Public relations specialist or officer should have all the skills to handle people and it should be that they are doing a great job because it is very hard to handle people, especially difficult people. A PRO is not supposed to be all mighty because s/he is dealing with all people with all backgrounds; poor, rich, weak, powerful, unknown, known.
But some PRO is actually not the professional PROs, rather those who deal with satisfying the flesh only.
Of course not. If it weren’t for these professionals, no client would get media coverage. I once knew a publicist who worked ’round the clock, sometimes staying up til 4 or 5 in the morning writing press releases and working on press kits. If some ppl have a “not so great” attitude about it, it’s because it’s very stressful and demanding.
This is an attitude that PR people deal with all of the time and throughout their career. In fact, those of us who work or have worked in PR joke about it. There seems to be this misconception that PR people just organize fun parties and do “fluff” stuff. I’ve actually been told by a co-worker that it wasn’t fair I was being paid for just doing fun stuff. I think another reason PR jobs get a bad rap, is because some higher profile PR people have been less than honest when representing their company to the public. They’re seen more as spinmasters, and they give a bad name to the rest of us who don’t handle PR in that way.
So, what it boils down to is a misunderstanding of the PR job. I guarantee, if you talk to anyone who works in PR, they won’t describe it as “fun, fluff” stuff. What they do can improve or negatively affect the entire reputation of the company. That’s a little more responsibility than just throwing parties. The PR person will describe long hours, outside of the regular 8 to 5, representing the company at community functions and smiling the entire time, even if they don’t feel like it. The planning and executing of events is not just “fun stuff.” It requires a lot of time, organization and usually a lot of grunt work – carrying heavy boxes, setting up, etc. Most people don’t see the work that goes into it. They only see the PR person at the event smiling and mingling. A PR person will also tell you of times they had to determine the best way to handle crisis situations and communicate to the public and media, often at odd hours of the day, to make sure the company did not end up with a black eye. I could go on and on, but I think I make my point.
There is a lot more involved in PR than just having parties. Often, people don’t see that, so they think it’s just a fun, easy, mindless job. You have to just ignore those people, joke about it with your colleagues, and know that it doesn’t matter what they think. You do have an important job, and if those with the not-so-great attitude were thrown into the PR position, they would probably change their tune. (In fact, I have actually seen this happen, and it was rather amusing.)
December 26th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Public relations specialist or officer should have all the skills to handle people and it should be that they are doing a great job because it is very hard to handle people, especially difficult people. A PRO is not supposed to be all mighty because s/he is dealing with all people with all backgrounds; poor, rich, weak, powerful, unknown, known.
But some PRO is actually not the professional PROs, rather those who deal with satisfying the flesh only.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Of course not. If it weren’t for these professionals, no client would get media coverage. I once knew a publicist who worked ’round the clock, sometimes staying up til 4 or 5 in the morning writing press releases and working on press kits. If some ppl have a “not so great” attitude about it, it’s because it’s very stressful and demanding.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Public Relations Specialist isn’t a dumb job. They just have poor PR.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:08 pm
This is an attitude that PR people deal with all of the time and throughout their career. In fact, those of us who work or have worked in PR joke about it. There seems to be this misconception that PR people just organize fun parties and do “fluff” stuff. I’ve actually been told by a co-worker that it wasn’t fair I was being paid for just doing fun stuff. I think another reason PR jobs get a bad rap, is because some higher profile PR people have been less than honest when representing their company to the public. They’re seen more as spinmasters, and they give a bad name to the rest of us who don’t handle PR in that way.
So, what it boils down to is a misunderstanding of the PR job. I guarantee, if you talk to anyone who works in PR, they won’t describe it as “fun, fluff” stuff. What they do can improve or negatively affect the entire reputation of the company. That’s a little more responsibility than just throwing parties. The PR person will describe long hours, outside of the regular 8 to 5, representing the company at community functions and smiling the entire time, even if they don’t feel like it. The planning and executing of events is not just “fun stuff.” It requires a lot of time, organization and usually a lot of grunt work – carrying heavy boxes, setting up, etc. Most people don’t see the work that goes into it. They only see the PR person at the event smiling and mingling. A PR person will also tell you of times they had to determine the best way to handle crisis situations and communicate to the public and media, often at odd hours of the day, to make sure the company did not end up with a black eye. I could go on and on, but I think I make my point.
There is a lot more involved in PR than just having parties. Often, people don’t see that, so they think it’s just a fun, easy, mindless job. You have to just ignore those people, joke about it with your colleagues, and know that it doesn’t matter what they think. You do have an important job, and if those with the not-so-great attitude were thrown into the PR position, they would probably change their tune. (In fact, I have actually seen this happen, and it was rather amusing.)