What PR Is All About

Hi Everyone.
Wow this is my first blog and i got so much to write about i don't know where to start. Pr and spin doctoring, this should get the ball rolling. Image and reputation are so important in PR that sometimes one gets caught up in the moment and winds up twisting, turning, bending the truth so much in an effort to solve one crisis and ends up putting their foot in their mouth.

Thing is the industry(practical),is totally different from theory (what we learn at school). so far i have been involved with alot of practical stuff like attending client meetings, taking down minutes, writing out media reports, meeting notes, press releases, faxing, contacting the media and so on. all these i will dedicate a specific blog to talk about my various experiences, for now i just want to say that PR is a totally different ball game to what i expected.

Dealing with the media in a press conference we hosted early this month (1st of July) was quite an eye opener in the sense that journalists are more arrogant and forceful then editors who are more laid back,nice and approachable. The PC (Press conference abbreviation) went off without a glitch and we had sufficiently prepped our client for what sort of questions to expect and how to avoid tricky questions. Journalists are very sly and very good listeners i realised this as one journalist asked a question which our client tried as much to avoid to answer and using our clients answer he twisted it around to make it sound like our client said what he, the journalist is putting across, which would have made our client contradict himself. But i must say that we did some pretty good PR work in ensuring that our client saves face even under direct attack from the media.

The reason why i mentioned spin doctoring is because our client is involved in a matter which is of high news value, however this is not what the PC was intended for. So we as the PR agency used this aspect to our advantage to ensure that we hook a good number of media representatives to attend and cover our PC and make our client happy. So in a way we highlighted the positive aspects of our client in such a way that the media would have no choice but to come.

Then after the PC came the next part in a successful follow through of the PR field, following up with the media and doing the media monitoring as well as preparing 'thank you' gifts for the coverage your client gets. What i have come to realise is that PR requires alot of sucking up, ego stroking and genuine media relations because it's all about who you know and how well you portray the newsworthiness (spin doctoring comes in here) of the story that can secure you a positive media turn up.

You got to have people skills and know how to angle/manipulate information for the best results. the direct truth in Pr can only get you thus far but a slight twist in the tale ensures for a longer and lasting benefit.

what do you guys think about spin doctoring and PR?