Comments for CommUnity Business

Comment on Five Ideas to Repair the Credibility of PR by Norman Birnbach

Norman Birnbach — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:56:58 +0000

Good post. Seems to me that the PR industry has always suffered from poor PR if only because, like the cobbler’s children, we never have time to conduct campaigns on our own behalf.

In addition to enhancing PR’s credibility, we need to make the case for PR in the social media age. I wrote a post about that on my blog, PR Back Talk,
http://bit.ly/fYUBBc.

Comment on Five Ideas to Repair the Credibility of PR by Dave Folkens

Dave Folkens — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:02:14 +0000

Kareem- Thanks for your thoughts. The more that PR remains out in front and clarifies what we will or won’t accept in terms of professional behavior the better off we’ll be.

Angelo- Interesting (and unfortunate) that this isn’t just a U.S. issue as well. I’d be interested to hear more about how the public perception of PR in South Africa is similar or different than what we face here.

Comment on Five Ideas to Repair the Credibility of PR by Angelo Coppola

Angelo Coppola — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:33:45 +0000

It seems like this is a universal problem. In South Africa we have unqualified individuals operating as “pee aars” and doing untold damage to the profession. PRISA doesn’t appear to be that visible and perhaps they do need their own PR plan.

Comment on Five Ideas to Repair the Credibility of PR by Kareem Smith

Kareem Smith — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:02:18 +0000

Dave, great topic, as usual. As you stated above transparency is the key. I also believe we can’t be afraid of what we don’t know. Especially when dealing with a crisis, we may not have all the facts, but it’s important that the public understand that we are going to give the facts we can when we can and be honest about what’s happening. I learned a long time ago that not knowing something is fine, as long as you figure out what the answer is. Also, keeping in mind that your audience wants a plan of attack is very important. If you don’t know why something happened or how to stop it, at least have a multi-point plan to let the audience know how you plan to fix it. That goes a long way to building trust in our industry.

Comment on Five Ideas to Repair the Credibility of PR by Dave Folkens

Dave Folkens — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:42:04 +0000

Thanks Keith for your initial post on the issue and for your comment here. I believe it is such an important topic both because of the public perception of the industry as well as internally. Credibility for PR pros can be a significant barrier for many to achieve the highest level of success possible in their careers. Poor perceptions of PR counsel also tint the view of senior leaders at the C-level.

I appreciate you sharing a number of efforts that PRSA is working on as well. As with any sustainable solution, it seems to me that we’ll have to have both individual support along with some of the larger voices of leadership for the industry. I hope to see PRSA continue its efforts and hopefully there will be others that join in to encourage higher standards for all of us.