One thing that is emphasised here at PPR (and I'm sure in all public relations roles) is the importance of maintaining client relationships. Obviously a client relationship must always be mutually beneficial, there must be trust and transperancy between both parties, and effective communication is crucial.
Here at PPR, emphasis is placed on the relationship between clients and individual consultants, with the aim of sustaining a long term relationship. Once an account has been acquired, one or two consultants will be assigned to managing the client on an ongoing basis. Management must deal with staff leaving (and the effect that will have on the client), introducing new staff to an account and managing client communication.
Clients like having one main contact here at PPR that they know will be reliable, especially in crisis situations.
Another interesting thing happened the other day at PPR. One of the account managers (who handles the PR for McDonalds) came across some nasty criticism of McDonalds and its new "Angus Burger" on a blog. The blogger also attacked the "spin doctors behind McDonalds" and made some insulting references to the PR work that PPR have been involved with. It made we wonder - what is the right way to respond to such criticism? Obviously as the commuication facilitator for McDonalds, PPR has a duty to represent McDonalds best interests, but does that mean acknowledging the opinions of every blogger who attacks McDonalds?
In the end John, the account manager here at PPR, decided to be tactful and ended up making the blogger feel guilty for his comments. I suppose at the end of the day (and especially in the age of social media) we as PR practitioners cannot control every bad word said (about us or our clients), but it is still important to be aware of what people are saying, and acknowledge the effect it may have on the client or its stakeholders.
I have been a bit disappointed that I haven't been involved with tasks that are a bit more 'pr-specific', nor have I done any event coordination (which i love!) but I am getting really good at updating these media databases!
Over and out :)
Y
4 comments:
Yvette,
I have found your blogs very interesting and honest!
Is there a certain process PPR take in filtering through certain blogs or columns, or is it more a matter of what they come across as you mentioned?
Do you also feel in this regard, they pay more attention to their big named clients and look for print published on them over smaller ones?
I hope you get to experience some different elements of PR before your time is up :)
Hey Yvette,
I have to say that I felt the same disheartened feeling, not being included or trusted enough to do things too specific or with too much relevance to the important stuff.
I feel sometimes that the only reason companies agree to take on interns is to use them as free-labour; get them to do all the time consuming yet completely unintelligable tasks that they don't have time to do themselves.
Hopefully with time at PPR things will get better and you'll be allocated more responsibility than updating databases! *fingers crosses*
Hey Yvette,
I also thought I love events coordination until I see the bulk of “dirty work” involved in events which really, nobody likes to do.
Well, but in all fairness, at least there is the fun part of planning programmes and brainstorming for creative ideas.
All the best in your days to come at PPR! I am sure you will soon be involved in something more worthy of your time.
Belda
Yvette!
I am doing my PR placement at the zoo and one task I was given was media monitoring! This meant i had to go through every blog where the zoo was mentioned and see what was being said.
There are so many people out there who do not realise the good work the zoo is doing in the wild and see zoos and inhuman. So, as you can guess, I had more than my fair share of reading negative things about the zoo.
However, the zoos way of dealing with critism is not to blog back but to take on board what is being said and apply it to their marketing and communication with the public! They feel there more they communicate with the public and educate them on what the zoo is really doing, the less they read negative blogs.
I hope you experience more than databasing before your placement is up!
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