Week 4

Hello! Behold, the long awaited text book is here! 

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Well, actually 1 part of the book. It's uploaded on Blackboard. But it's actually the reading for week 1. I guess it's never too late? Anyway, here's a little something I picked up from the reading, it's under the reflect & discuss section, page 20; that talks about what skills would a PR practitioner need for effective practice. 

Before taking this course, as mentioned in my very first post reading the chapter, I always thought that PR was just similar to advertising, so I guess that means you just need to know your product well and make sure your product sells; that sort of thing. 

But after reading the text, it came to me that PR practitioners don't just go around like promoting products, they go around working with people from all walks of life, and you'll need to have certain skills to really "cut it" for this job. And so, the skills that are vital for PR practitioners to be effective in their job, in my opinion, would be:

- understanding of the culture [shared understandings & belief] of both the firm that they are working in (Chia & Synnott, 2009), as well the society or the local culture [if they are working abroad]

- analytical in their work, to look at the various angles of the issues of their clients in order to cater for their broad target audience (Chia & Synnott, 2009)

- truthful and honest with their clients (Chia & Synnott, 2009)

- thorough, detailed; especially in research before launching public campaigns to ensure that all pros and cons are weighed (Chia & Synnott, 2009)

- to coordinate and manage the different types of media to maximize campaigns' effectiveness (Chia & Synnott, 2009)

Another area that I'm not exactly too sure about is ethics/morale in PR. I think I'll drop by the library to see if there's anything of PR ethics, but I know Ms. Wilson said next week's debate actually covers PR ethics. Pretty exciting! I feel that ethical practice of PR is also a vital skill for practitioners to be effective in their work. 

I guess that's so much for this week.

Week 3

My apologies for posting this up 2 days after class, class ended and I wanted to finish this, but I happen to have had diarrhea from Wednesday evening, and now, I'm back on track to post it up... :o)

Last week, I was exposed to the definition of Public Relations (PR). Today is the second lesson for CMNS 1290. The topic for today is Strategy, Tactics & Evaluation in PR.

One thing from lecture that makes me so sure that PR is far more effective than advertising is that; Advertising says: "I'm great" but PR says: "I'm great and I agree!" To me, I think that makes PR effective in a sense that there is more "personal touch" involved in PR, making it more effective than advertising.

The main thing picked up from the lecture today is that; strategy, meaning, research, analysis and evaluation underpins PR. PR campaigns are organized to create awareness among the people on a current issue such as UNESCO's TAP Project, in providing clean water supply for the people in Africa, global warming and many others.

Then, last week's blog- I posted a link to a video on Youtube about Silk Air. The "Cinema Takeover" that they launch as part of their PR campaign serves to give a better image of their airline. And all of these efforts can be summed up with 1 word, and that is: Strategy.

You need to have strategy in order to come up with a successful PR campaign. And it is important to make sure that these campaigns are successful, because they actually consume physical, financial and human resources quickly.

I feel that PR plays an important role in the organization, given the fact that it is more than advertising, it's managing people in the organization, managing brands and products and crisis too, as mentioned in the previous post.

You need to have strategy in order to come up with a successful PR campaign. And it is important to make sure that these campaigns are successful, because they actually consume physical, financial and human resources quickly.

I feel that PR plays an important role in the organization, given the fact that it is more than advertising, it's managing people in the organization, managing brands and products and crisis too, as mentioned in the previous post.

And in PR, when doing campaigns, there's this acronym; "SMART" which stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Acheivable
Results-oriented
in a Time Frame

For me, I think it's great, because this form of planning, the outcome is measurable and tangible, in a certain period- and it's a form of motivation.

That's so much for this week. Till the next!

Week 2

Today's the very first lesson for CMNS 1290: Introduction to Public Relations. 

I picked up the definition of PR by the Institute of Public Relations Singapore: 

"Public Relations is a professional discipline that aims to enhance an organisation’s reputation and stakeholder relations, to achieve its objectives through communications and related strategic tools.” (Institute of Public Relations Singapore, n.d.)

And since being Malaysian, I thought I might as well have a look at PR in the Malaysian context: 

"The determined, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. Also understood as reputation management, the PR craft can be categorised into several broad practice areas, such as media relations, investor relations, corporate social responsibility, corporate communications, marketing communications, issues management, government relations, employee communications, stakeholder relations, change management and crisis communications." (Institute of Public Relations Malaysia, 2009)

I used to perceive public relations as something similar to advertising. But I guess today, it opened my eyes to what PR really is. Public relations, looking at the two definitions given, it is  simply put; coordinating the relationship between people and the organization in different ways and situations. 

So it's not just "selling brands", it has to do with coordinating people, managing crisis, counseling everyone in the organization and... I was shocked that when Ms. Tanya Wilson said that PR professionals will never say "No comment" to the press. PR professionals must always have a statement ready. And also, PR professionals are creative. Talking about creative, just to share a little video we were introduced during the tutorial. Check this link out... 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FSXhyUaoPE>

I think this is just so much for the first lesson. Looking forward to future lessons!