#futurepr

In all honesty, when it comes to having a job in public relations (or anything for that matter) there will be parts that don’t fit into my definition of “fun.” However, there’s something more to benefit from other than temporary happiness. We need to focus on the picture of our organization that will make it worthwhile.

That same kind of worth comes from what we all dread … Research!

Forrest W. Anderson, author of Guidelines for Setting Measurable Public Relations Objectives: An Update, gives 6 reasons behind “setting clear, concise and measurable objectives in public relations.”

Objectives create a structure for prioritization.

Objectives reduce the potential for disputes before, during, and after the program

Objectives focus resources to drive performance and efficiency

Objectives help create successful programs by identifying areas for prescriptive change and continual improvement.

Objectives set the stage for evaluation by making it easier for sponsors and team-members to determine if the PR program met or exceeded expectations.

Objectives link the PR objectives to the business objective.

All 6 of these reasons are based in the overall well-being of the company and everything that they stand for. As a PR professional, it is our duty to put our best foot forward and continue to pursue the best future for our company. 

How do we do that? By giving the team something to look forward to. These are set through our objectives placed for the company.

https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2013/12/worldbuilders-at-the-heifer-ranch/

As an example, I’ll look towards Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas as we explore outputs, outcomes, and business results as described in Anderson’s, Guidelines for Setting Measurable Public Relations Objectives: An Update. Below you will find examples for each.

Outputs: “We had a total of 200 students attend our weekly educational programs at Heifer Ranch during the month of November.”

Outcomes: “Through these educational programs, the families we given an evaluation sheet. ⅔ of the families completed the evaluations all with high praise.”

Business Results: “In the future, we plan to implement and raise profit for the educational classes by at least 20% to complete our goal of raising 100 new livestock for families living in poverty.”

So, no. Research is not fun. Setting objectives for the future is not fun (depending on how comfortable you are with the unknown,) but it is so worthwhile to your personal being and the overall future of the company that you are representing, and because of this point, it is so important to look through all three types of areas: outputs, outcomes, and business results.

I just started a new Tumblr, Future Press Releases which will be a collection of fictional corporate memos, marketing, and PR. I'll use it as a fun creative outlet and place for design fiction and probably cross-post my entries here.

The first post up is a PR announcment from Gravitas Industries, maker of artificial gravity generators for space stations / ships. They've recently created a smaller, cheaper version of their tech and are looking at new ways to productize it. The inspiration came from wondering why sci-fi sometimes introduces a gravity generator and then never discusses other ways it could be used.

Yet another inspirational talk today with Gemma Griffiths, MD of The Crowd And I, a PR agency with the main aim to 'disrupt the norm'. 

The event involved not only Gem, but Simon Collister, one of my lecturers at LCC, UAL, Francis Ingham, Director General at PRCA, and Steve Waddington, current President of CIPR & Director at Ketchum Europe.

Thought-provoking and motivational words from all, followed by a wonderfully healthy tasting shot of wheatgrass to start this cold wintery wednesday! 

Us as #PR's need to start creating our own narrative in order to be able to disrupt the norm. Starting with ourselves as individuals. Gem spoke about how everyone is scared, but just DO something, just start. Most of us at the talk were PR students with knowledge from uni, therefore we can't get it THAT wrong. And if you do, then you know just to hold your hands up and say sorry! Alternatively, if your view changes as you develop and someone pulls you up on your past then you say just that, 'I have developed and changed as I have grown within my profession'...

So here I am, DOING something. Yes it is only a small blog post, but it's me writing my narrative. My way of expressing how the things that have happened to me today have affected me. And it's okay to get things wrong. This is a skill I need to develop. Wrong is okay, wrong can be fixed. 

I made several notes today on my poorly iPhone (it had a disagreement with the concrete of the store room floor at work)... I'm really glad I made those minutes of the talk as sometimes my memory really can fail me quite significantly.

A point made by all members of the panel today was that of others feeling a need for us as an industry to need a famous figure head... Which all questioned as to whether this is really true. Do we need a figure head? Probably yes, but do they need 'Box-office appeal' as Ian Burrell suggests? Not particularly, or as some said 'Bollocks do we'. Does the 'man on the street' know of any famous Lawyers? Accountants? - probably not. So why does PR need one? Perhaps to take away and deter others thoughts from the association of Max Clifford and PR, but otherwise it isn't as necessary to the industry as some may feel. It isn't going to be vital in changing the attitudes of friends, family and that 'man on the street'.

In addition to all this positive #FuturePR stuff, Waddington was particularly unimpressed at the absence of Ian Burrell, which I have to agree on but also don't blame Burrell for not attending! It would have made for a far more colourful event than we already had and would have allowed for us to question him and his words and hear a response as opposed to simply critiquing. The critique nevertheless was a valuable learning tool for me in particular in order to engage my brain to start thinking about questioning things a lot more than I currently do. 

I'm really excited for what's to come not only in the future of PR, but for my personal future also. I can feel the excitement of anticipation wanting to burst out already. 

That's all for now