Posts Tagged public relations

My Accreditation in Public Relations

October 29, 2010 at 8:35 pm · Filed under APR, career, communications, corporate communications, public relations ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

On Saturday, Oct. 23, I successfully completed the Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations, entitling me to use the APR professional designation.  This has been officially affirmed by the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB), a consortium of nine professional communication organizations that directs this competency certification program.

The Accreditation program aims to improve the practice of public relations by assessing competence in 60 areas of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) associated with the profession.  The Examination is designed for public relations professionals with five to seven years of job experience and/or a bachelor’s degree in a communication field. 

It took me a little more than a year to successfully complete the rigorous APR process, which included preparing and presenting my portfolio to a Readiness Review panel of three peers and sitting for a computer-based examination at a Prometric Testing Center in the Houston area.

According to Felicia Blow, APR, 2009 chair of the Universal Accreditation Board, “Earning the APR reflects mastery of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to succeed in our increasingly complex profession.  Practitioners who achieve the designation are demonstrating their commitment not only to our profession, but also to a strong code of ethics and to the betterment of their organizations and clients.”

To maintain my APR credential, I will participate in continuing professional development while also seeking ways to provide leadership to the profession and serve the Houston community.

For more information about the UAB and the APR designation, visit http://www.praccreditation.org.

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A Communications Professional Committed to Excellence

February 15, 2010 at 4:50 pm · Filed under career, communications, marketing communications, media campaign, media relations, public relations ·Tagged , , , ,

I hope all is going well for you so far in the new year!

I am an accomplished communications professional specializing in media relations and community outreach. My background includes a unique mix of experiences in television news, PR agency client service, corporate conference production, and public affairs media campaign management.

In addition to a journalism degree from Syracuse University and a M.B.A. from University of Houston, I am completing the rigorous requirements for accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators.  Other key highlights of my qualifications include:  

• Experience in a key role with responsibility for the success of a strategic branding, public awareness and media relations campaign to achieve a focused, consistent and positive image of an organization among internal and external stakeholders and the general public.

• Exceptional, award-winning skills in writing effective promotional campaign materials including editorials, feature articles, fact sheets, press kits, press releases, annual reports, marketing collateral, web site content, executive talking points/speaking presentations, and performance reports. 

• Solid capabilities in building relationships of good rapport with editorial and advertising account service contacts within local, regional, and national media targeting general audiences and professional business/industry interests. 

• Keen proficiency in ensuring brand message quality and consistency through collaborations with stakeholders, senior managers, cross-functional departments and teams of creative service consultants to develop and drive strategic communication programs aligning with organizational business goals and objectives.

I have distinguished myself for combining creative energy, strategic acumen, a deep sense of purpose, and a serving leadership style to deliver exceptional results in media relations, media production, corporate event production, organizational brand marketing communication programs, and editorial management of corporate publications.  My training, skills, and experience enable me to add tremendous value to an organization that appreciates the leverage of public relations and marketing communications within its strategies to maximize and maintain competitive advantage. 

I look forward to a personal interview to provide any additional information you may require.  While seeking full-time employment, I am available for short-term freelance consulting assignments.  If you have leads or referrals to share, I would be pleased to follow up immediately.

email: TheReneeGriffin@yahoo.com

blog: http://myPRgative.wordpress.com

follow me on http://www.Twitter.com/Renee_says

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Measuring PR’s Value and Impact on Business – Part 4

August 21, 2009 at 6:56 pm · Filed under advertising, PR measurement, public relations ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

In a presentation during a recent PRSA Houston luncheon meeting, Angela Jeffrey, APR, and vice president of editorial research at VMS, highlighted her findings from nearly a decade of studies on how earned and paid media in public relations correlate to business outcomes.  

news coverageIn addition to discussing the importance of communication share over absolute values and explaining why media costs have a higher correlation to outcomes than media reach, Jeffrey also shared insights and perspectives on ROI, message consistency, and how integrating data better predicts outcomes.

ROI 21) The return on investment in advertising focuses on quantitative metrics, not the impact of creative production. An impression on TV is not the same as a print impression or an Internet impression because the dollar expenditures are different, she noted.  “So advertising needs to gocreative idea beyond spend with a qualitative metric just like non-paid news media.  Quantity and quality need to be combined for best correlations.”     

2) Message consistency needs to be managed throughout all communications. This is about accounting for the difference in effectiveness of a single ad treatment in a positive vs. negative news environment, Jeffrey said. 

Take the hypothetical example of a restaurant chain’s $30 million ad campaign that indexes at 100.  If a YouTube video exposing E.colie.coli contamination at some outlets indexes at 20, the $30 million budget now has an impact of only $6 million (20 percent of $30 million).  Jeffrey’s research found that substituting $6 million for $30 million in the company’s market mix model came close to reality in customer count and revenue estimates.  

Bottom line: ads only do well in a positive PR environment. 

ad2media coverage3) Integrating news and advertising results in greater actionable insights. By definition, a correlation is a relationship between two independent variables.  Perfect correlation, achievable only in a clinical lab, is stated as r = 1.0.  According to Jeffrey, an r = 0.7 is usually a good indication that there is a relationship between the media effort and business results.  

One of her studies revealed strong correlations between integrated communications and movie box office success.  Specifically, while paid r = 0.58 and non-paid r = 0.75, integrated r = 0.80. 

White papers:

See “Exploring the Link Between Volume of Media Coverage and Business Outcomes” and “Exploring the Link Between SHARE of Media Coverage and Business Outcomes,” by Dr. Donald Stacks, Dr. David Michaelson, and Angela Jeffrey, APR, on www.instituteforpr.com. To request a copy of “The New Found Impact of PR on Advertising,” email ajeffrey@vmsinfo.com.

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Measuring PR’s value and impact on business – Part 3

August 21, 2009 at 6:18 pm · Filed under advertising, PR measurement, public relations ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The desire to do a better job is a major reason for evaluating PR efforts, but another equally important reason is the widespread adoption of the management-by-objectives system by clients and employers of PR pros.  They want to know whether the money, time, and effort expended on PR are well spent and contribute to the realization of an organizational objective,dollar sign such as attendance at an open house, product sales, or increased awareness.

media coverage1Compiling print and broadcast mentions is a widely practiced form of evaluating PR programs.  This, however, is just the first level of assessing message exposure to potential audiences. 

Media impressions are measures of the potential audience reached by a print, broadcast or online outlet.  If, for example, a story about anreadership organization appears in a local daily that has a circulation of 130,000, the media impressions are 130,000.  If another story is published the next day, this counts for 130,000 more impressions.  If there’s a brief mention of a new product or service on NBC’s Today show, this might constitute 20 million impressions if that is the audited size of the audience that regularly watches that program. 

Calculating the value of message exposure is another approach that can be done by converting stories in the regular news columns or on the air into the newspaper1advertising value equivalent, or AVE.  In other words, a five-inch article in a magazine that charges $1000 per column inch for advertising would be worth $5000 in publicity value.

“This math is correct if – and that’s a big if — the article really was about your organization.  If you only got a sentence or two, then you would be more accurate to go with a couple column inches before calculating its value,” said Angela Jeffrey, APR, vice

Angela Jeffrey, APR

Angela Jeffrey, APR

 president of editorial research at VMS who spoke at a recent PRSA Houston luncheon meeting.  

“My point on AVE is simply this: the very term ‘advertising value equivalency’ implies that a news article is equal to an ad in terms of impact.  And no one believes that. So it has been inaccurate for us as PR pros over the past 50 years to refer to a dollar amount of news coverage as having an actual ‘value.’” 

The real value of a story may be much greater than what the ad space cost to buy it, Jeffrey explains.  “It may have generated $50,000 in product sales, or solved a crisis that could have cost the company $50 million dollars.”  

In fact, some PR pros take the approach of calculating the cost of advertising adfor the same amount of space and then multiplying that total three to six times to reflect the common belief that a news story has greater credibility than an advertisement.  There is no empirical evidence, however, to support any multiplier factor.

Other pros say it’s like comparing apples to oranges. apples to oranges Advertising copy is directly controlled by the organization and can be oriented to specific objectives.  The organization also controls the size and placement of the message.  News mentions, by contrast, are determined by media gatekeepers and can be negative, neutral or positive.  Also, a new release can be edited to the point that key corporate messages are deleted; therefore, the organization can’t control size, placement, or content.

Thus, it’s a question of what’s being measured.  Should an article be counted as equivalent advertising space if it is negative?  It’s also questionable whether a 15-inch article that mentions the organization only once among six other organizations is comparable to the same amount of advertising space. 

And the numbers game doesn’t take into account that a four-inch article in the Wall Street Journal may be more valuable in reaching key publics than a 20-inch article in Houston Chronicle.

employeesSome argue that AVE metrics help corporate management put a value on PR. Others say it helps marketing executives decide on how to split resources between PR and marketing.

”From a pure calculation perspective, yes, you use the space/time occupied by your client in the story, multiplied by the advertising rate for that media outlet. However, we advise our clients not to refer to it as a ‘value’ statement,” Jeffrey said.  “And, in fact, we often take the dollar sign off it all together, and use it simply as an index score against which to compare across time, against objectives or against competitive coverage.”

Read Part 4 at https://myprgative.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/measuring-prs-value-and-impact-on-business-part-4/

And, follow me on http://www.Twitter.com/FeliciaGriffin1

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Developing the mindset of a strategist

June 4, 2009 at 5:02 pm · Filed under public relations ·Tagged , ,

Strategy is a method of thinking before it becomes a style of action.

Strategy is a method of thinking before it becomes a style of action.

Are PR practitioners just members of the support staff? Or are we essential participants on the management team?

Being strategic is what makes the difference, according to James Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, Chairman and President of The Lukaszewski Group, Inc. In a recent IABC webinar, he outlined the crucial personal beliefs and actions that enable public relations practitioners to become truly strategic thinkers.

“Practitioners suffer enormous anxiety and frustration over not being at the table, guiding the boss, just being heard or getting invited to strategy meetings,” Lukaszewski said. “When you can truly help the business in some substantive way, you will make it to the table. But if all you offer is how to get a news release out or the standard tactics from the PR tool kit, you’re not going to be invited to the table – at least while the discussions and decision making are taking place.”

It’s about how you think.
“Strategy is a method of thinking before it becomes a style of action,” he said. To be a strategist, he outlined how essential it is to understand the three fundamental steps to creating strategy.
• A clear understanding of the issues, problems or questions to be addressed.
• A method of analysis or pattern of recognition.
• A translation process that enables management to understand and act on the insights and advantages of the strategic approach they will select from the options presented.

Getting to the table.
The chaotic approach to making decisions is the opportunity environment for the strategic public relations advisor, Lukaszewski said. “The challenge is translating what we so easily and intuitively arrive at into a fact-based, real-time, outcome-focused approach that management can actively absorb. Your contribution to the decision making process will insert your knowledge into the selection of a course of action. And, you could be asked to stick around to help with other issues, too.”

Noting that public relations practitioners are almost purely intuitive thinkers while managers are predominately process thinkers and linear decision makers, Lukaszewski explained that how information is structured when presented to management is very important.

“No matter how bold the solution proposed, its obvious commonsense, or its absolute applicability, managers can’t absorb it unless it fits into their processing capacity, builds on their intuitive skills and experience, and allows them critical space to assimilate,” he said. “If it also happens to be brilliant and creative, that’s okay, but often not essential.”

Mastering six elements of strategy
Brevity is crucial, according to Lukaszewski. “Remember, we’re talking strategy here, not planning. Avoid overkill.”

1. Situation
A brief description of the nature of the issue, problem or situation that requires decision, action or study.

2. Analysis/Assumptions
A brief description of what the situation means, what its implications are and how it threatens or presents an opportunity to the organization. Include the one or two key assumptions that validate the analysis.

“Managers always need to know why, but not in great detail,” he said. “They’re also interested in the intelligence you’ve gathered or know about that supports your analysis and assumptions.”

3. The Goal
A clear, concise statement of the task to be accomplished (sometimes the reason or purpose for accomplishing it) or the target to be reached and why.

“Goals keep everyone focused. Useful goals are understandable, achievable, brief, positive and time/deadline sensitive.”

4. Options
Provide at least three response options for the situation as presented and analyzed.

“This is the area where intuitive thinkers fail frequently,” Lukaszewski said. “They focus on the silver bullet. If you have only one recommendation and there are even a couple of questions about it, it will die and you’ll be out of the discussion for the duration.”

For example, what if you’re asked, “What if we do nothing?”

“Doing nothing should always be an option in every strategy, and thoroughly examined,” he said. “Recommend your optimal choice and recommend things you can and will do. Be prepared to do something in between the things you’ve recommended.”

5. Recommendation
This is specifically the choice you would make among the options presented. The recommendation is usually selected on the basis of which option will cause the least number of unintended negative consequences.

“This is where you earn your paycheck,” Lukaszewski said. “The boss always wants to know what you would do if you were in his or her shoes. Be prepared to walk through a similar sort of analysis for each of the options proposed.”

6. Justification
These are the reactions or circumstances that could arise resulting from the options you suggested or by doing nothing. Every management decision or action has consequences that can be forecast. Inadequate provision for consequences is what sometimes can sabotage an otherwise useful strategy.

Lukaszewski said this strategic approach leads to productive, focused planning. “Use it and you’ll get to help managers at every level in their strategic decision making. If the strategy can’t be adequately addressed in this structure, it’s probably not a strategy.”

Testing your strategy
1. Does it help the boss achieve his or her objectives?
2. Does it advance the purposes and goals of the entire enterprise?
3. Is it truly necessary, even if the answers to questions 1 and 2 are yes?
4. Will the business or some aspect of the business fail or not succeed without it?

“What is most important is the ability to do and recommend less but make what is suggested substantive and very important,” Lukaszewski admonished. “One clear lesson: dump the cynicism about management and get on the team. If your boss’ team won’t have you, then find a team that will.”

Follow me on http://www.twitter.com/FeliciaGriffin1

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Public Relations: It can work for you, if you work for it

May 24, 2009 at 11:29 pm · Filed under public relations ·Tagged , , , , ,

10c12230f0508c64I’ve heard it said that a setback is a setup for a comeback. If that’s true, then this steep economic downturn could actually be the start of the next economic boom for those of you starting new small businesses now. You should know that good public relations is within reach and can be vital to your success.

An important point, however – it’s labor intensive. You get out of it what you put into it. Businesses that don’t allocate resources for public relations expertise won’t reap the significant benefits this management element can provide.

Effective PR requires a long-range view. You must consider it an investment for future business growth, not for immediate return.

There’s no magic in knowing what to do and when and how to do it, but a strong public relations program is an operation of finesse that calls for a strategic, carefully timed approach. Techniques vary, but a few underlying principles work for most.

Company Image
Image can determine whether you make a deal, get a client or sell a product. Often, image is the sole reason a company is hired or selected, even though the customer may never say so.

Some firms that do excellent work don’t gain the success that quality merits because they don’t communicate it well. Consistency is the key. Logos, graphics and every representation of the business must have the same look of high quality and success. That includes physical, visual and verbal properties of the business such as signage, lobby, staff, specialty items and even delivery trucks.

Media Relations
From radio, TV and newspapers to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media sites and blogs, all these media demand strong ideas for stories and conversations. Good or bad, people are talking. So seek out your media exposure in a positive way. Develop contacts and strive to become known as the expert or influencer who can be called on for comments, ideas and analyses of issues and trends in your industry.

Employee Relations
Few companies pursue an aggressive campaign to communicate to employees the successes and failures of their operations. Some have considered this a luxury reserved for industry giants. No so.

The tools for an effective campaign on not complicated: Tweets on Twitter, intranet updates, regular meetings, up-to-date bulletin boards, clear and concise paycheck inserts, daily or weekly email notices.

Community Relations
Too many businesses don’t know their neighbors or interact with their community. That’s a big mistake.

A proactive community relations program can develop solid support, not just in businesses around you but in a broader area as well. Charitable work can be the centerpiece of the campaign, but many other activities also work well. Sponsor or host events that are important to the neighborhood, for example. That can strengthen good will and target the audiences you want to reach.

Be proactive on communication
If you have people in your company or on your business team who speak well, they should be out in the community speaking in the name of your company or team. They can talk about the company, its business, charity work, or anything of interest that is even marginally related to the business. You need ambassadors and your best speakers make excellent ones.

External newsletters that are well done are popular and valuable communication tools, promoting such things as company milestones and information about the products and services you offer.

Participation in an industry organization offers benefits, too. While some see peril in mixing with competitors, such participation can be good exposure for you and your company, and can provide valuable information for company operations. It can turn competitors into collaborators or partners for specific projects. Visibility also can make you known as an expert within the industry and a credible source for the traditional and Web 2.0 social media. Industry trade shows and conferences offer another opportunity to display products and skills if those attending include good target audiences for you.

These programs, strategies and tactics can become excellent support tools for your company’s long-term growth and profitability.

Need support to get started? Should your organization wish to obtain the support of the author for speaking or launching a public relations program, contact Felicia Griffin at  832-715-8021 , email Felicia.Griffin@yahoo.com, follow me on http://www.Twitter.com/FeliciaGriffin1, or visit www.LinkedIn.com/in/feliciaconnection.

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