How Important are People in PR?

Through the previous eleven articles, we attempted toward Public Relations from various perspectives. However, in the present paper – concluding the preceding articles – we are aiming toward a point underlying our one-year journey so far; the importance of people in Public Relations. The following paper tends to the Management’s personal branding, the importance attributed to the staff population and their satisfaction in employer branding, the company’s acuity toward influencers and ambassador assignment, and communications with KOLs.

Taking up the responsibility of leading a company’s Public Relations, a meticulous analysis of how people are positioned both internally and externally is of a great significance. Knowing the leaders of the company and people who are capable of creating a wave outside, would assist us in installing the tracks to the railway of our Communications toward maximum impact, hence in a more tangible and human manner. For instance, these days most businesses tend toward uplifting their employer branding, where Public Relations can prove capable of portraying a significant role in promoting the company’s values; and accordingly, pique the interest of society’s experts; transforming the company into the talent’s priority in job selection.

A pillar in the portrayal of this role would be to introduce the company’s management and affiliates as industry experts; reflecting their expertise and achievements. Of course, what is being elaborated upon is not at all limited to senior management, nor the fouders of the company. Targeting focus upon these groups of people nowadays, presents the company under a pyramid scheme; with no place for opinions to flow in; while talents outside the company or the newly graduates prefer to work at a company, where their achievements would be resonated and not a place that would auction everything in the name of a specific group of people. In this respect, faces of a company must benefit from diversity, as well as strategic leadership. In other words, every department includes managers whose personal branding better communicates the depth of the company's efforts with the target audience through varying angles.

Most would think this approach to oppose classic Public Relations text books, claiming each corporation to require a limited number of public faces and spokespeople. This is while, in the modern PR, it is the expets who mostly have proven to change the outcome of the game to our benefit on more occasions than the CEO. For instance, in many cases it has been observed that the tweet of legal entities – their complaints and demands– bring more value and influence in facilitating issues or inviting decision makers to help resolve the concerns of the corporation.

As a matter of fact, the end of Public Relations efforts and services according to this approach is for the company’s management to be introduced to, and recognized by the community of experts in their line of work as a source of information, in a way that their point of views to be employed in various events or the nick of times. Thus, their inspiring and successful personality would pose as a factor in the decision making of prospective employees. This fact underscores the importance of close collaborations of industries with universities. This is where working alongside the company's leading figures – in a reputable organization – will be considered as both an educational and professional achievement for people outside the organization. Without a doubt, realizing such a goal would require PR professionals to conduct in-depth studies over the various procedures the company’s units and/or departments are managed under, as well as to select and target streaming and authentic visual, written and audio media outlets across various fields and industries.

However, it is not merely department leaders or senior management who have a role to play when it comes to employer branding. A portrayal of the everyday work life of each unit, the expertise of lower level staff, employee branding and a reflection of the work culture instilled in the company must be included on the entity’s owned media as communication pillars. In this line, narrating the organizational culture and the company’s key efforts toward the wellbeing, education, as well as personal and professional development of its staff population under HR Reports would score among the company’s practical tool set. However, it is necessary for business outlets and their PR professionals to ensure their haste to well-present themselves would not be made into waste.

At times it has been proven that echoing the company’s values would translate into a great greed in the minds of the management, where exaggeration would take place in the narration of such values, while no serious actions have been taken in response to the needs of the staff, hence a minimum level of satisfaction is witnessed among employees. Under such a circumstance, we would be facing a critically potential crisis that can erupt into flames upon the tweet of a current or former unsatisfied employee; ripping all our efforts to pieces. Accordingly, all aspects considered, given platforms such as media and social media, corporations are to initially target their attention toward organizational culture and to go beyond the staff’s primary demands. Upon this infrastructural step, the company’s image and employer branding can be marketed.

Let’s go tend to the outside of the company and the significance of external people! Imagin a company approaches an influencer for promotion of a new product or feature, who does not quite match the company in culture, or their actions on Insragram (for instance) are sources of potential controversies. What consequences would the promotion of the company’s achievements through such a channel have?

In a deeper sense, our company would choose an ambassador to its brand from local celebrities across the numerous fields like sports, art, etc. subsequent to conducting vast studies over various options. It is obvious that upon the selection, the ambassador’s actions and behavior would directly affect the society’s recognition of our brand. This is while, the capability of prediciting whether the selected ambassador proven beyond the shadow of a doubt; does not go rogue in the second year of collaboration, conducting a controversial behavior, or having an image or video of their personal life leaked in the cyberspace, falls under the alertness and agility of both the Marketing and Comms teams. Otherwise, while executing a heavy, multi-faceted and complex project, lacking the understanding of the influence people have in the field of Communications, will achieve nothing but damage for our brand and position.

The above would be the reason behind the limited options companies find themselves when attempting toward introducing a brand ambassador in the country, with each option carrying a weightier bag of controversies compared to the other. Some have had affiliations with other brands and others are not very well coordinated with government organizations, so the company will not be permited to use their face on billboards or the state-run television channels.

Communication with KOLs is yet another example of the tremendous influence individuals can hold in the realm of Public Relations. A dynamic PR manager should have a list of influential people whose beliefs and points of views may have influence on the organization’s reputation. This way, while communicating with such people, we would be able to account the company’s narrative and its values to them. Having the companionship of this group of people will at least inhibit criticisms against the company to intensify, during an organizational crisis.

It is only natural that at times, this group of people would also be unsatisfied with the services we provide. In this scenario, if they are unaware of our ongoing efforts, footprints and growth path, even a soft criticism on their side can lead to a long news wave, for example on Twitter or across the corridors of power, entangling everyone's life for at least a few days! Imagine for a second that how the power of their companionship, whether collaborative or organic, as well as their support and praise of our work would present us with in the nick of times.

In general, underestimating the potential network and actual relations of the organization with people – outside and inside the organization – can cause us great trouble. This rather simple issue is stressed upon even for the simplest of interactions at world’s largest companies, under the “Code of Conduct”. As an example, contrary to local companies, the legal team at world’s business giants, are strict about promotional gifts the company sends as appreciation tokens to external stakeholders (media, suppliers, trade partners, etc.), to the extent where the management faces serious (and at times ridiculous) restrictions when choosing gift options. But instead, the organization will reduce the possibility for a negative perception of the gifts (bribery) to zero.

In retrospective of the previous articles, the foorprint of the significant influence people have in and for PR activities can easily be observed. In a way, Public Relations can be defined as "managing how others see and feel about a person, brand, or company". It is true that we strive toward building trust in the society and strengthen the reputation of the organization by reflecting current RTBs; but as we renew our perspective, we realize that our most important tools for advancing toward these goals would be such groups of people.

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