public relations lecture notes - amazon...

PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE

Communications experts•Designing and executing communication strategy for how they're going to get a message out to reach various internal and external publics across various platforms

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PR professionals craft and manage communication strategy. They must communicate a clear message that resonates with the brand's values with the different publics (slide).

Consumers•Agencies•Donors•Investors•Activists•Legislators•Shareholders•

Publics:

Same brand values, slightly altered messages to fit your target public.

Writing press releases•Media Relations

Pizza Pizza did sponsored a survey and sent their findings to journalists for press release (33% love pizza best)•Bosch sponsored a survey that indicated that washing dishes causes household arguments (40% fight over dishes). Hoping that this relatable press release would resonate with a journalist somewhere.

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Free publicity•

[ex]

Social media news releases: organizes links to event landing pages, hash tags, high resolution photos, pre-made Tweets to quote, links to social media platforms, newsworthy pitch telling you what's happens

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Tiff•

Press Releases and Pitches

Reporter Ready Media kits make it easy for journalists to cover a story•They include photos, backgrounders, fact sheets, pull-quotes, charts/statistics, story ideas, expert source lists•Available on demand•

Media Kits and Social Media Press Kits

Online Media Room assembles all the newsworthy story ideas in one place for the media•Where the media kit sits•Queen's Media alerts professors of current media trends and emails professors, asking if they would like to be pitched.

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Queen's PR keeps track of their media involvement and sends a "Queen's in the News" email to all the professors that are quoted, the head of the department, the dean (internal publics). Also is posted on the website.

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Online media rooms (digital asset optimization)

PR targets and communicates different external and internal publics through different screen grabs•Queen's homepage photos are carefully selected to represent the university's values-

Queen's Facebook page attracts students, student prospects, parents, alumuni, Kingston community members, profs

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Twitter: gives updates from all over the campus-

Principal's blog - he uses social media to connect with students at Queen's.-

Internal and external publics

Clients•Lobbyists•Media•Members•Employees•Voters•Suppliers•Taxpayers •

Public Relations Lecture NotesThursday, October 04, 201210:36 AM

Public Relations

Principal's blog - he uses social media to connect with students at Queen's.-

BRANDING

A brand is not just a trademark character, logo, tagline, spokesperson, trade character, a message, or an advertisement.

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A brand is accumulated from all these things and people's collective perceptions of them. •A brand is the accumulation of collective perceptions by the various publics - What people think about something makes it what it is.

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Perceptions are based on the pieces of the branding puzzle that is created by Public Relations departments.•

Branding (collective perception)

Trademark characters: are potent pieces of the brand - they evoke a feeling that we remember and associate with the brand. (Energizer bunny, Tony the Tiger, etc.)

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Iconic Logos: people are use to a certain look, they want that familiarity, and they need that emotional attachment•Iconic Fonts (Malboro)-

Memorable taglines (I'm Lovin' It)•

The Branding Puzzle

Brand stories and values

Harley Davidson: freedom, wild, dangerous, bold, etc.-

Brands have stories and values that they are associated with.

People are loyal to brands beyond reason. •Love the brands no matter what•Emotional attachment to brand identification•

Emotional Attachment to Brands: Lovemarks

[ex]

An expression of who you are, your mood that day. •Brands can tell something about you. •The kind of car you drive, the magazine you read, the computer you own-

Make assumptions about people based on the brands they adorn.•

Brands and self-expression

Public Relations

Make assumptions about people based on the brands they adorn.•Some brands understand this principal, and offer lots of choice so that consumers can accurately represent themselves with the product.

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Multitudes of Starbucks coffee flavor combinations/name on the cup-

Brand charisma (relevance via conversation)

Brands have to change in order to stay charismatic.•Hit the sweet spot between consistency and being fresh (keep conversation going)•When brands exist in the social media ecosystem, they are spread out among many different platforms, so brand messages get disaggregated

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Conversations across platforms that are relevant to your bland-

You can have control of your brand until people start leaving comments or writing reviews•

Brands must be infused with novel perspectives, resources, and identities on a continuous basis to keep consumer attraction strong. This involves creating new brand associations to help the brand stay relevant.

Goal is to have an integrated marketing combination of these aspects•The new media landscape: paid, earned, owned

Display or broadcast ads-

Advertorials (paid article)-

Sponsorship-

Pay-per-click search ads-

Paid media: media buy required

Large lego model advertisement-

Creation of lego app for tablets and smart phones-

Creative advertisements-

Pay to be mentioned.

You must be newsworthy/controversial-

Get people talking - don't have to pay for these free media mentions-

Tweets-

Photos-

Amateur videos-

Online communities-

Earned Media: influenced but not directly controlled

When you make advertisements that are worth talking about, you earn your publicity

Oreo generated conversations about their cookie by generating controversy - lots of engagement•Consumer-generated media (brand love)•

[ex] Starbucks encourages consumers to take Instagram photos of memorable moments in daily life with their coffee and they will post them.

social media pages-

Websites-

videos-

Brand Facebook pages are owned and controlled by the company-

Owned Media: controlled by brand

[ex] Oreo's birthday banner changes each day

Integrated marketing and communications mixPublic relations must combine the marketing and communications sections of companies to accommodate social media

During an auditable period

Public Relations

Consumer brand engagement: impressions and expressions

Stimulates engagement•People must be really engaged in a brand to want to create something from scratch.•Brands encourage the public to get involved and create content for them•Doritos encourages the public to make advertisements, create new flavors, etc.-

Expressions are more valuable than impressions

Photosharing: 58 photos uploaded each second to Facebook stimulated PR to encourage the public to share photos of their brand.

More relatable forms of advertising-

Form a bond with the brand-

Gets people to their website-

Gives consumers a way to co-brand themselves

[ex] Jeep, Armani sunglassesFan community photos are posted - can cobrand themselvesSometimes this backfires when people post content that negatively represents their brand.[ex] Burger King photo of employee standing on lettuce

Chevy Tahoe crowd-sourced an uncontrolled commercial contest that generated a mash-up of content.•Backfired submissions: misfit content-

Skittle Effect: Gave up their main brand webpage to aggregate the user engagement. Left their website unmonitored.

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Fans can turn on you to teach you a lesson.-

Hashtag to Bashtag-

Always monitor the conversation-

Communication crisis management: people accidently tweet messages that they meant to send from their personal accounts.

Dark sites: PR shaped the clear message of what the Brand wanted to communicate on that day - they have foreseen the possibility for a dark effect and have the damage control response ready.

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Responsiveness in real-time-

Social readiness: more than 50% companies have no plan on how to handle crisis situations-

75% of brand crises were avoidable-

Crisis communications in the age of social media (minimizing brand damage)

Free Taco week-

Rogers and McDonalds immediately replied with a dark campaign to control negative social media crises. •McDonald's Q and A website gave PR response in almost real time-

Instant way to accept responsibility and squash rumors.-

[ex] Taco Bell is being sued for using "fake beef". Released a press release that was well planned out. They were ready to respond, and it was successful.

Music events/festivals are often sponsored by beverages•Event planning

Public Relations

Music events/festivals are often sponsored by beverages•

People are in spending mood-

Tied to a positive experience - positive brand association-

Parents are present-

American Eagle made a branded experience by having volunteers (dressed in their clothing) help students move into University. Move In Day is essential because

Get responses, capture the moments to share and keep the conversation about the brand going•Olympics were social by design: PR workers made it possible to connect and engage with the public•Many Fashion brands sponsor events•Charity events are orchestrated by brands, who stimulate awareness.•Charity events can promote social engagement (Movember goes more global every year).-

Public relations and event planning fundraising is shaped by PR workers. •They are needed to make sure the event goes smoothly-

Write press releases about fundraisers-

Eventbrite can be used to socialize their events•

[ex] Smirnoff, Redbull, etc

Celebrity PR

Corporate Social responsibility workers-

Gen Y is very socially conscious: want to make an impact/difference in the world.

Stunt marketingEducate people by grabbing your attention

PSA (public service announcements)

Not trying to cell you anything but an idea•MADD and World Health Organization communicate messages about personal dangers•

Get you to think about something in a different way and communicate a message.

Public Relations

Early Developments in Public Relations

As people moved to cities, new products were created. Advertising drew attention and customers to new products and PR partly began to help businesses fend off increased scrutiny from the muckraking journalists and emerging labor unions of the time.

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Press agents: those who sought to advance a client’s image through media exposure, primarily via stunts stages for newspapers.

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Pg. 360

P.T. BARNUM AND BUFFALO BILL

Buffalo Bill's press agent John Burke and P.T. Barnum were among the first to use publicity → A type of PR communication that uses various media messages to spread information about a person, corporation, issue, or policy- to elevate entertainment culture to an international level.

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Phineas Taylor Barnum used extreme exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients

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Burke was one of the first press agents to use a wide variety of media channels to generate publicity: promotional newspaper stories, magazine articles and ads, dime novels, theater marquees, poster art, and early films

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Pg. 360-362

Big Business and Press Agents

Utilizing the press brought with it an enormous power to sway the public and to generate business•Pg. 362

Buying favourable news stories about rail travel from newspapers through direct bribes•Deadheading → giving reporters free rail passes with the tacit understanding that they would write glowing reports about rail travel.

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Railroad press agents developed some of the earliest publicity tactics

Modern Public RelationsPg. 362 - 365With the rise of middle class, increasing literacy among the working class, and the spread of information through print media, democratic ideals began to threaten the established order of business and politics -and the elite group who managed them

Rockefeller controlled 90 percent of the nation’s oil industry and suffered from periodic image problems

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After labourers died, he set up photo-ops for John D. Rockefeller Jr. to pose with the families of those lost

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He would skew facts and forge different stories to turn the stories around and make them look as if they weren’t faulty by the company rather the individual

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IVY LEDBETTER LEE

Wrote the first textbook and taught the first class on public relations •His definition of PR: the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution

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claimed that for the cultural elite to maintain order and control, they would have to win the consent of the larger public

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Engineering of consent - the shaping of public opinion through PR•

EDWARD BERNAYS

PR ReadingsThursday, October 04, 201210:38 AM

Public Relations

Engineering of consent - the shaping of public opinion through PR•Like Lee, public opinion was malleable and not always rational •

The Practice of Public Relations

With more than 7000 independent PR firms in the United States, as well as thousands of additional PR departments within corporate, government, and nonprofit organizations, the formal study of public relations has grown significantly.

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New courses in professional ethics and issues management have expanded the responsibility of future practitioners

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Pg. 365

Approaches to Organized Public RelationsPg. 365-367The Public Relations Society of America’s definition of PRPublic Relations helps an organization and its publics adapt manually to each other

To carry on with this process, the PR industry uses two approaches.1) There are independent PR agencies whose sole job is to provide clients with PR services2) Most companies, which may or may not also hire the independent PR firms, maintain their own in-house PR staffs to handle routine tasks, such as writing press releases, managing various media requests, staging special events, and dealing with internal and external publics.

most independent PR firms are smaller and are operated locally or regionally •most larger PR firms are owned by, or affiliated with, multinational communication holding companies.

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In contrast, most PR work is done in-house at companies and organizations; almost every company involved in the manufacturing and service industries have an in-house PR department.

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Performing Public RelationsPg. 367-375

PR managers are formulating a message through research; conveying the message through various channels; sustaining public support through community and consumer relations; and maintaining client interests through government relations.

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Propaganda: communication strategically placed, either as adverting or as publicity, to gain public support for a special issue, program, or policy, such as a nation’s war effort.

PR uses similar strategies of advertising to project messages to appropriate audiences. •PR uses the same strategies as advertising to get a fix on an audience’s perceptions of an issue, policy, program, or client’s image.

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RESEARCH: FORMULATING THE MESSAGE

One of the main functions in PR is creating and distributing PR messages for the news or public•CONVEYING THE MESSAGE

Press releases → or news releases, are announcements written in the style of news reports that give new information about an individual, a company, or an organization and pitch a story idea to the news mediaVideo News Releases (VNRs) → 30 to 90 second visual press releases designed to mimic the style of a broadcast news report.

The internet is an essential avenue for transmitting PR messages.•

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) → the equivalent of VNRs for nonprofits, fifteen to sixty second audio or video reports that promote government programs, educational projects, volunteer agencies, or social reform.

Public Relations

PR managers specializing in media relations promote a client or an organization by securing publicity or favorable coverage in the news media. This often requires an in-house PR person to speak on behalf of an organization or to direct reports to experts who can provide information.

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also perform damage control or crisis management when negative publicity occurs •also recommend advertising to their clients when it seems appropriate •paid advertising may help to focus a complex issue or a client’s image.•publicity carries the aura of legitimate news and thus has more credibility than advertising •

MEDIA RELATIONS

PR practice involves coordinating special events to raise the profile of corporate, organizational, or government clients.

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more typically of special-events publicity is a corporate sponsor aligning itself with a cause or an organization that has positive stature among the general public.

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Pseudo Event: any circumstance created for the sole purpose of gaining coverage in media•typically press conferences, TV and radio talk show appearances, or any other staged activity aimed at drawing public attention and media coverage.

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EG. Changing some 7 eleven store names to Kwik-E-Mart to promote the simpsons movie •

SPECIAL EVENTS AND PSEUDO-EVENTS

The public is often seen as two distinct audiences: Community and Consumer•companies know that sustaining close ties with their communities and neighbors not only enhances their image and attracts potential customers but also promotes the idea that the companies are good citizens.

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many get involved with charity work or other community involvement•Customer service is very important when it comes to PR. •satisfied customers mean not only repeat business but also new business based on a strong word of mouth reputation about a companies image

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COMMUNITY AND CONSUMER RELATIONS

Government PR specialists monitor new and existing legislation, create opportunities to ensure favorable publicity, and write press releases and direct-mail letters to persuade the public about the pros and cons of new regulations.

•GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AND LOBBYING

Lobbying can often lead to ethical problems, as in the case of earmarks and astroturf lobbying•

Lobbying → The process of attempting to influence lawmakers to support and vote for an organization’s or industry’s best interests.

Earmarks → specific spending directives that are slipped into bills to the interests of lobbyists and are often the result of political favors or outright bribes.

Astroturf lobbying → phony grassroots public-affairs campaigns engineered by public relations firms. PR firms deploy massive phone banks and computerized mailing lists to drum up support and create the impression that millions of citizens back their client’s side of an issue.

PR Adapts to the Internet Age

A company or organization’s web site has become the home base of public relations efforts. Companies and organizations can upload and maintain their media kits, giving the news media the information at any time.

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Because of public access, the barriers between the organization and the groups that PR professionals ultimately want to reach are broken.

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Pg. 375-376

Public Relations

ultimately want to reach are broken. allows PR agencies clients to interact with audiences on a more personal, direct basis through social media tools (eg. Facebook, twitter, wikipedia, and blogs).

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Sometimes such communications appear without complete disclosure•sometimes companies would pay for their products and such to get advertised on popular blogs and endorsed by other social media outlets.

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The immediacy of social media outlets means that PR officials might be forced to quickly respond to a message or image once it goes viral.

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Public Relations during a Crisis

One important duty of PR is helping a corporation handle a public crisis or tragedy, especially if the public assumes the company is at fault.

•Pg. 376-377

Tensions between Public Relations and the PressPg. 378Flack → derogatory terms to refer to a PR agent, symbolizing the jounalists protective barrier PR agents insert between their clients and the press.

Professional Friction

Although journalism claims to be independent, the news media have become even more reliant on PR because of the increasing amount of information now available.

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Another tension is PR firms often raid the ranks of reporting for new talent/writers •PR needs journalists for publicity and journalism needs PR for story ideas and access •Many journalists have become lazy and just wait for a handout from PR and because of this, are often hesitant to criticize a particular PR firm’s clients.

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Pg. 378-379

Journalism’s most prevalent criticism of public relations is that it works to counter the truths reporters seek to bring to the public.

•UNDERMINING FACTS AND BLOCKING ACCESS

- Journalists also object that PR professionals block press access to business leaders, political figures, and other newsworthy people.

Another explanation for the professional friction between the press and PR is money•PR agents help companies “promote as news what otherwise would have been purchased in advertising”

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News critics worry that some PR is taking media space and time away from those who do not have the financial resources or the sophistication to become visible in the public eye.

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If public relations can secure news publicity for clients, the added credibility of a journalistic context gives clients a status that the purchase of advertising cant offer

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Another criticism is that PR firms with abundant resources clearly get more client coverage from the news media than their lesser-known counterparts

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PROMOTING PUBLICITY AND BUSINESS AS NEWS

Shaping the Image of Public Relations

Dealing with both a tainted past and journalism’s hostility has often preoccupied the public relations profession, leading to the development of several image-enhancing strategies

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The PR industry formed it’s own organization, the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) functions as a watchdog group that accredits PR agents and firms, maintains a code of ethics, and probes its own practices, especially those pertaining to its influence on the news media.

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Pg. 380

Public Relations

probes its own practices, especially those pertaining to its influence on the news media.

Public Relations

Press releases include quotable bits and provide a time saving discovery mechanism for journalists that hopefully will inspire them to transform the press release into a news report.

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Media Relations involves sending press releases to pitch a news worthy story about their brand to journalists so that they will cover it, and the brand can receive some free publicity.

Social media news releases generally drive about 3 times more engagement if they have a video or photography component.

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Multimedia news releases with links to Facebook pages and other social media properties with quotes that are ready to tweet make it easy for journalists to cover a story.

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There are websites that are dedicated to helping PR pros send out social media news releases, such as PR Newswire, and the Pitch Engine

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When Crowd Factory did market research, they compared the use of the largest social networks for publishing news releases, and they found that over half of them appear on Facebook, even though Tweet-Pitches are much more effective to drive engagement.

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Tweeted press releases generate an average of 2.2 views / release, versus 1.7 views when that same release is posted on Facebook

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Many news releases are powered by social media - they are multimedia enhanced and dynamic, containing real time updates (RSS feed)

Through adding video, and photographs, news releases become more share worthy, and Facebook is the social platform of choice for most news releases

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Video News Releases (VNRs) are short video clips that include background shots and interviews with spokes persons. Its footage that's ready for TV broadcast or web release, editable and remixable by journalists.

Online Media Room → website that provides story ideas on demand for journalists. May contain things like fact sheets, pull quotes, charts, statistics, experts contact source list

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Materials are designed to make a journalist's job easier so they get more publicity.-

News releases, video news releases, and social releases are often located in a brand's online media room

When a company is finding itself in hot water, PR pros are accused by journalists of shielding company officials, and blocking access to executives, celebrities, or other leaders and spokespersons

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Accusing of spinning information, distorting truth, and interfering with the news reportage of facts•PR representatives control access and control the message - results in adversarial relationship between PR and the press.

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There have been historical tensions between PR and the press, even though the two positions are interdependent on each other. Become apparent at times of crisis

Term created by McDonalds CEO, Larry Light•Evolution of public relations involves a movement towards Brand journalism, which is a combination of journalism and marketing.

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Involves having in-house bloggers, writers, researchers and photographers to curate and create content and report on trends and news worthy happenings that are relevant to the brand and its clients. They deliver narratives, analysis, and expert views and perspectives using traditional journalism techniques (hard news, feature articles, multimedia stories).

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Encourages consumers to engage on branded platforms•

Branded Journalism

Performing Public Relations PodcastThursday, October 04, 201210:37 AM

Public Relations

Encourages consumers to engage on branded platforms•[ex] Sears branded journalism is about fitness, and includes a lot of information about how to use home exercise equipment effectively on their "fit studio" website.Netaporte reports from the runways with news about fashion shows from around the world, covering emerging dress and design trends, with immediate links to commerce sites.

Branded journalism is designed to be shared•Sponsored content•Some worry that branded journalism may further flame tensions between PR and press•Can enhance a brands value, charisma, and thought leadership, and it’s the fuel to ignite branded conversations in communities.

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Best buy hires free lance writers to report on the best back to school technology every September.

Public Relations

Edward Bernays ______.1)A. taught the first college class in public relationsB. helped to end a taboo against women's smoking in publicC. developed propaganda to support America's entry into World War ID. All of the options are correct.E. called himself a public relations counselor

Buffalo Bill's publicity agent, John Burke, used ______ to promote Bill's Wild West show.2)A. moviesB. All of the options are correct.C. dime novelsD. poster artE. newspaper stories

A public relations firm looking to make full use of the Internet could ______.3)A. create a Facebook or MySpace page for a company mascotB. create a blog where corporate executives can report company news and share their own observationsC. edit Wikipedia entries for its client's benefitD. hire apparently independent bloggers to promote productsE. All of the options are correct.

What mistakes were made by BP following the months-long oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico?4)A. All of the options are correct.B. The company CEO made public statements about the “small people” who live along the Gulf Coast.C. The company did not show enough remorse or compassion in the wake of the spill.D. The company repeatedly underestimated or underreported the amount of oil gushing from the leak.E. The company CEO attended an elite yacht race and made comments about wanting to “get his life back” while the leak was still gushing.

A journalist might be likely to criticize public relations professionals for ______.5)A. helping them find experts to interviewB. None of the options is correct.C. only letting reporters sympathetic to the goals of an embattled company interview that company's presidentD. giving a full and detailed account of the facts surrounding an issueE. providing a useful press release for an upcoming event

Women currently outnumber men by more than three to one in the public relations profession. True6)

Ivy Ledbetter Lee, one of the founders of public relations and often dubbed “Poison Ivy,” actually believed that honesty and directness were better than deception in public relations. True

7)

Which of the following demonstrates why the 1982 tragedy involving someone tampering with Tylenol packages and lacing them with poison is often given as an example of the correct way to handle public relations during a crisis?

8)

A. None of the options is correct.B. Tylenol successfully shifted blame by telling lies to cast suspicion on competitors.

Public Relations QuizMonday, December 10, 201212:17 AM

Public Relations

B. Tylenol successfully shifted blame by telling lies to cast suspicion on competitors.C. Tylenol underestimated the number of contaminated bottles and still managed to get the public to sympathize with the company.D. Tylenol changed its name in order to avoid any lingering negative publicity.E. Tylenol offered full disclosure of the problem to the press, recalled its products nationwide, and set up emergency phone lines to take calls from consumers and health care providers.

P. T. Barnum used gross exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients, his American Museum, and his circus. True

9)

Why do political candidates frequently schedule press conferences and interviews for around 5 or 6 P.M.?

10)

A. They're more apt to be included as live reports during the local TV news.B. Wire service reporters are less likely to be busy covering other news stories at that time.C. Morning newspapers prefer that time.D. They are hoping TV news reporters can't beat newspapers to publish a story about the press conference.E. Viewers expect to hear commentary on news events at the end of the workday.

The most common type of public relations is done in-house by individual companies and organizations. True

11)

The claim that PR encourages reporter laziness is based on the fact that PR firms ______.12)A. play on reporters' egos by praising them for superficial workB. All of the options are correct.C. seduce reporters with bribes, liquor, free tickets, and other freebiesD. provide reporters with press releases and tips that can easily be turned into news storiesE. strictly control access to news sources

It is illegal for most companies and organizations to engage in lobbying. False 13)

Ivy Ledbetter Lee and Edward Bernays believed that public opinion was rational and difficult to influence. False

14)

The Internet presents mostly problems and few opportunities for public relations practitioners. False15)

Public Relations

public relations lecture notes - amazon...

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