How PR works in your country?

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 11

CHAPTER 13

FOCUS ON ASIAN PUBLIC RELATIONS

What is so different in Asia in term of public relations?

It is different in a way ...

According to Richard Stanton,

"different types of practice and management need to be applied in different circumstances in different countries."

"Culture and language play important roles in developing relationships and framing issues."

Just take a look in a country such as Indonesia, China, Thailand, Malaysia etc.

What do you have in mind when you heard about these countries?

Frankly said they are nothing.

They are just way too different from western countries, that is why the way the practitioner works over there also must not the same.

They have a lot of races within a country and it is not easy to get them united.

In term of language, it is a a little bit different too I suppose.

"In Japan for instance : PR is practised in a cultural and economic context that differs little from Western countries."

"In Indonesia : PR is directed neither by a code of ethics nor by certification."

"In Singapore : "the primary purpose of public relations is government propaganda."

In Malaysia : "It is employed at a variety of levels but fluctuates depending upon the political circumstances of the day."

From that we know that differ country has differ PR models.

Just take the one in Indonesia, how does it make sense that PR over there is directed neither by a code of ethics nor by a certification?

In Australia there is this organization called PRIA, the institution for PR, its just so obvious that over there PR is really effective and they have proven it.

Differ from how PR works in Australia, PR in Indonesia instead seems not to have much work.

Here is an article I found about how "lovely" PR in Indonesia is.

"Unspun’s been long dissatisfied about how the state of the public relations industry in Indonesia. There are many putative professional PR organizations but all they do is talk, talk, talk and are dominated by a few over the hill figures whose main motivation seems to be to hold office and go on sponsored junkets. In the times that they hold workshops for PR practitioners they trot out these dinosaurs spewing PR theories a few decades old and bore the shit out of everyone."

So, actually it is clear that PR does not really work in Indonesia.

They seem to believe advertising is more reliable than PR.

Reference:
Theunspunblog, 2009. Finally, a group that would really work for the Indonesian PR industry? Viewed on 16th March 2010, from http://theunspunblog.com/2009/07/24/finally-a-group-that-would-work-for-the-indonesian-pr-industry/

I love how new media affects me

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 10

CHAPTER 12

NEW MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS-Kate Fitch

Internet use varies between and within countries, with factors such as age, education, socioeconomic, and geographical location impacting on levels of access and use.

Technological advances have the potential to transform the relationships and communication between organizations and publics, audiences and communities.

New media has a big impact to the practitioners.

An article by Craig Rodney 2009 stated that the impact of social media upon corporate communications is changing the role of the public relations practitioner. In short, the world has changed, and the dynamics of PR have changed with it.

Extreme changes in general media are changing how PR practitioners address content, the media and representation of their clients.

There are also many tools now available that allow the practitioner to become publishers themselves and package content for media and consumers. These outlets allow the PR agency to build its own audience and invest them in the publishing component of content (Rodney 2009).

The internet gives public relations practitioners a unique opportunity to collect information, monitor public opinions on issues, and engage in direct dialogues with public of a variety of issues (McAllister & Taylor, 2007).

This implies realising the effect that platforms such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook have where content is involved, and an acknowledgement of the changing roles in ownership of that content (Rodney, 2009).

The influence of media has also changed. Whereas in the past pure readership numbers and broad demographics were used to gauge influence, now quality beats quantity. There is always a chance that 300 Facebook users who are part of a niche group may offer more influence in a specific area of interest than 5000 magazine readers who may or may not be interested in something (Rodney 2009).

We all know the fact that facebook and twitter have a strong influence over any current affairs that are happening everyday.

That is why it is so true that a practitioner might get some help from these two social network as a part of getting people's attention over his or her promotion.

For the first evidence, I found this article that saying how he loves the way twitter and blog work.

He said he succeeded to get people to sign up for his first program that he created through twitter and blogs.

Here is how he said how useful and effective twittering and blogging are.

"Every time I post on my blogs, the post is pushed out to my twitter status. That is one form of promotion. Especially if you're using a blog to promote your product or service. Any blog title over 140 characters will be truncated and converted to a short URL. This is where it becomes really critical to pay attention to your blog post titles.

Yesterday after my previous blog post showed up on my twitter status, I got a response from one of my followers:

See, it works! Ok, so that's one person, but most people won't tell you they signed up for your program. They just do it. And this illustrates something else."

Apart from the first evidence, I do find another one over here about how effective twitter is.

This man named Ostrow was trying to write about promotion from a website builder Squarespace, where the company offered up 30 iPhones in 30 days to be randomly awarded to users who included #squarespace with their tweets.

Here is how he said after dealing with twitter.

"Not surprisingly, this promotion is working. #moonfruit is Twitter’s top trending topic today, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson (), #iranelection, and Wimbledon-related tweets. The lesson is becoming pretty clear: free stuff works as well on Twitter () (and perhaps even better thanks to Trending Topics) as on the rest of the Web."

From what I've gotten so far about the effectiveness of a twitter and blog, you know that actually it does work for the practitioner.

Obviously, we will never totally count on it, but just try to give it a shot, sure will work for you even a little bit.

That is what I got for today.

Thank you for reading.

References:

Biztipsblog, 2008. Online Promotion Tips: Use Twitter. Viewed on the 15th of March 2010, from http://www.biztipsblog.com/2008/06/online-promot-3.html

Bizcommunity, 2009. Social Media's Impact on PR. Viewed on the 15th of March 2010, from http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/18/38116.html

Mashbale, 2009. Twitter Promotion Done Right: #moonfruit. Viewed on the 15th of March 2010, from http://mashable.com/2009/07/01/moonfruit-macbook/

I NEED MY REPUTATION BACK

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 9

CHAPTER 8 & 10

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT: A DRIVING FORCE FOR ACTION

AN ISSUES-CRISIS PERSPECTIVE

Reputation is an estimation of a person or a thing (Mahon&Watrick 2003). Hence, reputation is essential to everyone to maintain it due to the importance of one organization.

Since reputation can be the estimation of a thing, issues also have reputations (Mahon&Wartick, 2003).

Therefore, as a practitioner, we need to tackle the bad issue to gain back the reputation of one organization.

Do you know that Oreo cookies had ever faced the problem of bad issue?

In September 25^th 2008, the biggest and most popular forum website reported that Oreo was one of the 28 food products that contained the illegal milk from China.

Oreo cookies were since declined in almost all the markets in the world.

What do you think the Oreo practitioner solve this problem?

The Oreo factory in Indonesia has come up with an idea of advertising it again with an endorsement saying that Oreo is “MADE IN INDONESIA” instead of “MADE IN CHINA”.

Besides, the advertisement features the picture of a father with his two sons came to the Oreo factory in Jakarta as he was firstly doubted Oreo cookies and wanted to check it by himself that Oreo cookies is actually harmless.

Hence, from the example above we know that issues scanning assists in the identification and awareness of the potential issues an organization may face (Howell 2006).

Monitoring and analysis of the issue aims to measure the potential financial, social, and political impacts of the issue on the organization (Howell 2006).

That is why there is such thing as life of crisis.

Crisis affects one organization and prevents the company from functioning properly.

Crisis threats the organization’s reputation and public or audience perceptions of the organization.

Hence, as the practitioner, we have to be aware of the crisis around us.

I need somebody to manage me

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 8

CHAPTER 7

PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS

The public relations management role in organizations is grounded in systems theory (Mehta&Xavier 2009). 

To achieve organizational goals, internal public relations practitioners must be aware of the relationships between the public relations function and other corporate functions (Mehta&Xavier 2009).

An important role is to build relationships with employees with specific regard to communication channels and organizational culture (Mehta&Xavier 2009).

Let’s just take a hotel in Jakarta as the example, Ritz Carlton hotel in Jakarta, we all know for sure that it is a 5 stars hotel.

They provide each of the customers with excellent service.

How do you think they can be so successful if not because of the good relationships between the public relations function and corporate functions such as the employees in the Ritz Carlton.

 It is essential to have them committed to one another as you know every person is related to a system, that’s why it is important to get them united.

Unity is significant to let the organization achieves its goal easily.

Do you think it is easy to achieve one goal if the staff inside never really work together with each other?

What do you think Ritz Carlton will have become if each of the staff do not have common objective?

Therefore, the public relations practitioners must be aware and take a good care of their job to maintain the relationships between the manager and the employees to accomplish the same objective.

Here is the link of the Ritz Carlton press kit if you'd like to refer to:

http://corporate.ritzcarlton.com/en/Press/Properties/Jakarta/Kits/JakartaSettingNewStandard.htm

Perfecto perfectly

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 7

CHAPTER 6&9

PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE and;

STRATEGIES to PROACTIVELY MANAGE ACTIVITY.

MULTISKILLING PERSON:

Being a perfect public relations practitioner, we ought to have the multitasking skill as today’s practitioner is driven by the outcome that needs to be achieved in terms of organizational reputation and relationship management and not solely being the paid mouthpiece of an organization. 

Besides, being a practitioner, it is required to have a better understanding of the big picture and why an issue or a public is relevant for an organization, the ability to see an issue from a different range of perspective is also needed. 

As public relations are there to assist one organization to achieve its objectives, hence it is also essential that a practitioner understands the importance of relationships and the skills to build and strengthen relationships and dialogue. 

Apart from the above, a practitioner needs to be confident in communicating based on relevant theoretical frameworks and a comprehensive appreciation of all aspects.  

THERE ARE 8 CATEGORIES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS EFFECTIVENESS:

Work practices and approach.

Promise to your clients to get the job done.

Takes the responsibility for the work.

Looks to all sides of the issues.

Gives and shares advice; seeks advice.

 Skills, abilities and knowledge.

Provides advices.

Deals with difficult issues.

Understands what is required; knows the job well.

Good understanding of public relations and media requirements.

Experience and background.

Solid experience is needed.

Long and broad public relations exposure.

Personal attributes.

Genuine.

Creative.

Works out to build own knowledge and expand professional capabilities.

High degree of professionalism.

Judgment and ethics.

Honest in a way not imitate people’s work.

Ethical (serve your client ethically).

Has integrity and will do what they feel is right.

Aware of implications.

Relationship with management.

Accepted by the management.

Management sees them as equals.

Image and reputation.

High credibility and acceptance.

Well known in public relations profession.

Good reputation in industry and the profession.

Very established in profession.

Works for the profession.

Protects the image and reputation of the profession.

Gives time to develop the profession.

Committed to the profession.

Therefore, public relations skills are required across a range of different organizations (Synnott, 2001).

Public Relations practitioners need strategies and tactics to develop their creative ideas. Is that true?

In fact, yes it is as the practitioners use the strategies and tactics that they believe to achieve intentional representation and intended meaning.

It is important also that being a practitioner, you have to be able to frame your story to best suit a particular journalist’s interests. 

Every organization will require a public relations strategy as the basis of its communication programs and plans.

According to James 2001, a good working definition of strategy in public relations is this Strategy is a plan or method by which you are going to achieve a specific goal in a contested environment.

In public relations, strategic planning is where you develop one plan in order to achieve your public relations goal.

Yet, before you proceed to have your perfect strategies, you have to do enough research to provide yourself with sufficient background of the issue and after that analyze the outcome.

That is what a practitioner should do before completing one task.

Organizing your forever CHAOS!

Do you know that Singapore has its very first and only professional organizing service, which is ... OCD (Organizing Chaos Daily).

Today, our class was given a brief presentation on what we have to do for our final assignment.

Apparently, it was a service and I think we have to put a lot of effort to accomplish this task.

TASK : 1. Reaching out to the target audience with limited budget ;
2. Educating the public with limited resources.

To me it is a little bit tough as the budget is limited.

Even she has mentioned that WOM a.k.a Word Of Mouth is the most effective way, but then to inform public about this particular service, the media is quite essential as well.

Meantime, I still have no idea what to do for the service as I am sure it will take sometime to think.

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 6

ENGAGING WITH THE MEDIA

Do you know that mass media is very useful and important to the public relations practitioners?

The mass media is very important is because the reach, the believability and the timeliness, even sometimes the information can be a little too much.

The mass media like televisions, radios, newspapers, magazines and newsletters can reach the maximum number of audiences within short time.

Yet, if you want to work with the media, you have to take a note that you should not provide too much information to the journalists or whoever person you work with.

It is important to explore theories that can be applied to your work with the media.

One of the theories that can be applied is framing theory (Tversky&Khaneman 1981) explains that the way something is presented influences how the audience perceives the topic.

Framing is where we write a news in a way that we want people to perceive it.

Framing is a natural part of human communication, even in our daily life, you will unconsciously frame your story to your friends.

It is true that framing sometimes can be a bit bias in a way how people tell the story.

Public relations media releases frame events in ways favourable to the organization and public, as the practitioners frame the story to meet the journalist’s criteria of news.

Yet, not all pieces of news will be chosen and used by the media gatekeepers.

The media gatekeepers are the editors, directors of news, or chiefs of staff who select from among what is an offer—media releases, news tips, letters, emails, web diaries, or blogs—for stories that appeal (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

The gatekeeper is the one who will make a decision on whether to accept or reject your story based on criteria.

Hence, it is important to concern more on the news values such as :

Truth: Public expects the trustworthy news from the journalist, so, if whoever journalist withhold the true information to himself, he would become a hostile.

Timeliness: Public expect to know the updated news instead of the outdated one or even the news that other media has already published. Do you expect to read the 31^st December 2009 news when you actually already in year 2010?

Proximity: The further away from the medium’s coverage area an event is, the more earth-shattering and unusual it has to be to make the news (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

Conflict: Journalists and public have been implanted the taught that conflict makes the news more interesting.

Eminence and prominence: Public relations and media relations practitioners aim to boost coverage of a product launch or building opening, for example, through celebrity involvement (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

Consequence and impact: The journalist should produce a news which affects public in the region where it occurs, as people will never read your news if it does not even relate to them, won’t they?

The unusual or remarkable: Any piece of story that is distinctive, it can be your company, product or even a service.

So, it is essential to get the news values before you start off writing it to prevent your news being rejected.

Besides, it is also important that we are to build good relationships with journalists and editors.

It would be easier for us to get the news being published on the paper.

Get to know the journalists who report on areas your organization is interested in (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

Always meet your deadlines.

Have up-to-date databases.

Know how newsrooms are organized.

Develop a media strategy.

Know what is news and what is not.

To be a good public relations practitioner, we have to have the skill of writing a good media release to attract the media attention as well.

Keep your release clear and concise.

Most important news first

Background last; the editor should be able to identify the major points of the release by reading the lead or first sentence (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

Lastly, you know that the tools for effective media relationships are diverse; you need good media releases, photos that add to the story and punchy headlines (Chia&Synnott, 2009).

your MOUTH is the biggest power

Do you know what interest me in today lesson?

"WORD-OF-MOUTH contagion is an essential component of experiential marketing."

I second that idea very much as I believe that word of mouth has a strong influence on people.

How to say that?

"TWITTER" is the most obvious example!!

twitter is so happening right now that everybody loves to tweet almost every day, every hour or even every minute.

So, you could just imagine how beneficial twitter is.

I love to tweet as well and until one day I found out about "ipad" through tweeter.

People are discussing it so much that it just appeared on my time line.

I checked it out immediately as I was curious too what "ipad" looks like and everything, and then I shared it to my friends about it via twitter.

I personally think that if someone expects people to know their product or events, I might suggest to spread it first via Facebook and Twitter.

I found a lot of people had their products sold via facebook and it is very efficient.

Hence, to me the power of spreading from mouth to mouth is just so effective and also fast.

READING BOOK TODAY:

WEEK 5

CHAPTER 5

PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH

My mom once told me if I want to destroy my enemy, I have to get to know his or her weaknesses first, then only I'd know the way to defeat him or her.

To me, being a practitioner is similar to that case, doing research, analysis, and evaluation are needed to construct a strategy, so that the strategy would carry out the intended meaning (strategy where we can easily defeat our enemy). It’s something like how can you develop a strategy without knowing the public knowledge, how is your organization’s surrounding, and what is the background that leads to the problem?

What do you say? I mean it's just so true that research is just so important to understand your case well.

You will definitely fail to get your clients in your hands if you do not have enough understanding about their backgrounds or whatever is related to them.

Okay, for instance, if we want to help apple to create public awareness about their new collection, IPAD, how do you think you will start off first?

Promote it directly based on the knowledge that you own?

If there is a customer or journalist who wants to know deeper about the IPAD and unfortunately you do not know, what do you think the customer or journalist will do?
THEY WILL JUST WALK AWAY AND .. IGNORE YOU!

Therefore, better to get your research done perfectly before you go on with your case studies.

It's just a common knowledge that you've got to know this fundamental research thingy.

So, all the best for your research! ;D