May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com
May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com
May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com
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the future of public relations, because<br />
we might as well just shut it all down.<br />
Now me, personally, I think this<br />
change in <strong>PR</strong> — this loss of its nerve —<br />
began in the dot<strong>com</strong> era. That’s when<br />
many agencies stopped being partners<br />
to their clients, and became admins. It’s<br />
when firms became afraid to push back<br />
and have the clients do the right thing,<br />
because they were afraid of losing the<br />
client and the money.<br />
<strong>PR</strong> firms went from being valued<br />
partners for strategy, tactics and counsel<br />
to admins doing the grunt work for<br />
clients (and surely billing for it) that<br />
meant taking orders. We went from valued<br />
partners to replaceable admins, not<br />
being that distinguishable than others.<br />
We went from the ability to manage<br />
expectations to just being yes-men<br />
without any thought.<br />
All of this reminds me of the lessons<br />
my first boss taught me: protect the<br />
client. As agency <strong>PR</strong> people, we’re the<br />
air-cover for the client, protecting and<br />
having the client’s back. And that<br />
means being the fall-guy at times, but<br />
that’s what the senior people get paid<br />
the big bucks for: to give the smart<br />
counsel and strategy to the client, and<br />
give air-cover with well-thought out<br />
answers and more for clients when they<br />
are under fire from press or executives.<br />
Is it a fun job?<br />
Well, no, but it’s our job.<br />
And that is what seems to be missing.<br />
<strong>PR</strong> News Briefs<br />
<strong>PR</strong> MOVES UP AS SECOND<br />
MOST ‘STRESSFUL’ JOB<br />
The career of a <strong>PR</strong> professional has moved up<br />
six places to be<strong>com</strong>e the second most stressful<br />
career, according to an annual tally by<br />
CareerCast.<strong>com</strong>.<br />
Landing at No. 8 last year, “public relations<br />
officer” was named No. 2 on the list for 2011, second<br />
only to the career of a <strong>com</strong>mercial pilot.<br />
Per the website, <strong>PR</strong> has a “Stress Rank” of 198<br />
(out of 200), “Stress Score” of 47.60, “Hiring<br />
Outlook Rank” of 111 out of 200, an average work<br />
day of nine hours and an average in<strong>com</strong>e of<br />
$90,160.00.<br />
According to their description of the profession:<br />
“Public Relations Officers are responsible for creating<br />
and maintaining a positive image with the<br />
public for many <strong>com</strong>panies and government agencies.<br />
They typically are responsible for giving presentations<br />
and making speeches, often in front of<br />
large crowds. This highly-<strong>com</strong>petitive field and<br />
tight deadlines keep stress at high-levels for specialists.<br />
Some <strong>PR</strong> officers, also, are required to<br />
interact with potentially hostile members of the<br />
media.”<br />
According to the annual CareerCast survey, the<br />
least stressful jobs list was led by audiologist,<br />
dietitian and software engineer.<br />
In fact, that seems to be discouraged —<br />
don’t stick your neck out or give counsel<br />
that might be contrary to what the<br />
client claims or thinks they want (no,<br />
do what they want, watch it fail miserably,<br />
but bill), even if what they want is<br />
not the best for the client. And senior<br />
staff pushes people to just give counsel<br />
that the client wants to hear, not needs<br />
to hear. And don’t manage expectations,<br />
because that’s letting the client<br />
down if they aren’t great results.<br />
Yes, I’m speaking from experience<br />
when I write that paragraph: pushing<br />
back on the client, then getting slapped<br />
down at the office for doing the right<br />
thing in protecting the client. For being<br />
told just to do what the client wants, not<br />
what’s best for the client. And that’s not<br />
right. And that’s what gets us from the<br />
adult table to the kiddie table — we<br />
lose our seat and standing with the Csuite<br />
if we just be<strong>com</strong>e yes-men.<br />
And we’re seeing this more and more<br />
with social media (we can talk five<br />
years ago and replicate that conversation<br />
with blogs or podcasts): we just do<br />
what the client wants without counsel<br />
that might discourage the activity but<br />
replace it with a more custom-approach<br />
for the client’s space. The reality is that<br />
social media isn’t a one-size fits all but<br />
clients get caught up in the shiny and<br />
it’s the agency’s job to put on glasses<br />
and suss out what’s good and bad, getting<br />
clients amazing results.<br />
What can public relations do to get<br />
its groove back? We need to go back to<br />
the past where we are a full partner. If<br />
we don’t man up, push back and do<br />
what’s right for the client and, in a way,<br />
public relations, we’ll be relegated to<br />
continued admin work and, yes, we will<br />
likely just be the outreach for social<br />
media without having a seat at the table<br />
to <strong>com</strong>e up with the ideas, the strategies,<br />
the smart tactics for our clients<br />
and to push forward to integrated <strong>com</strong>munications.<br />
Now, I am not casting a wide brushstroke<br />
against all public relations, but it<br />
is something that people need to think<br />
about for the future. I know teams at<br />
various public relations firms that do<br />
the right things for the clients, man up<br />
and do the right thing by example.<br />
But the rest of us — where’s the<br />
fight? Where’s the pride? Where’s<br />
doing the right thing for the client?<br />
And, well, manning up and standing up<br />
for what’s right for our clients? Or do<br />
we want to be glorified admins?<br />
Jeremy Pepper is Director of Public<br />
Relations and Social Media at Palisade<br />
Systems. He authors the blog Pop! <strong>PR</strong><br />
Jots, at pop-pr.blogspot.<strong>com</strong>. <br />
Our business model is simple:<br />
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MAY 2011 WWW.ODWYER<strong>PR</strong>.COM 15