May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com

the future of public relations, because
we might as well just shut it all down.
Now me, personally, I think this
change in PR — this loss of its nerve —
began in the dotcom era. That’s when
many agencies stopped being partners
to their clients, and became admins. It’s
when firms became afraid to push back
and have the clients do the right thing,
because they were afraid of losing the
client and the money.
PR firms went from being valued
partners for strategy, tactics and counsel
to admins doing the grunt work for
clients (and surely billing for it) that
meant taking orders. We went from valued
partners to replaceable admins, not
being that distinguishable than others.
We went from the ability to manage
expectations to just being yes-men
without any thought.
All of this reminds me of the lessons
my first boss taught me: protect the
client. As agency PR people, we’re the
air-cover for the client, protecting and
having the client’s back. And that
means being the fall-guy at times, but
that’s what the senior people get paid
the big bucks for: to give the smart
counsel and strategy to the client, and
give air-cover with well-thought out
answers and more for clients when they
are under fire from press or executives.
Is it a fun job?
Well, no, but it’s our job.
And that is what seems to be missing.
PR News Briefs
PR MOVES UP AS SECOND
MOST ‘STRESSFUL’ JOB
The career of a PR professional has moved up
six places to become the second most stressful
career, according to an annual tally by
CareerCast.com.
Landing at No. 8 last year, “public relations
officer” was named No. 2 on the list for 2011, second
only to the career of a commercial pilot.
Per the website, PR has a “Stress Rank” of 198
(out of 200), “Stress Score” of 47.60, “Hiring
Outlook Rank” of 111 out of 200, an average work
day of nine hours and an average income of
$90,160.00.
According to their description of the profession:
“Public Relations Officers are responsible for creating
and maintaining a positive image with the
public for many companies and government agencies.
They typically are responsible for giving presentations
and making speeches, often in front of
large crowds. This highly-competitive field and
tight deadlines keep stress at high-levels for specialists.
Some PR officers, also, are required to
interact with potentially hostile members of the
media.”
According to the annual CareerCast survey, the
least stressful jobs list was led by audiologist,
dietitian and software engineer.
In fact, that seems to be discouraged —
don’t stick your neck out or give counsel
that might be contrary to what the
client claims or thinks they want (no,
do what they want, watch it fail miserably,
but bill), even if what they want is
not the best for the client. And senior
staff pushes people to just give counsel
that the client wants to hear, not needs
to hear. And don’t manage expectations,
because that’s letting the client
down if they aren’t great results.
Yes, I’m speaking from experience
when I write that paragraph: pushing
back on the client, then getting slapped
down at the office for doing the right
thing in protecting the client. For being
told just to do what the client wants, not
what’s best for the client. And that’s not
right. And that’s what gets us from the
adult table to the kiddie table — we
lose our seat and standing with the Csuite
if we just become yes-men.
And we’re seeing this more and more
with social media (we can talk five
years ago and replicate that conversation
with blogs or podcasts): we just do
what the client wants without counsel
that might discourage the activity but
replace it with a more custom-approach
for the client’s space. The reality is that
social media isn’t a one-size fits all but
clients get caught up in the shiny and
it’s the agency’s job to put on glasses
and suss out what’s good and bad, getting
clients amazing results.
What can public relations do to get
its groove back? We need to go back to
the past where we are a full partner. If
we don’t man up, push back and do
what’s right for the client and, in a way,
public relations, we’ll be relegated to
continued admin work and, yes, we will
likely just be the outreach for social
media without having a seat at the table
to come up with the ideas, the strategies,
the smart tactics for our clients
and to push forward to integrated communications.
Now, I am not casting a wide brushstroke
against all public relations, but it
is something that people need to think
about for the future. I know teams at
various public relations firms that do
the right things for the clients, man up
and do the right thing by example.
But the rest of us — where’s the
fight? Where’s the pride? Where’s
doing the right thing for the client?
And, well, manning up and standing up
for what’s right for our clients? Or do
we want to be glorified admins?
Jeremy Pepper is Director of Public
Relations and Social Media at Palisade
Systems. He authors the blog Pop! PR
Jots, at pop-pr.blogspot.com.
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