)
  ‘If you want an entertaining history of the PR industry you won’t be disappointed, but the book goes much further than this dispensing some fabulous advice for the current generation of professional communicators.’
• David Sawyer: There’s more to midlife than crisis (30 August)
  ‘If you’re a senior PR aged 35 to 60, this book is for you. It’s for all salaried midlife professionals who have seen their joie de vivre wane as their responsibilities, salaries and stress levels have increased. But it’s particularly applicable to PRs and marketers who’ve seen their jobs transform before their eyes over the past 10 years.’
• Amanda Coleman: A lonely place (27 August)
  ‘Being a head of communication is a lonely and pressured place but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I enjoy every minute of it (well almost!) and can see the positive difference I and the team make on a daily basis. Who wouldn’t love that?’
• Marcel Klebba: Getting through the cloudy days at work (27 August)
  ‘Whenever I get a nice email from a client or a colleague telling me how sterling job I did, I move this note right there. When a darker day comes, a quick scroll though my smiley folder always lifts my spirit.’

Measurement and evaluation

• Stella Bayles with Nicole Moreo: PR measurement with AMEC [podcast] (28 August)
  ‘When I started in this industry I was literally counting clips – pieces of paper. And then it was a huge thing that you added sentiment. Because I had an economics background I always wanted to add more data.’

Thought leadership, content and influencer marketing

• Lee Devine: Want people to watch your videos? Start by listening (30 August)
  ‘Today, it’s not about the brand that shouts loudest. It’s about the brand that listens hardest; the brand that spends less time talking about itself, and more time talking about the things that matter to its audiences.’
• Will Humphrey: When did making work, work become unfashionable? (30 August)
  ‘It feels like I’ve never been busier over the past 3-4 years, but have, conversely, created so much less work that’s made a difference than in the first 4-5 years of my career.’
• Jennifer Sanchis with Nicholas Evans: Is thought leadership evaluation the answer to fake news and fake followers? (29 August)
  ‘The current influencer market is premised on the wrong measurements. It’s focused primarily on social media influence which can be purchased, gamed and manipulated to increase follower counts.’
• Suzannah Archibald: Analyst outreach strategy – six quick ways to keep interest levels up in August (no date)
  ‘Ready your influencer and analyst relations support strategy now in time for October and November, and to a lesser extent December.’

Campaigns and creativity

• Hel Reynolds: The creative communications strategy (30 August)
  ‘If you’re involved in a communications strategy, or any business strategy  – here are three tips for making it more creative.’
• Fran Ayala: What crime reporting taught me about creativity (29 August)
  ‘A lot of my skills as a creative consultant come from the six years I spent working as a journalist.’
• Liam Thomson: 6 takeaways from The Do Lectures 2018 (29 August)
  ‘I’m a great believer that inspiration and creative energy come from a diverse range of sources, experiences and stories. If you’re working in marketing or PR and are only going to listen to other marketers and PRs speak – you’re missing out.’
• Orlagh Shanks: #IAMWOMEN: The Women I Look Up To (29 August)
  ‘One of my favourite campaigns I worked on in the last few months of my placement was Calvin Klein’s newest fragrance, CALVIN KLEIN WOMEN.’

Internal communication

• Advita Patel: Becoming an IC Trusted Adviser (29 August)
  ‘After almost 14 years in the profession, mostly in in-house roles, I have come across some tips that you can implement to ensure that you’re seen more as a Trusted Adviser to key leaders rather than their glorified Executive Assistant.’
• Stephen Welch: Organizational Communications: The icing on the cake? (28 August)
  ‘In my view, too many organizations are in danger of creating queasy employees by adding too much central communications / icing to the mix, in an attempt to compensate for poor quality manager communications / cake.’
• Jenni Kampf: Line managers – one more channel in the mix or something more? (27 August)
  ‘Use line managers to engage with staff, not to just repeat your corporate messages, parrot fashion.’

Media and digital

• Dan Slee: NATURAL COMMS: Being human is an outside-of-London thing and what I’ve learned after 51 days blogging human comms (31 August)
  ‘So often, when I’m helping organisations use the web better to communicate I hear frustration that their social channels aren’t working. Almost always, the fault lies in a lack of human voice in what they post. A good social channel should look, feel and be human.’
• Leah Domenet: How brands can benefit from Instagram’s three new features (29 August)
  ‘Instagram has now stepped up and announced three big changes to help improve security on the platform. Here’s a quick breakdown of what they are and what they mean.’
• Yana Miladinova: The Art of Doing Media Relations: A Short Guide for Junior Practitioners (no date)
  ‘I remember the feeling when I pressed the “send” button on my first ever email to a journalist. It’s nerve-racking, but trust me, it gets easier after a while.’
• Kieran Moriarty: Kiki, Alli and Ice Buckets: the secret recipe for a viral video (28 August)
  ‘Unfortunately, the idea of making something ‘viral’ reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about how and why content sometimes breaks the internet. It’s impossible to make a guaranteed viral video.’
• Dan Gerrella: GDPR and its impact on UK media so far (28 August)
  ‘Three months on, a report by the Reuters Institute and University of Oxford has revealed the impact of GDPR on news organisations throughout Europe. It shows a significant fall in the number of third-party cookies used on websites.’
• Michael White: The state of social media in 2018 (28 August)
  ‘Broadcasters are seeing a continually fragmented audience across terrestrial TV, subscription services, and YouTube. On average people watch 29 minutes of YouTube every day, with young adults watching an hour a day.’