For What Its Worth

For my first ever blog about public relations, I would like to focus not on current news, changing tactics in the PR world or the latest way to write an effective press release. Rather, I would like to give all of my readers out there my own thoughts on what I think that public relations should be.

As anyone in the field knows, and as any PR teacher at CSU will tell you, building relationships is crucial to successful public relations. Professors have emphasized this point to me over and over during my time as a PR major, but no one has ever mentioned that these should be quality relationships. Sure, anyone can give the courteous “hello” and a “how’s that weather out there?”, but I believe that to be an elite professional out there you have to go beyond these superficial conversations.

Building the relationship should be much more than remembering a reporters name or being able to start talking about climate conditions. In being a successful public relations practitioner, you should actually know the person that you have this so called relationship with. Examine the person’s character, identify and relate about critical issues, and get to know what the world looks like through the other guy’s window.

With that said, let me mention that I am a mere student with hardly any experience in the field, but in my time in college I have definitely learned how to build and manage a quality relationship with someone else. So, to all those professors in my academic past, simply add one more word into your lecture slides before teaching the course again. Public relations is all about building quality relationships.