WHO’S TO BLAME?

The PR industry is a funny one. As in funny weird, not funny haha.

When I sit and reflect on my 18-year career, I often wonder why so much pressure is put on PR as a modality, as well as the incredible human beings who choose to work in the industry.

I often wonder who’s to blame for the expectations that people have when it comes to the role of PR and what it can deliver.

For the first nine years of my career, I worked for two different PR agencies. I spent 2.5 years working at that first agency before taking some time out and becoming a holiday rep (I only lasted six months, the rep life wasn’t for me!). I was 21 when I started working there and left just before my 24th Birthday. Those formative years gave me a taste of what I’d learned at university where I studied Public Relations and Media Studies. It allowed me to put the theory into practice.

When I re-entered the industry after that brief stint abroad, I noticed a pattern. One that was built around enoughness. Maybe it was the culture of the agency I worked for, but nothing seemed good enough. Whatever we delivered, we needed to do more. Rarely stopping to celebrate the wins, but always forging ahead to deliver results.

This is where I believe many agencies get it wrong. The focus is on doing more and delivering more, which results in burnout for those doing the work and a higher expectation from the client.

If we’re constantly striving for more, will anything ever be good enough? Will clients ever really value what PR delivers in its entirety, or will they constantly want more coverage, more traffic, more leads and more sales?

The Weight of Expectation

Expectation is a funny word too because expectation isn’t always based on truth, it’s based on perception.

I listened to a fascinating podcast last week. A podcast that a friend of mine shared with me ages ago, but I hadn’t gotten around to listening to it. Steven Bartlett was interviewing Mo Gawdat on his podcast, Diary of a CEO. I’d never heard of Mo before so I had no expectations in terms of what I wanted the interview to deliver.

As a data geek, Mo has been able to align science with happiness and explain it in a beautifully simple way. The way he describes expectation delivers a metaphorical punch in the face. It made me stop in my tracks and question my own expectations, and ask if they’re based on truth or a reality that I’ve simply made up in my head.

When it comes to Public Relations, I often wonder if business owners are basing their expectations on truth, data and analytics, or basing it on a level of perception that may not be shrouded in truth.

Which brings me back to my original question: who’s to blame for setting these expectations?

Are PR professionals and PR agencies to blame? Are they allowing clients to dictate what is and isn’t perceived to be a result, or a positive outcome, or are we not taking accountability for our role in explaining what PR actually is and what it can deliver?

Before I start working with clients, whether it’s part of our bespoke PR Concierge Service or whether it’s inside The PR Portal where we teach business owners how to get PR, I’m transparent from the get-go. I make it very clear that it can take a minimum of three months for our efforts to be rewarded with an article or an interview with you going live.

For three months you’re investing in us to deliver, yet the fruits of our labour may not be seen for another few months. Despite being honest and upfront from the get-go, you may not be surprised to hear that clients often use this as an excuse to punish us, or make us feel as though we’re not doing enough. We’re not working hard enough.

Who’s to blame for that? If I’ve informed them at every stage of the process, before they choose to work with us, am I to blame for their expectations? I think not.

To give you some context, before I speak with prospects on the phone they’re asked to complete an application form, purely to give us some insight into their business and to understand what requirements they have. One of the questions on the form asks if they’re prepared to wait for the outcome they desire.

This message is reinforced during the consultation call, and again in the overview document that is sent after the call, which details how we work and the process we follow. By this stage, I’ve repeated the information three times. Once a client chooses to work with us, the message is also reiterated in the onboarding process.

If a client chooses not to listen, or take this information on board, I cannot take responsibility for this. This level of expectation is down to them and their perception of what PR is and what it delivers.

The Solution?

It’s one of the reasons why I decided to write my debut book, How To Get PR, to take people back to basics and build up their knowledge of PR, because somewhere along the line there’s been a disconnect in communication. Who’s to blame? I have no idea, but I realised that I could sit and bitch about it and get frustrated with clients for having unrealistic expectations, or I could do something about it.

As a business owner, it doesn’t feel good to admit when you don’t know about something. And when it comes to PR, there’s a lot of shame and embarrassment around asking what it is and what it can deliver. There’s an assumption that you should already know. But why would you? How are you supposed to know about something if you haven't been taught it?

I tend to be ‘that person’ who asks stupid questions as I have no shame in looking silly or looking like I don’t know what I’m doing because if I don’t know, I’m going to look even sillier down the line when I have to admit that I don’t know what I’m doing.

From experience, other people are relieved that I’ve asked the question because they wanted to ask it but were too afraid. They didn’t want to be judged for looking silly, or not knowing it all.

We can’t possibly know it all, yet we’ve been conditioned to keep quiet and not bring attention to ourselves, but we’re expected to just bumble along not really knowing WTF we’re doing!

I digress…..

When it comes to PR I don’t think I’ll ever find the answer to the question, ‘who’s to blame’ because I don’t think it’s the fault of one person. Historically, PR agencies have thrown the kitchen sink at proposals, making promises that aren’t always realistic, in the hope of winning the client. The client often plays agencies off against each other, wanting to see all the ideas and the cost of investment, then choosing to work with the cheapest agency while stealing the other agency’s ideas.

Then within the agency, there’s the added pressure of delivering the over-inflated proposal to keep the client happy, as a bare minimum. For the duration of the relationship with the client, you’re forced to over-deliver as they could leave you for another agency at any minute.

As for the client? Truly understanding the impact of PR will alleviate the pressure placed on agencies to deliver. You can’t just measure the success of PR on how many media mentions you achieve each month, or how many times you’ve been featured in the press. It runs deeper than that. It’s more strategic than that.

If you can't see it, does it mean it's not happening?

Sadly, the downside of PR is that it often works silently, creating a ripple effect that often goes unseen by the naked eye. Does that mean it’s not working? No.

The beautiful thing about PR is that you get to take part in a giant experiment to check that your ideal clients and customers are behaving in the way that you want them to. You get to move with the times and develop new products and services based on their behaviour. You then get to share that insight with journalists and publications, further positioning you as an authority in your industry, a thought leader or an innovator.

There are so many ways in which PR can enhance what you do in your business. And when you’re working with a PR agency that aligns with your values and ethos, understands your mission and sees your vision, that’s when sweet music is made. Because then it becomes more than a transaction, then it becomes a movement. Then it becomes a partnership and a relationship that you don’t ever want to end, unless it comes to an end naturally.

So, next time you say that PR doesn’t work, or you blame your PR agency for not being enough, stop and think about the role that you’re playing and ask yourself, ‘who’s to blame?’ Is it your perception, your expectation, or the truth?