21 Jun Tribal Newbie: Creativity and Engagement Are Key
This is the first in a series of guest posts from those who are new to the communications industry; final year undergraduates, recent graduates or those a year or two into their careers. As digital natives and being the future of our industry, I want to give these individuals a voice, and so I’m asking them about their views on PR, social media integration and the future of the communications industry.
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Tribal Newbie David Clare is a recent PR graduate who blogs at ThePRView.I chose to do Public Relations at university for very weak reasons. I had a quick look through the prospectus’ of a few universities, and decided PR looked like an ‘alright’ course. I also thought Marketing looked ‘alright’ to, so I took them both. I am now a recent graduate of the University of Lincoln, soon to receive a degree in Marketing and Public Relations. Saying that, I am yet to find out all my grades – my last exam was only two weeks ago.
PR is easily my favourite side of the course. Marketing is somewhat interesting, looking at the different types of people, doing research, creating products with the four Ps in mind, but PR has that creative edge. To me, it is all about engagement, and to engage in creative and new ways. Yes, it is reputation management, it is the attempt to control views of an organisation, and to do so in a subtle way – usually through third party endorsements. Yet to do this, one must be creative.
Now, you can be creative with a quality press release, with stories you sell to a journalist, making the most mundane corporate activity worthy of a news story. However, the PR industry also provides the opportunity to be far more imaginative. PR is notorious for its stunts, from a flash mob of dancing Beyonce’s to causing traffic jams in central London because of a £20,000 free petrol give-away…all in the name of promoting a client. However, the creativity I want to share with you comes back to what I believe PR is about: engagement. The best way nowadays to actually engage, for real, with two-way symmetrical communication, is through social media.
Social media has provided the opportunity to speak to a huge number of people on an individual level. Twitter and Facebook are the main platforms that help this, with their sheer amount of users and ease of responding being vital to their success for PR. There are also other ways to use social media; instead of selling a story to a journalist, you can now sell it to an influential blogger. Think Stephen Fry and the iPad – that’s a blog and a number of tweets all in one package.
Social Media is great for engagement in PR, and also for creativity. Think of it like this: There are no limitations other than those you set upon yourself. TV, radio and the press all have limitations for engagement, but social media does not. All you need to do is to get creative.
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