One of my former lecturers at Leeds Met, Professor Ralph Tench recently contacted me to see if I could enlist the help of my fellow industry colleagues for a major piece of PR research he is involved with. As someone who has worked in a PR research centre, I was only too happy to help Ralph out.
The research is looking to understand the UK communications landscape in 2010 and PR professionals are invited to take part in what is the largest survey on strategic communication in the world.
The survey seeks the opinions of PR professionals working in companies, associations, political institutions, and other organisations, as well as in communication consultancies. It should take around 10 minutes to answer the questions and all participants will receive a report of the results and have the chance to win one out of three Kodak Zi6 HD Mini Camcorders.
I received an email during the week from fellow Leeds Met Public Relations alumni and Divisional Director at Grayling, Justin McKeown giving me a heads up on a couple of exciting Client Executive positions available at Grayling that may well suit some SWT readers. There are also some Senior Consultant vacancies for seasoned PR professionals which they are looking to fill.
Four of the roles are available in the London Victoria office, two of which are Client Executive positions working within the Corporate team across some tech/corporate accounts. For one of the roles they are looking for someone with at least a years experience, whilst the other Executive position does not specify experience. Grayling are also on the lookout for two Senior Consultants, one working on technology and the other on financial clients.
There is a third Client Executive opening in Grayling’s Southampton office for someone with a years experience working across a range of accounts.
For more information please contact Charlotte Stubbington, HR Assistant and Graying on charlotte.stubbington[at]grayling[dotcom]
Anecdotally, I know that there are some PR graduates who read this blog, so I thought it would be a good idea to post the current vacancies at Edelman which may appeal to anyone starting out in the industry or those that fancy a new challenge. I’ve included some more senior and techie roles too - many of which have only been announced in the last couple of weeks.
There is a range of vacancies, however there are some really interesting roles available, particularly within the digital team (I would say that. Disclaimer: that’s my department!).
The digital team are looking for a:
Senior Web Developer , Content Manager, Project Manager, Account Manager and Account Director.
In addition, Edelman is also looking for a range of people to work across the various teams including:
Account Executive, Senior Account Executive, Media Analyst, Medical Writer, Client Relationship Manager, Global Account Strategist, Research Director and Account Director. Healthcare is recruiting across all levels too.
Do let me know if you’ll be applying for any of the roles and i’ll do my best to answer any questions or point you in the right direction.
To read a full list of the vacancies please click here.
Over the last couple of weeks the topic of ethics in the PR industry has once again come to prominence; however I’ve only just managed to jot down my thoughts and have my two pennyworth.
The catalyst for the debate once again seems to be PR Week and it continues to be a good forum for industry colleagues to have their say. Stuart Bruce of Wolfstar has also penned a blog with a poll and the consensus, thankfully seems to be that it is wrong to behave unethically on behalf of a client.
It is important to make a clear distinction, namely the difference between unethical behaviours (astroturfing, lack of disclosure, lieing etc) and moral decisions, for instance working on accounts that people may find morally questionable, such as tobacco.
It comes down to rights and responsibilities: I believe we all have the right to opt out of an account for moral reasons, but we also have a responsibility to ourselves, our employer, clients and the PR industry to behave ethically.
Fortunately, all good agencies allow staff to opt out of accounts on moral grounds and I feel empowered that my employer’s position is clear as Robert Phillips stated ‘at Edelman, everyone has the right not to work on a piece of business if they find it ethically or morally challenging.’
I think the sensible approach seems to be that, yes – we should all work in an ethical manner, but from a moral standpoint it is less clear cut what industries are the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ones to work with. The issues are often far more complex than to simply be branded ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
Everyone has a different set of values and the question is: where do you draw the line? Is there a line? Arms, gambling, alcohol, pornography, fast food? Sweatshops, carbon footprints, industrial relations? In fact, under the surface I imagine someone, somewhere has a moral objection to every corporation. However, I firmly believe it is possible for organisations to behave in an ethical and responsible way, whilst carrying out work that some may find morally objectionable.
Indeed, it is these more challenging industries that provide us, as practitioners with the greatest opportunity to demonstrate how PR can be used for social good. We live in a stakeholder society and PR agencies can work in partnership with organisations to devise strategies that engage with these communities and create understanding.
Our end goals are trust and credibility and the most effective way to achieve these aims is through openness, honesty and transparency. Behaving unethically is short-sighted and ultimately, self-defeating. Whilst, I’m loath to make judgments on morality, it is not difficult to make ethical ones. Ethics has to be the cornerstone of the PR industry.
I’d be interested to hear what industries (rather than companies) you would find it hard to work with on ethical or moral ground.
Recently, PR Week (Wednesday 13 January 2010) ran an article lamenting the level of digital skills within the PR industry. Using stats provided by recruitment agency Major Players, Matt Cartmell highlighted the gap between PR roles that require digital skills and the relatively small number of candidates who mention these attributes on their CV.
Whilst the article contained some interesting snippets of information, it left me with more questions than answers, namely:
1. Who should be teaching digital skills?
2. What digital skills do employers want?
3. How can people demonstrate digital skills?
Marshall said:
“1. In my experience, academics are good at teaching principles and lousy at teaching practicalities. So most of the training is going to have to be done by employers in a professional setting. Mostly though, PRs need to take the time to build experience. That’s what I’m always looking for nowadays.
2. Experience. Real depth. Understanding of how the platforms really work. And increasingly (especially at senior levels), real insight into how to build strategies and work with the platforms to undertake successful campaigns built on conversation. Also critical: Ability to listen to the conversation and discern insights.
3.Talk the talk. And back it with real examples.”
Stephen said:
1. The digital PR industry is too immature for formal teaching courses to have been developed. The rules have yet to be written. But there are plenty of good books and lots of materials online. And the tools are free are readily available for anyone to experiment.
2. If you’re new to PR you need to build your own social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And you need to develop content on a blog platform, Flickr and YouTube. Likewise if you’re in PR and want to stay in PR you equally need to learn how to use digital techniques to create and seed content.
3. It’s the old adage. Show me what you’ve done don’t tell me what you could do. Build out your own social networks and use a blog platform, Flickr or YouTube. I am constantly astonished at the number of PR and journalism students that aren’t sufficiently motivated to experiment with these new forms of media. I would always choose someone that had made the effort versus someone that had not.”
I’d like to put on record my thanks to both Marshall and Stephen for sparing the time to give their views on this issue. I’m sure any graduate looking to break into the PR industry in 2010 will find this a valuable post. On a personal note: I look forward to exploring this topic more closely in an article for Behind the Spin magazine.
I shall be giving a presentation tomorrow (Thursday 14 January 2010) at Leeds Metropolitan University on e-portfolios. I will be giving my views from a graduate perspective and how I believe e-portfolios can be used to record achievement, increase personal SEO and hopefully lead to employment opportunities.
Charlotte Britton who is a Director at Republic of Yorkshire and Chair of Yorkshire and Humber Young Directors Forum at Institute of Directors will also be giving her views as an employer.
Nick Halafihi a Leeds Met Lecturer and some of his Carnegie Sport & Education students will provide a case study on how first year students are utilising their e-portfolio.
A Twitter feed has been created for the event #LeedsMetLL – so please feel free to follow the event, comment , ask questions and leave feedback. We’ll do our best to reply to everyone.
Here is a copy of the presentation – if you have any questions, please do get in touch.
Over the last week or so ghost blogging has been a big issue – a quick look at Dell’s B2B Social Media Huddle Twitter stream (#DellB2B) will show you a range of opinions.
As many have pointed out including Wolfstar’s Stuart Bruce there is some confusion over the difference between a fake blog (astroturfing) and a ghost blog – which is essentially writing a post on someone’s behalf or in conjunction with them. The analogy of a scriptwriter has been used to support the ghost blog argument.
There are clearly two schools of thought when it comes to ghost blogs: the purists who find this practice unacceptable and the pragmatists who realise that for a variety of reasons including time, writing ability and consistency that corporate blogs may need assistance and be ghosted by PR people. Agencies write press releases, publications, website copy, newsletters for clients etc – so why not corporate blogs?
Whilst, I sympathise with the pragmatist view – I think from the outset agencies need to explain that blogging is a discipline that involves time, not only that, it offers a different line from the corporate schpeel we are accustomed to. Essentially, blogs are an opportunity to demonstrate a more human side to an organisation. Also, what would happen if a member of the public quizzed a CEO about a ghost blog post? Would they be able to respond?
Although, agencies are well placed to ghost blog, I feel organisations will portray a more authentic side if corporate blogs are written by someone who works at the company, someone at the coal face – otherwise it is just a PR person’s take on the organisation.
I was thinking the other day what would have made my life easier in my final year at university. Looking back it was a hectic period – amongst all the deadlines, presentations, portfolios and exams we were looking for that dream graduate job. At times it was difficult balancing the two: trying to clear the immediate university workload, whilst attempting to plan for the future, namely searching and applying for jobs (all over the country) in the industry. It was an uncertain time.
So to make things a bit easier for PR students, I have put together a list of 2010 PR Graduate Schemes, when they open, close and links to apply. I’ll be updating it over the coming months. I hope you find it useful.
Note to companies:if you have a scheme please email me and I’ll add you to the list.
So far it is a draft document that covers my main feelings; however in the spirit of being social I thought I’d ask for contributions. It is intended to be a document that can grow and be updated.
The draft guidelines can be viewed here. Please do have a read and if you have any suggestion get in touch.
Please note these are only going to be guidelines not a HR policy, the document is there to give the players a few things to think about when online. I’m a firm believer that PR people should provide social media guidelines (which educate) rather than getting involved in a HR policy (which are explicit in acceptable and unacceptable behaviours).
Disclaimer: I’m not getting paid for producing these guidelines; I’m putting them together as a favour to my old boss.
For starters, only 64 agencies responded to the survey which may suggest that many agencies talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk when it comes to digital. Either that or they were too busy with their latest digital account to respond in time.
Cynicism aside, the ten best digital campaigns provided some useful case studies, but perhaps most tellingly highlight that whilst the campaigns contained a strong digital strand, many still incorporated traditional public relations tools such as media relations, copywriting, research etc. We are seeing quite traditional PR stuff, just executed in the digital world.
The report suggests that ‘specific departments may become redundant once all team members are trained in digital and able to use their judgement to decide the best medium for a particular campaign.’
Steve Loynes, head of B2B at The Reptile Group went further: ‘understanding the client and its marketplace is what leads to the best campaigns, not a specialism in a particular medium. All our consultants incorporate digital activity where it makes sense for the client.’
I feel Steve is wrong here – the digital world is evolving at such a remarkable rate it will pay to have a dedicated member of staff who is horizon watching for digital trends ready to report back and update colleagues.
It is easier said than done just to expect employees to keep up to date with the digital world, someone needs to be responsible for obtaining and transferring this knowledge.
I think in the medium term we will continue to see a dedicated digital expert at agencies. In my mind this is the most effective way to inform colleagues who can then build this knowledge into their account management.
PR chap interested in social media, blogging, SEO+WOM. Fan of open/crowd sourcing. At Edelman Digital, has worked in PR research, press office+sports club.
