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Rewinding the ‘wag the dog’ syndrome from integrated reporting to integrated thinking….

Since its inception, PR Conversations has played a relevant role among the more aware global public relations community in presenting arguments for the value of adopting integrated reporting from forward-looking organizations to inform their stakeholder publics and setting, with their active participation, involvement and engagement platforms through an ongoing, continued 24/7/365 dialogue. A patient, curious and interested PR Conversations reader, by digitizing the terms ‘integrated reporting’ into this website’s search engine, will find 22 posts...

Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Axis

Stockholders in the Corporate Family – or contemporary activists?

In 1948, W Howard Chase tackled the topic of Stockholders in the Corporate Family in his chapter in the book Your Public Relations (serialised here), with the intention of challenging conceptions of them as a ‘thin-lipped fiscal schemer’, ‘money-baron’ or ‘decadent, bespectacled aristocracy’. Fifty years later, the global financial crisis began, and today the image of stockholders continues to suffer with an impression that their interests are short-term returns on their investment at all costs....

Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Axis

Relations with customers and prospects

In serialising chapters from the 1948 book Your Public Relations since October 2013, I have been struck by the relevance of the authors’ thinking and practice, often in total contrast to arguments that PR today is more strategic than in the past. The ten chapters featured so far seem to counter the progressive perspective of PR’s history. The next chapter, discussed in this post, however, is different and feels remarkably old-fashioned in many respects. Its...

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Analyzing “results” from a communications performance measurement conference

“Until we relate one public relations measure to another…we will never be able to show causation from our communication programs.” Fraser Likely By Mary Jane Martin, MS, APR It was Fraser Likely who once said that until we relate one public relations measure to another—whether it be an internal communications or a social media metric—we will never be able to show causation from our communication programs. That is, we will never be able to show that...

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Winning better relations with the community

One of the notable developments of scholarship in public relations in recent years has been an increased focus on its role in society. A socio-cultural turn was noted by Lee Edwards and Carrie Hodges in their 2011 book: Public Relations, Society & Culture, which presented PR as a “cultural intermediary occupation…central to economic and cultural life due to the power and influence it commands”. In noting how the lifestyles of those involved in such occupations...

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Making the case for solid public relations research

Exploring the core elements needed and depth of analytical knowledge required to lead public relations-oriented research projects By Natalie Bovair, APR Recognizing that research is essential to strategic public relations planning, not to mention program evaluation, conventional wisdom would have it that public relations professionals—at least those of the strategic management variety—were taught or developed strong research skills. Herein lies the problem: The majority of PR practitioners lack the depth of investigative experience or the...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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How to use the Public Relations department of an advertising agency

N.W Ayer & Son, Inc. claimed to be the first US advertising agency (having bought a firm established in 1841 by Volney Palmer). As a leader and innovator in advertising, it is not surprising that Glenn and Denny Griswold asked the firm’s vice president, Marvin Murphy, to author chapter VII in their 1948 US book, Your Public Relations (being serialised here with monthly posts – to read other chapters in our series of posts, use this...