This week in PR (6 April)

News in brief

• The gender pay gap is in the news (the deadline for organisations employing more than 250 people to report their data was 31 March for public sector organisations and 5 April for businesses and charities). The BBC has a thorough report including a tool for checking the gender pay gap at different organisations; the CIPR and Women in PR have produced a guide to gender pay reporting.
• Here is the CIPR president’s report on Q1 – with some priorities for Q2 and beyond
• The PRCA announced its ethical champions: the winners included Golin, Cicero Group, Greenhouse PR and Vivo.
• Winners at the PRCA Digital awards included Battenhall (digital agency of the year), two awards for Smart Energy GB and an outstanding achievement award for Danny Whatmough.
• The Arthur W. Page Society is to be rebranded as Page (PR Week US).
• Spending on social media advertising is set to overtake television ad spend in two years (The Guardian reports eMarketer research)

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 editor@prplace.com or @pr_place

Business / profession

• Paul Sutton: Why is PR Sleepwalking Into the Threat of Artificial Intelligence? (4 April)
  ‘So what’s going on? Why do we not see AI technology as a threat when much of what we currently do will soon be able to be done my machines? Do we simply not believe that?’
• Amanda Coleman: In a personal capacity (3 April)
  ‘Communicators face a difficult position if those at the top don’t recognise the importance of their actions both in and out of work.’
• Ella Minty: Should journalists work in Public Relations? (3 April)
  ‘There are many ex-journalists who are absolutely great PR people. There are many journalists who have no idea what PR is about.’
• Jon White: Public relations takes on the world’s problems at BledCom (3 April)
  ‘Practitioners attending in the past have been surprised by the number of practical insights that they can take away from what may seem a long collection of academic and theoretical topics.’
• Sandy Lindsay: Sixteen years on and what have I learned…? (29 March)
  ‘Surround yourself with brilliant people, let them do their job and you literally can’t fail.’

Careers and skills

• Marcel Klebba: Mentorship no one talks about (6 April)
  ‘Social and digital platforms are the easiest way to connect with people you admire. Most of the leaders are on Twitter. Say hi using @-reply, show them you’ve a point of view, intrigue them. You might end up getting a piece of advice that will shape your career.’
• Stephen Waddington: Never stop learning (5 April)
  ‘The most powerful learning tool I’ve got is the community that I have developed around my blog. They’re the people I ask for help and turn to for inspiration.’
• Padraig McKeon: Senior PR practitioners and the skills gap (4 April)
  ‘Of course, we need to be creative – there will always be a front row role for craftsmanship.  Craft with purpose though relies on PR practitioners getting to grips in the first instance with a much tighter and more ‘current’ understanding of the audience, its behaviour, the media it consumes, where and when.’
• Roberta Fuke: The 100-year life – are you ready? (3 April)
  ‘According to latest predictions a child born in the west today has more than a 50% chance of living to be over 105.’
• Jane Fordham: An Era-Ending Week (2 April)
  ‘Life is short and my time at Golin has had such a deep impact but it’s time to test myself, to learn and to focus all my energies on trying to further the cause of equality and inclusion in the workplace.’
• Rebecca Henderson: The #StartingOut Series – Jo-ann Robertson, Ketchum London CEO (3 April)
  ‘Be hungry to learn. So put your hand up, be curious, try things you’ve never done before – you will  be surprised how quickly you will develop your skills and I guarantee it will be noticed.’

Crisis and reputation

• Paul Blanchard: The changing face of the CEO: Why executives must engage with their public when a crisis occurs (3 April)
  ‘For the first time in history, chief executives have the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way with their customers and clients.’
• Mike Sergeant: Cut the bridge down (31 March)
  ‘For me, bridging is ugly. I’ve rarely seen it done seamlessly and effectively. Far better to be straight with people and talk like a human being.’

Gender and diversity

• Anthony Bullick: Gender pay gap: yet another reason PR (probably) isn’t what you think it is! (5 April)
  ‘The data in isolation can be misleading, leading to incorrect perceptions about the brand. Include a narrative alongside the findings on your website to put the information into context.’
• Elizabeth Bananuka: Pros we love: Jane Gentle, Communicafions Manager, Mumsnet (4 April)
  ‘I’m really proud that my daughters know they’ve got a mum who appears on TV. I think it’s important for girls from BME backgrounds to see that someone like them can do a job like that – when I was growing up, most of the faces on TV were white.’

Internal communication

• Jennif Field: Why internal communication is the key to brand authenticity (5 April)
  ‘It’s not about you, it’s about them. I have spent many meetings discussing this with leadership teams – explaining that they aren’t the audience for some of these messages.’
• Jenni Kampf: What are your internal communications ‘minimum skills’? (2 April)
  ‘To help during those times when it seems that all I do is plough effort in with very little return, here are my minimum skills for internal communications.’
• Stephen Welch: Are your internal comms missing the mark? (29 March)
  ‘I’m going to talk about how you can get communication totally wrong, and deliver drastic underperformance for your organisation.’
• Helen Deverell: Finding the simplicity in complexity (29 March)
  ‘If you’ve never watched Last Week Tonight, I’d recommend giving it a go, just to see a masterclass in how to engage people with topics that on the surface seem complex and dry.’
  

Media and digital

• Chris Lee: Is it time you had a spring clean of your LinkedIn contacts? (5 April)
  ‘In recent years, I’ve only accepted invitations from people I’ve actually met or connected with via Twitter or mutual contact on email, and I take the same approach when sending invitations.’
• Michael White: The aftermath of Cambridge Analytica on social listening (4 April)
  ‘The untold story of social media listening in the public relations industry is that Twitter dominates the space.’
• Nigel Sarbutts: PR Freelancers – Implied Links Are Your Key to More Work in SEO (3 April)
  ‘SEO is becoming more and more about the fundamentals of earned media and editorial quality, where dubious or even black hat techniques of influencing search rankings can have no place.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

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.

• Katya Hamilton-Smith (LCC/UAL): What does the gender pay gap actually mean for women? (5 April)
  ‘With all of this research being done, it is imperative that something is done with it.’
• Aoibheann McCormack (Liverpool John Moores): #1 One Water- My Top Three PR Campaigns (5 April)
  ‘I think this campaign was absolute genius. It was so simple and a fantastic example of guerrilla marketing (when companies want to promote a product with as little money as possible and in an unconventional way).’
• Oliver Tunmore (Bournemouth): The rising expectations of digital communicators (4 April)
  ‘I have been taken aback by just how much of a demand there is for PR professionals to be digitally-savvy.’
• Emma McVeigh (Ulster): How Placement Prepped me for Final Year (4 April)
  ‘Getting up before 7 every morning was not my most favoured part of placement, not going to lie… But it got me into a good routine.’
• Jessica Pardoe (Liverpool John Moores): #MyPRJob – What Skills do I Need? (4 April)
  ‘Not many of us really like change, but if you’re really resilient then this may be something you’ll want to reconsider moving forward as ultimately, PR is an industry which requires one to be as flexible as they possibly can be.’
• Ellie Tyrrell (Greenwich): The Communications Industry: The Mission (3 April)
  ‘I have found Public Relations to be a ruthless field and one that is hard to initially understand. In my first year of University I found explaining the course to friends difficult; I didn’t quite get it myself.’
• Louise Harvey (Ulster): No phone? Welcome back to real life! (3 April)
  ‘You don’t quite realise the anxiety that comes with the constant feeling of needing to keep up all the time until you’re away from it all and phoneless.’
• Yana Miladinova (Bournemouth): The new structure of Cannes Lions (29 March)
  ‘The worlds of PR, advertising and marketing must constantly change to stay relevant. Cannes Lions must change with them to reflect the creative communication industry.’