This week in PR (4 May)

News in brief

• The PRCA Census depicts a UK public relations industry worth £13.8 billion and employing 86,000 people earning £46,000 on average.
• The CIPR has published a report from its first Brexit scenario planning session.
• Cision’s State of the Media Report 2018 shows that in a climate of distrust around fake news, journalists are placing more trust in PR sources.
• Here’s an example for your media training workshops. Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe has apologised after being filmed singing ‘We’re in the Money’ – in a TV studio. He was there to discuss the proposed merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda.
• Power poses have been a topic of discussion this week. Here’s all you need to know via the BBC.
• Cambridge Analytica and its parent SCL have closed, citing ‘the siege of media coverage’ driving away customers and suppliers. The Guardian reports.
• Narrative memos have replaced PowerPoint slides at Amazon meetings, according to Inc magazine.

Calendar

Our calendar of events now appears on a separate page

Thought leaders: 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

• Amanda Coleman: The shape of the PR business (1 May)
  ‘I also found it hugely concerning that there are still PR and communication practitioners that are using AVEs to evaluate their work.’
• Victoria Tomlinson: Is the PR/comms industry dying while we still discuss press releases? (27 April)
  ‘Over the last year, I have increasingly felt the traditional PR and comms industry is dying – I believe our sector must recognise this and help practitioners to adapt.’

Careers and skills

• Niki Tibble: The Six Rules of Effective Communications: Rule Three (2 May)
  ‘Adults (as well as children) respond well to storytelling. It takes us on an emotional and engaging journey, allowing for detail, rather than black-and-white facts and figures.’
• Stephen Waddington: Book to blog: Iliyana Stareva’s story (2 May)
  ‘In the book Iliyana describes the skills and workflow needed to build or modernise an agency around her inbound model.’
• Vassilena Valchanova: Professional Development Planning – a Guide Based on Experience (1 May)
  ‘I didn’t go with the highest bidder for my marketing skills. I was choosing a company based on the team and the personal skills of the founders. And it’s something that I didn’t really know I was looking for before doing some personal development planning.’
• Cornelius Alexander: Introducing … The Global Capabilities Framework (1 May)
  ‘It is easy to underestimate the importance of this major step for the PR profession.’
• Iliyana Stareva: 8-Step Framework to Problem-Solving from McKinsey (1 May)
  ‘Having reduced the problem to its essential components, you are ready to embark on the next step which is framing it: forming a hypothesis as to its likely solution.’
• John Brown: Learn and discover how stupid you are (30 April)
  ‘Continually learning gives you the opportunity to be creative. Note, it doesn’t make you creative, it only increases your chances that you might be at any given moment.’
• Mike Love: A few thoughts on the changing workplace (28 April)
  ‘In my five decades of work, the biggest three changes were globalisation, technology and diversity.’
• Ste Davies: The best books on branding for 2018 (no date)
  ‘The importance of branding cannot be understated. If done right, a brand can create a deep and emotional response among their customers and fans that can resonate with them for years.’

Campaigns and creativity

• Polly Snell: No Planet B Festival: UK’s largest Zero Waste Festival (30 April)
  ‘We are setting a precedent for how festivals could and should run!  Just to be clear the term zero waste means nothing going into landfill.’

Internal communication

• Cathryn King: Employee experience – Old wine in new bottles? (3 May)
  ‘Employee experience seems to be the emerging trend of the past year, and certainly there is good justification for this.’
• Ella Minty: Employee Communication, Diversity and Human Resource Management (1 May)
  ‘HRM is now considered to be the major differentiating factor between successful and unsuccessful organisations.’
• Rachel Miller: How to communicate mergers and acquisitions (30 April)
  ‘Hot on the heels of the proposed merger of Asda and Sainsbury’s supermarkets, I thought I’d collate some advice and guidance to help you learn more about the topic.’

Media and digital

• Kieran Moriarty: The BeauGIFul game (3 May)
  ‘It’s clear that competition is extending beyond the pitch as [football] club social media accounts are increasingly seeking new ways to engage with their fans.’
• Mark Borkowski: Bots v scoops: What Rudd-gate tells us about media influence (1 May)
  ‘Newspapers still matter. Just look at the Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman and her investigation into the immigration status of members of the Windrush generation.’
• Paul Sutton: Four Critical Statistics Every Comms Pro Should Know & Understand (2 May)
  ‘Artificial intelligence is going to change the face of the communications industry for good. It’s up to you ensure that you keep abreast of it and adapt to new technologies as and when they arise.’
• Daryl Willcox: GDPR – why ‘legitimate interests’ is right for media relations (30 April)
  ‘Before anyone chooses to use legitimate interests you must have considered a three-part test as suggested by the ICO.’
• Chris Lee: In Content Marketing, Less is More (no date)
  ‘The sad fact is that brands have been pumping ‘content’ onto the Web, little of which has made an impression.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

We’re reaching the end of this academic year. Next week we’ll be crunching the numbers and announcing two winners: best individual and top university.

Here are two useful resource for PR students:

• PR Careers: 2018: 150 PR internships and graduate schemes
• Stephen Waddington: Updated: public relations dissertation topics

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

Greenwich PR Fraternity: we are thrilled to announce we have been awarded the ‘Society Community Award’ & recognition of our Social Investment at the Student Led Teaching Awards! 

• Sam Sparks (Greenwich): West Somerset College Wall of Fame Unveiled (3 May)
  ‘The varied ‘Wall of Fame’ allows current students the reassurance that there are so many job opportunities out there that they can get their teeth into after finishing compulsory education!’
• Jessica Pardoe (Liverpool John Moores): 5 Reasons to Start a #PRStudent Blog (3 May)
  ‘I’ve mentioned my blog in every interview i’ve had, and it’s always gone down very well. To own a blog shows that you have creativity, initiative and the ability to keep at something.’
• Chloe Stewart (Ulster): 13 Years in the Making – Dove’s #RealBeauty Campaign (13 May)
  ‘How much longer can Dove keep up the campaign for ‘Real Beauty’ before they lose their entire following?’
• Orlagh Shanks (Liverpool John Moores): #PlacementProfile: Alice Jeavons | Marketing Assistant (2 May)
  ‘Thanks to this placement, I feel that I have something of value to offer a future employer. Not only professional experience, but the experience of living independently, having serious responsibility and generally being a functioning adult.’
• Yana Miladinova (Bournemouth): PR and Communications Census 2018 (2 May)
  ‘Another finding that struck me was that 12 per cent of PR professionals still use the relatively outdated AVEs to measure their activities. If we cannot accurately measure what we do, how can we expect people to invest in us?’
• Emily Williard (Ulster/Appalachian State): 5 Things To Avoid When Writing [a] PR Blog (28 April)
  ‘Be creative and come up with something that will be a breath of fresh air to people looking for something ‘different’ to read.’
• Megan Rea (Ulster): Writing a CV to sell yourself (27 April)
  ‘You need to put yourself in the mind of the company who will be reading your application. If you were a recruiter what would you want to know?’