Nothing works better than the truth November 22, 2007
Posted by dixonpaul in Career Focus.add a comment
One of our founding fathers of the public relations industry once said, “Perception is reality”. Harold Burson was of course referring to one cornerstone all communications professionals should embody: manage the perception of your client to its stakeholders.
Another founding father of our industry and former Burson-Marsteller man, Robert Leaf, also has shared his insight into perception, reality and PR: “Public relations is about perception management. You might run a great company, your product or service might genuinely provide great benefits. But if the customer does not perceive it that way it remains on the shelves.” It’s Public Relations 101 stuff; a cornerstone of the industry that we all have to be reminded of time to time – even the founding fathers.
But the picture on the other side of the coin is a blurry one. We cannot assume that all companies’ products, services and business practices can justifiably be described using one of the countless superlatives the English language affords us. All is well when the cool scoop of perceived reality, with hundreds-and-thousands sprinkled on top, and dished out by the spin-doctors, reflects the truth – even with the hundreds-and-thousands.
Melcrum’s Communicators’ Network July 13, 2007
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It’s spreading like wild fire through the inboxes of PR folks world-wide so I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t your first introduction to Melcrum’s excellent Communicators’ Network. If you have read my previous posts you will know my views on social networks: young professionals are often throwing caution into the wind when using sites like Facebook – you will be googled. The great thing about the Communicators’ Network is that it is exactly what it says it is:-
Looking forward to seeing you there 
Cheers.
PR professionals need more than a Great Firewall to protect their online brand July 11, 2007
Posted by dixonpaul in Career Focus, Social Media.add a comment
In my last post I argued that young PR professionals need to embrace social media as part of their personal branding. Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook are leading the revolution – it’s a no-brainer that professional communicators need to get a firm grip with what’s happening online, and be an active part of it.
But things aren’t that simple: what happens when a potential employer, impressed by your CV and LinkedIn profile, then clicks on Facebook only to discover that picture? He might not put the phone down, but he will want to delve into the pockets of your life (possibly the ones after a few too many shandies) that you didn’t want him to know about. Heck, you had already forgotten about them and moved on.
PRO’s Need to Embrace New Technologies to Keep Pace with Fast Changing Internet World July 10, 2007
Posted by dixonpaul in Career Focus, Social Media.add a comment
In my latest flirt with the on-line virtual world “there.com” I commented to a fellow avatar how great she looked in her bright pink boots – only for her to flee into the jungle. Did I offend her? Should I have pursued her? I think I was more confused in suddenly facing a decision that was for me, well, weird. But for 400,000 there.com members these kinds of experiences aren’t weird at all – in fact they’re perfectly normal.
Online social interaction is transforming the way people communicate, the emergence of blogs, vlogs, podcasts, RSS, and social interaction websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Second Life have created an arena for people to communicate in a way the world has never seen before. If PR is really about communicating with your publics, then PR practitioners – especially those who are just starting out like me – need to embrace the emergence of new media as a powerful tool for PR practice in the future. (more…)
