imPRint

What the textbooks can't teach you.

As a recent college student, I can recite AP format rules until I'm blue in the face, outline the cause and effect of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and describe the various shifts in media policy over the years, but these items fail to grasp the true meaning of the public relations field and all that is encompassed by it. Sure this information may be integral to a dictionary definition, but these things do not reflect PR in practice.

As a student intern at The Ardell Group, I felt that if I knew what I was supposed to do, it would be a job well done. The past year has taught me that it is not just the what that matters in PR, but more importantly, it is the how. What one can't learn from a textbook on communications and the media is the value of relationships within this field. This extends broadly to one's coworkers, clients, community, and the editors and analysts. A textbook can equip one with the proper technique to draft a press release, but it falls short when it comes to the most important aspect of PR: the relationships and trust established between client and agency, agency and media, accomplished with interactions between people.

Currently, as a more active team member on client account work, my perspective has shifted so that the how is more weighted. Anyone can write a press release or an article. The true test of success lies in the answers to the following questions: Does the strategy/tactics have a positive effect on the client? Did it accomplish the client's objectives? What role did it play in helping to forge more solid relationships with the media? The answer to these questions lies not in what was done, but how it was accomplished. It is the relationships that emerge from such efforts that build a foundation, and THAT is what public relations is all about.

-Taryn @ The Ardell Group

posted by The Ardell Group @ 4:37 PM