PR Confusion--No SPIN here!

Back in October 2007 I was having dinner with the set of grandparents I don't see often. I shared with them how I was getting ready to graduate in a few months and they asked what my major was.

"Public Relations," I answered.

Their response was a blank stare.

"So what kind of places could you work?" Grampa asked.

"Anywhere," I said.

"Publix is hiring," My cousin's girlfriend chimed in.

Oh lord, I thought.

Later on in private Grandma pursued the idea of Publix. "Didn't you like your job at Publix as a cashier?" She said.

Starting to get uncomfortable I replied, "That job was okay but it was just a part time job a few years ago. I have a college degree now. I'd like to do what is in my field. I didn't go to college all those years to be a cashier making $7.50 an hour."

To that I received yet another blank stare. "Oh, okay," She finally said.

I could tell she still didn't understand.

Aside from the simplicity of that side of my family I have found that most people do not know what public relations is. Or, at least, if they think they know what it is they do not understand the whole scope. Hopefully with this blog I can show people in a simple way with each post what PR really is and what it entails.

I like to read my textbooks from college to make sure I stay sharp in my field. I was reading last night and the words just jumped off the page and hit me over the head.

Read along.

"In many cases, public relations functions have been delegated to people from other fields: lawyers without any background in public relations or even communications; former media personnel who have been on the receiving end of public relations material but have no theoretical background; management-trained executives whose business school education did not include any courses in public relations; or marketing experts who have no knowledge of the overall communications components. If management doesn't know what the public relation function should be--and many do not--the function becomes what the person doing the job knows how to do best. In other words, the corporate communications environment, the education of the individuals doing the job, the type of organization and the culture in which they function all significantly affect what actually happens under the name of public relations."

Newsom, Doug, et al. This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomas Learning, 2004. 13.

My two cents:

[Just because you call it PR does not mean it is. It is just a function of the whole.]

I run into this same kind of frustration often. Blank stares or people just thinking I can write and do press releases.

Nope.

It's way more than that.