The end of an era – Reflective Log

Assessments over, Semester A officially complete and the Managing Public Relations course has come to an end. With time to breathe (finally), I am able to reflect on what I have learnt over the 12 week course and the impact it has had on both my personal and professional life. All the communication, team working and leadership skills taught to us needed also to be applied whilst preparing our presentation, in order for us to work effectively and create work which was up to standard. From a social perspective, I felt it allowed me to become closer to those who had become my friends in first year.

Challenge one was to create a brief for a fashion company to commission to a PR company (named TNR). I think all four of us would be in agreement that we thoroughly enjoyed working on this brief.  I think with a few drinks in us, we may have even thought the company was real. As a team we worked hard and created both a well thought out presentation and a concise written brief. Despite us all having prior assignment and work commitments we were able to focus fully on the task at hand (even with the odd cheeky donut) and utilise our ‘Belbin personas’ to their full potential. Personally I felt our presentation went fantastically and all we could do was hope that our brief was clear enough to provide vision.

In the same session, we were also briefed by ‘Carry on Events’, adjusting our focus from company to potential PR agency. Initially we found this difficult as TNR had become our baby. Although a written brief may have been helpful, I felt that I managed to note down all relevant information. However, despite my optimism, looking over my notes from ‘Carry On Events’ commissioning presentation, I felt deflated. Even worse, so did my friends and peers. We could not help but feel that there were so many conflicting ideas and objectives – for example, most of the brief was focused on ‘Carnage’ – only to be told that they wanted to go in a different direction as company. This caused confusion amongst the group. Nevertheless as a PR company who specialise in crisis management, we weren’t going to shy away from a problem and in time we came up with solid ideas.

However with the Christmas holidays sandwiched in between our preparation time and assessment we came into minor difficulties in communication – challenge two. Despite this we focused all our efforts once back at University. In all honesty, I felt that our pitching presentation was our weakest, and although we had some strong ideas, I wish we had had the time to develop these further and explain in detail our pending strategies. I would put this down to time management, communication and through no fault of anyone’s that dreaded word ‘illness’.  If made to think about this is further detail, in an ideal world I had hoped that the both presentation could have been undertaken before the Christmas holidays as I could not help but feel deflated after being at home for over 3 weeks.

Challenge three was writing this blog. I found this gave me great perspective. Like writing a diary, I was able to reflect on the lecture/seminar events, putting the information into both a professional and personal context. Reading back through the previous three blog posts, it has become apparent the three prominent PR techniques that stand out are: time management, leadership and communication; ultimately proving that PR techniques can not only be used within a work place but also with day to day life.

Over & Out (for this 4 part blog anyway)

Rhi x

New Year. New Term. Same Challenge

2012 has arrived in no time at all. This may not be the case for everyone, but for me 2011 has felt like a whirlwind. I finished my first year at university and started another, left one job and started another and adapted to the yo-yo lifestyle that is living away, to living back at home.The New Year is always a time to make new resolutions, start afresh and reflect on the year that has just been. For those still in education, it always brings 3 weeks of well deserved rest from exams, essay deadlines and the bank balance.

However although there is nothing due in those 3 weeks, there is plenty to reflect on and plenty pending to be thinking about. One clear example is our current task for Managing Public Relations.Considering the brief presented to us back in November, we are expected to implement a PR crisis management strategy for ‘Carry On Events’ (our peers’ fictional company). Our major hurdle is if we will channel their vision and interpret the information given in the right way.

This then leads onto the question of communication. How clear must instructions be and is information always received in the same way it is sent? Shannon & Weaver’s Model of Communication explains further.

As with any form of media, noise can still be created. Steve Fournier explains “Transmitting a signal across additional media only adds to the complexity of the communication and increases the chance for distortion.”

Communication over the years has been made easier with the increase in technology and social media. It has allowed us to connect both socially and professionally on an instant, online basis. PR practitioners such as ‘Lava PR’ and journalists have fully utilised this in order to communicate with their publics. This fast paced method has proven effective but needs to be approached with the same caution as traditional methods.

Despite these increased methods of communication, there is always more of an element of clarity when discussing an issue face to face. This is an issue we came across over the Christmas break when organising our pitch for ‘Carry On Events’. It became apparent due to the distance between us, work and clashing social calendars that the bulk of our ideas would need to be prepared once back at University. Luckily, our personalities (linked back to our Belbin Test results) - allow us to organise suitable time to gather all ideas and put our pitch into motion. 

Communication is a method of control. It is important within PR, whether in-house PR is present or an agency is the main concern. With an agency more care and though needs to be taken in order to accurately portray the image of your company. As someone who knows exactly what they like, I would need to make sure I communicated my vision accurately in order to gain the desired effect from my chosen consultancy firm.

Communication is linked with reputation, whether this is within the workplace or socially. Misunderstanding can lead to consequences beyond our control and noise is inevitable. As a PR practitioner it is important to understand the receiver in order to construct a suitable message to send via the appropriate channel in order to better the chances of understanding between both parties.

The same applies in any situation. I can only hope you’ve received this blog as I intended to the send it!

Over and Out

Rhi x