Stirling PR Students

Sunday, November 22, 2009

What is the future of Facebook?

Needless to say, Facebook has become one of vital tools for PR practitioner. Personally speaking, I have a slight doubt whether this trend keeps or not.

[One importance of Facebook]
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive officer, talked about the prospects of Facebook in front of an audience during the world economic forum on January 30th 2009. He emphasised that the trend of sharing the information among people has been increased, and therefore, it signalised a further potential growth for the following five years.

As a Facebook user, I agree that by using Facebook you are able to share information or organise your community conveniently. But my concern is that Facebook can keep attention paid by its users, because it is especially popular among younger generations who tend to follow new fashions. Unfortunately, I could not find really convincing arguments from his comments above.

[Critics of Facebook]
One of the main critics of Facebook is the privacy issue. If it is new for you, the following video footage should be watched.

Even though Facebook is informing the user about the right and responsibility on Privacy Policy, it may cause problems as long as the user does not pay any attention to its privacy. Furthermore, the information is not only used on Facebook, but also other organisations can use it for marketing purposes. In other words, it threatens the idea of data protection on Facebook.

[So what is the future?]
It is obvious that Facebook will grow or retain its users, but they will still be specifically among younger generations. Moreover, not everyone is fond of Facebook. One should bear in mind that using Facebook as a tool for a PR plan, you have to consider whether Facebook is really an appropriate mean or not.

Gender differences in PR

77 percent of my classmates are female in my course compared to 89 percent last year. Noticing that raises one question. Is it common for PR to be studied by female rather than male students? If so, why do we experience that men still dominate the higher positions in PR?

[PR is studied by women]
According to Grunig (1993), 80 percent of public relations students are female. 66 percent of PR practitioners are women in 1992, but when it comes to top managerial and counselling positions, it goes down by 37 percent (Farmer and Waugh, 1999).

[Female study preferences]
Before reading some journals about gender issue in PR, I thought that glass-ceiling prevent them to be promoted. My thought is true, however it is not the only reason, “Women prefer skills over management tasks in PR” (Toth and Cline). Even though schools teach both the manager and technician roles equally, women tend not to be career-minded.

[The importance of women in PR]
As a PR practitioner, a woman has an advantage to eliminate any barriers at communication rather than a man. Moreover, PR practitioners have to be diversified as are their stakeholder.

I cannot discuss the issue thoroughly because of limited scope of the assignment, so my aim is to focus on the gender trend that PR is mainly studied by women, but PR manager positions are still men-dominated. Some occupations are dominated by men, but PR job has the potential to break this glass-ceiling. If female PR practitioners put more aggressive effort into being a manager, it would partly contribute to fill gender gap between men and women professionals.

[For more information]
If you are interested in this topic, the following journals are useful to deepen your knowledge.
"The status of the school public relations practitioner"
"Public relations’ Glass Ceilling"

Social Media

We are in the world of web 2.0, which is a world with more interactions, and a world that everyone can easily be seen or heard on the internet. In this new era, instead of being passive receivers; publics can actively participate in interactive-websites to share their opinions and exchange ideas. For the organizations and stakeholders, web 2.0 provides a convenient mean of two-way communication.

Under this powerful environment, PR practitioners started to disseminate information through web 2.0 websites, such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. By directly communicate between organizations and publics, the massages are more transparent and customers' satisfactions are easier to be evaluated.

Even the most popular coffee chain company notices that the social media has a huge influence on consumers' behaviors. With more than five million fans on Facebook, Starbucks try to focus on where their potential buyers are already on. By offering users to send Starbucks Red Cups to their friends on Facebook, and letting consumers upload photos of themselves with the holiday paraphernalia on Flickr, the company had successfully spread its Love and "holiday wishes" to every corners of the world.

This is a good example for explaining why social media is important for PR. The ultimate goal of PR is to arouse publics' interests, enhance or alter attitudes, and then encourage them to take actions. Based on the well-established internet and World Wide Web, social media is relatively cheaper to use to achieve this goal. Its interactive characteristic makes people feel more agreeable with the companies, and most of all, it has an enormous power to drive people into actions.

Public Relations made in Spain

When people think about PR campaigns most of the times they think about technology, tourism, sports, celebrities, clothes, cars…, but not about cultural gastronomy. This summer Wines from Rioja, celebrated the second edition of "Tapas Fantásticas" in London and Manchester, annual event which promotes the wine of Rioja.

For the event of Tapas Fantásticas, Wines from Rioja devised an elaborate PR campaign. The main objective of this action was to change the potential consumer of the Rioja´s wine, and to present spanish dishes different to the typical dishes of paella or jamón Serrano normally associated with Spain, dances, etc.

Why choose the United Kingdom where the most typical drink is the beer? Because United Kingdom is the biggest importer of Rioja´s wines; 28 million of litres every year, two times more than the second one, Germany with 13 million.

The event was a success an only in London, they received more than 15.000 people.

A Dog is For Life, Not Just For Christmas

I remember writing letters to Santa and at the top of my list it would always read, "I really would like a Labrador puppy...please!" Thankfully, my parents never cracked under pressure (yes, I'm sorry to tell you, but Santa isn't real). When I was older, I was allowed to get a cat and she became part of the family (RIP Poppy ...sob!). She was lucky, as many pets in Britain get neglected and find themselves by February or March in homes like Battersea Dogs and Cats home. My headline is a phrase that is still used by animal welfare campaigns coming up to Christmas. The South African equivalent of the RSPCA, SPCA really puts this message across cleverly.

What I have noticed in recent years is the increase of animal welfare campaigns that have television advertisements. They either want you to spend a certain amount each week/month to help their cause or sponsor an animal. Here is an example from The Dog's Trust. It shows how the money could help these dogs.

PR obviously is an important factor for charities and organisations. It can help to put their word/vision across to the public. It is pretty successful, as there is a plethora of animal welfare organisations and many of them have been obviously helped by PR practitioners.

The organisations that have stood out for me were:

WWF Their logo is world famous and easily recognisable. You can sponsor an endangered species of your choice and get a cute cuddly toy of the endangered species. This would be an excellent ethical present! Their website is a delight to look at too. It gives the public a chance to see what is going on in their area and opportunities for people to help WWF.

RSPCA is a great organisation that does a lot of good for animals in Britain. Their website not only tells you about the organisation, but also how you can help. They are very into networking and suggest you share the page on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. They also give advice for pet owners. This video amused me, it is about animal obesity which was depicted in this cute cartoon.

Even though we think of ourselves as a nation of animal lovers, there are so many reports of animal neglect and cruelty. I have found out that most of these news reports actually came from PR campaigners. This is a tactic to make people aware that there are some sick people out there, who think dog fighting or attacking a cat with fireworks is fun.

I found Charlotte Speedy's slideshow on how important PR is to help animal organisations get the most out of exposure. It also justifies the importance of two-way communication, as the public can do so many things to help. Such as, volunteering at an animal home, sponsorship, sharing facebook pages and fundraising. I feel that this type of campaigning is so much more successful than the shock tactics, which PETA used with their no fur campaign. The organisations that I've been talking about get the public involved, instead of making people feel stunned and ashamed.

The Importance of PR (Animal Welfare) - Charlotte Speedy, Dogs Trust

View more presentations from Dogs Trust.

Which do you think works the best?

What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

The society is changing continually and with it, the business model. Years ago, the main objective of a company was economic, and the way these objectives were achieved was not important. Nowadays, companies know that if they want to make a profit, they should have a good image, and they only can achieve this with ethics and actions for helping the community.

The development of the concept of CSR rocketed in the recent years. Nowadays, in only 0, 28 seconds, Google can find more than 2 million of definitions about CSR, moreover million of documents about this, like "A guide to CSR in Europe".

One definition of CSR I come across in my research states: "Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large". This definition is used by World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication "Making good business sense", by Richard Holme and Phil Watts.

One example of CSR campaign that everyone is aware of is "Coca-Cola saves the polar bears".

With this campaign, Coca-Cola tried to help the polar bears survive against the effects of global warming. The company explained on their website how Coca-Cola was fighting against the global warming in through company practices.

But we don’t need just look at worldwide corporate players to detect the use of CSR actions. Companies like Tesco develops CSR too by helping schools with informatic and sport materials.

Nowadays, I think that CSR is the most important action that a company should practice, because I think that is important that the company should be seen to be helping the community in this time of crisis.

Does British Royal Family have a PR team to build and conquer its reputation?

Over the past hundred years, members of the Monarchy needn't have done much to gain his or her reputation; the Commonwealth nations should and must show their respect and loyalty to the Monarchy. This has changed however since the media stopped reporting positive stories.

With the scrutiny of the Paparazzi and new media, the Royal family couldn’t help but hire a PR team to assist them in controlling the conflict and maintain their reputation on a daily basis. By working with paparazzi and media they have been able to achieve this to some degree; the Paparazzi relies on their story to feed the public, meanwhile the Royal Family needs the paparazzi and media to report on the stories that they wish to be publicized.

I imagine the Royal Family must have good PR team to help them deal with the public. If we type ‘Royal Family’ into any search engine, the first result is the official website of the British Monarchy. The website shows what the Royal Family has done, including hundreds of public engagements yearly throughout the United Kingdom. They also travel abroad, on so-called state visits, to draw public attention to amicable relations within the Commonwealth and between other nations. With a good PR team organising photo shoots, writing press releases and managing their website; the Royal Family can draw public attention through media efficiency.

However, it is not simple and easy to be a PR team for the Royal Family.

Not every member of the Royal Family can behave suitably at all times in the public eye, particularly the young generation. The relationships of the Royal Family always interest the public, and this is why the paparazzi love to chase and report on the private life of the Royal Family. Prince Harry, the problem of the PR team, is an impressive example who earned his rebellious reputation in his youth and was labeled ‘wild child’ in the tabloid press. He was found smoking cannabis and has clashed physically with the paparazzi outside a nightclub. He later issued a public statement apologising for his actions. Some news like this cannot be found at their official website, but can be everywhere on the front pages.

The political power in PR is like a double-edged sword which allows PR team to carry out any campaign and handle conflicts easily through the media, especially the ones with specific preference, but can also be barriers for PR team to limit their ability. If the young generation can give a break for the PR team, they will really appreciate their highness.

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