Is the PR industry facing a PR challenge?

2012-02-14 11:14:09 by Jenny

In a comment piece on The Drum earlier this week, Gerard F. Corbett, chair of the Public Relations Society of America, calls for the industry to unite and banish "a preconceived notion of what PR professionals do" in the eyes of the public. Stating that: "In essence, we in PR admittedly have a PR challenge.”

As someone who has studied public relations academically, it is easy to see why there is confusion amongst the wider public of what PR professionals do in practice, as there are a lot of contradictory definitions of PR and what makes a PR practitioner. I agree with Gerard that there needs to be a universal definition in order to ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’. If there is clarity in the profession then this will filter down to the views of the public whether it’s in consumer PR, tech PR or b2b.

Another challenge facing PR is to prove the worth of the industry and the practice itself as there is no universal method to evaluate success. However, a sure sign of proving the growing importance of PR within companies is that all listed FTSE 100 companies have either a PR department or agency communicating on their behalf.

With that in mind, why ignore PR’s potential worth to your company?