Firstly, how does this helps your PR works? Let us try to look at the words 'Public Relations'. Literally, it means the relationship with the public. With a good social network, one's task could be achieved far more easier and faster than one whom have to start everything from zero. The simplest theory - no man is an island. Especially when it comes to PR, you need to build good relationship with the media people so they would (hopefully) be more friendly to your nagging calls, with a good relationship with people such as a CEO of a shopping mall, you can get venue for your events with even a discount for it, or perhaps people are attracted to your events simply because they buy your smile :)
What is the difficulty in that? "Being good in socializing is easy! I will just talk to people!" Yes, you are right, this is in fact the very first step. I am sorry to say that in my opinion, people who often feel shy or scared or for whatsoever reason to take the initiative to speak to people fail in PR. Actually, being good in socializing is somehow still a natural instinct, not everyone feels comfortable in communicating with people especially with unknowns or public. You might be able to learn at least to talk to people with appropriate manner but not until you try too hard and the situation become awkward right? Think about it, being a good PR practitioner, it will come to such extent that you have to smile to people when you are not in the mood, your friendliness has to be equalized with your patience, and sometimes, you have to suck up to people even you hate him/her so much.
These are all the criteria I see from my head of department and colleagues. One of my colleagues is a 50 years old woman. Frankly, she doesn't have a good working experience and her English is not that good. But she treats everyone in the hospital (from the cleaners to the receptionists, medical staff, to the admins) very good. She says hi to everybody, she offers them help and food, and she doesn't mind making coffee (you know there is always this culture whereby employees are supposed to make coffee for their boss) for anybody in the office.
Eventually, she becomes very welcomed by people in Mawar and plays an important role for PR department in Mawar. When Mawar organizes charity events to raise fund for the kidney patients, she actually get the most sponsors/donors compared to the others. When it comes to getting goods or stuffs, catering food for any events, she will be the one appointed to the job because she knows a lot of people and she has a good eloquence. She demonstrates me exactly how taking initiative to socialize with people does help our work to be done more efficiently.
So now I hope everyone sees how socializing actually helps to get your work of PR done much easier than you expected. Let's get it started today, just practice with a smile on your face first :) See you guys!
2 comments:
Dear Carmen (I really hope I got our name right, otherwise please accept my apologies),
I enjoyed reading your post and I think it is really interesting. You mentioned that socializing was a powerful PR tool and I agree with you on that. However, I think that it is not necessarily true that people who are shy always fail in PR. From my personal experience, the people who appear to be introverted at first are the most reliable person after you get to know them. It is just a matter of time before they will make the move of talking or even socializing.
If we analyze the situation from the other side, people who are overly confident tend to be annoying on the long run and this is not a good thing for a PR professional. I think that charisma is definitely a personality aspect that you will find among the greatest PR professional or leaders but from my point of view, charisma does not always mean that the person is a great socialite. Some people do not need to talk much or be seen in the best places to be an efficient PR professional.
I hope you do not misunderstand me on that, I agree that socializing is important in PR but I do not think that people who are not good at it will always fail. It would be interesting to see if someone else had another point of view as I think you just launched a great debate topic.
Kind Regards,
Alix
Hi Carmen,
Great insight on the power of a smile! I found your post very interesting and it inspired me to do my own research on the subject.
I came across this journal article by Scharlemann, Eckel, Kacelnik and Wilson (2001, 167) highlighting that, “smiling is frequently observed in social interactions between human, and may be used as a signal of the intention to cooperate. However, given that humans have the ability to smile falsely, the ability to detect intentions may go far beyond the ability to recognize a smile.” The article was very interesting to read and highly recommend if you wish to delve further into the subject matter.
Scharlemann et al. notes that there are duo facets to the smile. It allows an individual to apply a facial expression to position them more approachable and friendly but also acts as a trigger that favours recipients of the smile to act in a certain way.
An example of this is seen through Tidd and Lochard’s (1978) study that concluded that waitresses that smiled received a much higher tip compared to waitresses that didn’t. I can be a testament of this as I absolutely loathe bad customer service. Unfortunately, it has become status quo, so quality service is quite refreshing and often rewarded. So you are absolutely right to say that the act of smiling is capable of assisting you to achieve your PR objectives much easier.
However as a wary ‘gen y’ I am stereotyped to believe nothing at ‘face-value’. One of the characteristics I possess is questioning everything! I value honesty and sincerity and so I think for me, it goes beyond the smile. Sure, that’s where you start, no doubt, but I think it has to be much deeper than that.
Working in the not-for-profit sector has taught me that trust is just so hard to establish and that if you try to hide your true motives under fake gestures you will not get very far. I think it’s much better practice to approach someone by focusing on the positives of the relationship but still make your intentions very clear.
This can be evident in many crisis situations where the organisation that is up front about their mistakes and demonstrate that they are doing everything they can to rectify the situation will be seen in a far more favorable light and in due time, forgiven for their mistakes. Organisations that mask themselves in these situations and elude that the situation is minute and under control, often suffers from the bad rapport fabricated from the lies and misleading communications.
Linda Truong | Curtin University | Perth, Western Australia
Scharlemann, J. P.W., Eckel, C. C., Kacelnik, A., and Wilson, R. K. (2001). The Value of a Smile: Game Theory with a Human Face. Journal of Economic Psychology, 22, 617-640
Tidd, K. L., and Lochard, J.S. (1978). Monetary Significance of the Affiliative Smile: A Case for Reciprocal Altruism. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 26, 510
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