Recently elected as PRSA national chair for 2021, Michelle Olson runs the Scottsdale, AZ, office of Fingerpaint, the NY-based PR firm. A veteran PRSA member, she’s been director of the group’s western district since 2017. A 30-year PR veteran, Olson, a corporate communications specialist, is known for her work in healthcare, land use, hospitality and sustainability. We asked her what skills PR pros seek from organizations such as PRSA. In addition, we discussed measurement in PR and goals for her tenure. Her edited responses are below.
PRNEWS:What are PRSA members telling you they need to do their jobs better? How will you, as PRSA’s top elected official, move the organization to respond?
Incoming Chair
PRSA
MICHELLE OLSON: PRSA includes young and experienced PR pros, people like me, with more than 30 years under our belts, yet still growing. Senior professionals say they’re looking for more learning, networking, and ways to give back to the profession they love. Expanding PRSA’s certification program might be a good place to start.
Similarly, offering more master classes at district and national levels. Chapters have this dialed in already.
I’ve also heard that people are looking for more flexible and affordable learning opportunities – on demand, and shared experiences with other chapters. By building a repository of professional development being offered in any of our chapters, districts and sections, and then making it easily accessible, we can easily serve that need. Technological advancements at PRSA will make sharing professional development programming across the world much more efficient and timely.
PRNEWS:What are 2 goals you have for your tenure?
Olson: I want to help PRSA maintain its relevance while our profession rapidly evolves into what it will become. I don’t think we’re through ‘the change’ yet. As a result, it’s vitally important that PRSA be at the forefront of what’s coming and inform and educate our members as quickly as possible. Convergence is here, and it’s a fast-moving train.
My second goal may seem altruistic, but it’s for PRSA to continue to be an arbiter of truth. Microsoft’s corporate VP, corporate communications, Frank X. Shaw said it really well: “The future of the PR profession is to purposely, relentlessly shine light on the truth.” In this age of disinformation, PR pros are more important than ever. If we do nothing except hold up the candle of ethics in business and in our organizations, we will have done our jobs.
PRNEWS: What were some of the most interesting learnings for you from the recent PRSA convention in San Diego?
Olson: There aren’t enough words to express how important Richard Dreyfus’s crusade for civics education is, and his passion for healing America...is admirable and contagious. But more important is what we, as PR pros, can do. Dreyfus says civics is “learning how to share political space with those with whom you disagree.” If so, then PR pros have an obligation to teach this skill to our organizations and clients.
The keynote with the most relevance to my work was Frank X. Shaw’s “state of the profession” speech. His exploration of what PR pros and the media can do in the disinformation age was immediately relevant. I hope people heard him. Media can start by “knowing the difference between reporting and repeating.” PR pros can start by being relentlessly authentic in all things, as truth becomes the biggest shield we have against disinformation.
PRNEWS: What’s PRSA doing to encourage measurement?
Olson: PR pros long have been working with data...to shape public opinion and develop campaigns that resonate with targeted audiences. The type of data we are using has been changing, particularly with social media. PRSA...continually offers classes on new techniques and why it’s important that our work be data-driven.
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