Practice
makes a man perfect. The statement applies to the PR industry as well. PR is an
art, which can’t be developed overnight. It takes years of practice to stand
unique in the PR industry. However, the intriguing question is: how many PR agencies or organizations have such art?
The PR
scene has improved with time. Especially, with the advent of digital media and
platforms, the PR landscape has seen a tremendous change over the years. The
digital innovations have given power to many companies and agencies that later
started rendering PR services. Their offerings were earlier restricted to a
single domain like advertising, marketing or publishing, but it is in the
recent years that they have come up with their PR services along with what they
were already providing.
Many
agencies in India just followed suit and added a PR arm to their organization
with no relevant research. Hence, many such players are failing, and ultimately
they have no choice left but to wind up due to heavy losses. Technology is the
biggest game-changer in the present digital scenario, but it can land you into
massive losses if not taken care of. Just adopting it won’t cut the deal.
Companies should train their employees and hone their soft skills to make the
optimum utilization of new technologies, and thus, deliver quality.
However,
before adding a new PR variant to their existing business, agencies should know
the basics of the industry. For instance, the difference between public relations
and media relations; while media relations is a subset of PR, public relations
is to communicate with your constituents through various formal, informal and
creative ways. PR agencies should not limit their strategies to media relations
but create a comprehensive plan with great content backed by storytelling.
For PR
agencies, it is critical to respect their employees because the reputation of
the agency relies on how its employees brand themselves in public. That will
decide the volume of the audience who wish to trust and connect with your
brand. Hence personal branding plays a vital role in modern PR. The content of
the PR agency should reflect their thought leadership; this will help
strengthen the bond between audiences and your agency.