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Start building better relationships

PRWeek published a thought-provoking article by David Quainton on ‘The lost art of relationship building’ last week. The article examines the often tenuous working relationship between the PR professionals and journalists, exploring various communication issues with reference to the current focus on the new medium – digital PR.

Useful findings
According to the article, a survey was done by PressChoice on a group of 130 financial journalists. The good news is that the group is generally pleased with the professionalism of the industry. However, the article also revealed 5 main grouses the financial journalists had with their PR counterparts:

· Too many press releases being sent to them
· Too ill-informed and not knowing more than what has been written in the press release
· Over-hyped stories that undermined the credibility of the PR operation
· Limited specific information on the company website
· PROs not returning calls as promised

It is interesting to note that it is the influx of junior PROs, who are learning an excessive amount of new skills who are more prone to commit the above acts. If you are reading this and are ‘guilty’ of committing any of the above acts, it’s probably high time you start doing something about it.

A good start will be...
The CIPR’s new one-day Autumn/Winter 2008 workshop on ‘Building better relationships’ taking place on 24 October in London. It allows you to discover ways to develop relationships with clients, colleagues and journalists using the powerful theories of Transactional Analysis (TA). More importantly, participants will be able to identify why they react positively - and sometimes negatively – to colleagues, journalists and clients, and formulate strategies to deal with specific issues and situations.

Find out more!
Keep a look out for the brand new series of CIPR Autumn/Winter 2008 training programmes that will go ‘live’ online soon - www.cipr.co.uk/training!

Choo-Li Tan, Training Development Officer

Let’s Go Green!

Nope, it’s not the national green campaign week but the Freshly Squeezed breakfast briefing on ‘The Green Factor’ (www.cipr.co.uk/fresh) which got me thinking about green issues, and how everyone can benefit from it both environmentally and commercially.

Hear from the expert
We were honoured to have James Wright, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Trimedia, who is also the chairman of the CIPR steering committee, as the guest speaker.  James has worked in PR for more than 12 years and specialises in CSR working on some of the most influential and challenging campaigns. 

During the session, he shared with the delegates a good overview of how the green factor has evolved and developed over time, the role of PR and also, plenty of interesting examples to illustrate how some companies have effectively or unsuccessfully carried out their Green strategies.

Great Tips
James also highlighted some useful tips including:
· Employment Engagement. The importance of starting a green culture within the organisation so that staffs (who are the ambassadors of the organisation) can understand the strategy and become part of the pride and motivation.
· Spokespeople.  Some of the science is complex and any spokesperson needs to be suitably knowledgeable to communicate effectively and clearly the issues.
· Message delivery. Ensure during the tactical implementation of the campaign that actions back up the messaging

Your second chance to do so...
If you are interested to hear from James personally, he will be give another presentation that looks at best practice in green PR and the development of the CIPR Environmental Sustainability Communication guidelines at the World PR Conference & Festival to be hosted in London on 23 and 24 June 2008.  http://www.cipr.co.uk/wprf08

CIPR Green Guide
Believed to be the first of their kind for the PR industry around the world, the guidelines look at the issues and implications of green PR and promote best practice in this area. They examine the common pitfalls that can lead to businesses being accused of ‘greenwash’; relevant legislation; things to consider when making a green claim, in terms of ensuring there is evidence to support it; and ways to test a green assertion before it is made public. www.cipr.co.uk/environmentalcomms/ 

Hurry up!
Places for the rest of the Spring/Summer training programmes are limited so book them today at www.cipr.co.uk/training

Choo-Li Tan, Training Development Officer

Welcome to the CIPR – start making use of your benefits!

We recently launched a new membership campaign in conjunction with CIPR’s 60^th anniversary celebrations and in the last couple of months we have had many new members on board – a warm welcome to all of our new additions.

The campaign centred on encouraging our existing CIPR members to be proud of their membership and share the extensive list of benefits they are enjoying with the industry:

-          Strong professional recognition

-          Excellent networking opportunities

-          Great career and business development support

-          Highly practical and informative training programmes

The list goes on…

http://www.cipr.co.uk/membership/index.htm

Join us?

The benefits of CIPR membership is evident. The current CIPR President, Elisabeth Lewis-Jones FCIPR, wrote a real-life blog entry on how the CIPR membership has helped her career advancement and business development. As they say, membership has its privileges. Find out for yourself at http://prvoice.typepad.com/pr_voice/2008/01/signing-on-the.html#more

Get started…

Clearly, one of the most practical and useful benefits is the privilege of having a discounted rate for all CIPR events and training programmes.

* Workshops

If you are new to the CIPR or, in particular, to the PR industry, the 2-day workshop on ‘Introduction to PR’ we organised this week and on 15/16 July will be a good start for you. This basic level workshop will introduce you to the role and scope of PR, giving you a good overview of the industry. www.cipr.co.uk/workshops

* Breakfast briefings

For those with less than 3 years of PR experience, you may like to grab the chance to book yourself onto the last few Freshly Squeezed briefings for the Spring/ Summer series. The good news is that the Autumn/Winter series is also up online and open for booking now. Find out more and book your places today at www.cipr.co.uk/fresh

* In-house training

Last but not least, we have a team of creative Training Development Officers at the CIPR who can customise any training programme to suit your needs. Email JankaS@cipr.co.uk to find out more.

See you!

Oh yes, don’t forget to make use of the opportunity to check out the CIPR’s exquisite building and its excellent facilities if you are here for any of these training events. I look forward to see you around!

For further information on training and development, please visit www.cipr.co.uk/training

Choo-Li Tan, Training Development Officer