Posted on PR Axis

How to build better relations with employees

The first chapter in Part III of Your Public Relations, the 1948 book we are serialising at PR Conversations, is authored by Kirk Earnshaw, industrial relations editor of Modern Industry Magazine, said to have been “a foremost authority” in the field of labour relations who offered “sound public relations procedures to industrial relations”. Alongside sharing insight from Earnshaw’s chapter, this post offers a review of the newly published book, Internal Communications: A manual for practitioners...

Posted on PR Axis

Stop with the hocus pocus – employee communications is for muggles

A European internal communications veteran explains: In order to help organisations use communications to get results, practitioners should call on simple skills and experience—not a book of runes, silver bullets or magic fairy dust By Liam FitzPatrick, FCIPR The first time I saw a Harry Potter film I had a strange sense of déjà vu. Where else had I seen people listening raptly to unintelligible men and women in strange outfits? Why did the concept...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Nexus

The four Ps of public relations leadership

The chair of the Global Alliance introduces the Madrid Momentum (Learning to Lead) and details four Ps that constitute the cornerstones of PR leadership By Anne Gregory, PhD, FCIPR It was not that long ago (September 2014) that the World Public Relations Forum was held in Madrid where the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, together with DIRCOM, the Spanish Association of Communication Directors, hosted more than 800 professionals from 65 countries to...

Posted on PR Mediums

Sharing Toni Muzi Falconi's biased memoirs

We have always been proud to have the support of Toni Muzi Falconi whose original blog became PR Conversations, and he then passed the editorship to Judy Gombita, Markus Pirchner and myself. Toni has now published his ‘biased memoirs’ entitled glow worms – which can be downloaded free as an ebook from the Biased Memoirs site, with a request to donate to the Cordoba Initiative – or as a paperback via Lulu. Toni  decided to...

Posted on PR Sphere

Two glaring gaps in an otherwise glowing review of senior PR practice in Canada

A report and commentary on the Canada-specific Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) VIII Survey results By Natalie Bovair, APR It’s official: Canadian public relations practice is distinct and progressing well toward best practice. This is according to a Report of the Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) VIII Survey (Canadian) presented to CPRS members and other practitioners in early September 2014, by lead researcher Amy Thurlow, PhD, APR, associate professor at Mount Saint Vincent University. Following are study...

Posted on PR Axis

Association Public Relations

It seems surprising to me that the final chapter in Part II of the 1948 book, Your Public Relations, looks at practice within an industry body as this seems rather a specialist rather than strategic focus. However, its author Holcombe Parkes, Vice President of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) believes PR at the association level differs significantly from the organisational one. In the book’s About the Authors section, Parkes is said to have “been...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Sense

Exposing PR's weaknesses

I’m concerned about public relations. In the way that the Texas mother who created the Ignore No More app was concerned by her son ignoring her mobile phone calls.  PR – why are you ignoring all the good advice that’s around you? Even more concerning, why are PR practitioners ignorant of the weakness of a discipline that relies on anecdote, criticism and personal opinion, rather than robust evidence, substantiated thinking and considered arguments? We see...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Techster

Why public relations must wake up to wearables

Things ain’t what they used to be; the end of the beginning around wearable technologies and the device jumps PR practitioners are about to encounter Op-Ed by Catherine Arrow In kicking off this post, I was sorely tempted to indulge in a Buzzfeed-style headline, complete with obligatory quirky picture—probably JIBO, the world’s first family robot. I toyed with “61 ways to know if you’re ready for wearables,” tip-toed around “True Life: Why PR was disconnected...

Posted on PR Motion

Edward Bernays and the College of Communication Management

Reporting the death of Eddie Bernays at the age of 103 on 9 March 1995, The New York Times presented a largely favourable obituary. Over the past two decades, Bernays’ legacy has been mixed as his work has been praised as pioneering and also derided as deceptive manipulation. These opposing, simplistic interpretations, are combined in Cutlip’s overview: Bernays was a brilliant person who had a spectacular career, but to use an old-fashioned word, he was...

Posted on PR Sphere

The growing global market for the Art of PR

The global art market going East and West bipolar introduces an opportunity to establish and reinforce a dialogue related to a contemporary paradigm of public relations By Jiamin Ren A hybrid model of communication and new field of PR practice related to the global art market Things are changing quite rapidly with the present-day global art market—rebounding to near pre-Great Recession highs—reaching €47.42 (or $65.9 billion US) in sales in 2013. Two factors drove the...