This article is about the role of Public Relations in today's society, and how PR has been essentially taken over by marketing departments across the board. The annual conference of the Council of Public Relations is scheduled to meet this Thursday to discuss the changes that have affected the PR industry. The rise of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, have given PR representatives greater opportunities to show their skills, because these sights are connecting a client base directly to the company, and are therefore part of "public relations". The downside to this is that people want an "honest and spin-free" campaign, so it makes it difficult for "an industry that wants to influence the directions of conversations and, ultimately, consumer behavior." The conference is being held in the United States, but the PR firms that will be attending, such as Edelman and Fleishman Hillard, serve companies internationally.
I thought this article was interesting because I think business communications has a lot to do with PR. I again learned the magnitude of effect social media has had on all industry. In essence, social media has changed the way everyone does business. When I thought of PR rep, I think of someone who comes out to hold press conferences and make statements when there has been a major scandal in a company. Also, I used to think that PR and Marketing were one in the same, and this article both confirmed and denied my notion. They are the same in that they both want to persuade a customer, but this article taught me it was more so the responsibility of the PR representatives to form a bond between customer and company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/business/media/pr-groups-soul-searching-leads-to-shifts-in-strategy-.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D
Nice work enjoyed the article.
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