PR Insiders

As PR pros celebrate Ethics in Communication month, PRSA’s chair Garland Stansell urges communicators to redouble their effort to always do the right thing. Advocating for truth and responsibility is a key, if not the key, element of a communicator’s daily role, he writes.

In the latest article in this series with the Institute for PR, veteran communicator Geoff Curtis discusses how a three-day off-site helped change his life. 10 years later, he’s still applying the lessons he learned during the off-site as he continues on a journey toward self-awareness.

PR pros who’ve made the jump from journalism may remember how upsetting it was when a PR pro or corporate executive answered a question with, “No comment.” Veteran PR pro and, yes, former reporter Arthur Solomon offers a bevy of responses communicators and executives can use when they don’t want to comment, but also wish to avoid uttering those damnable words, “No comment.”

There seems to be a new story everyday with TikTok, the popular video-sharing app that’s in a battle against the White House for survival. The most recent story is that new CEO Kevin Mayer is leaving after just four months. Still, TikTok is fighting back, deploying weapons that are familiar to PR pros. Can it win?

Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day, marking a century since women won the right to vote via the 19th Amendment. It’s prudent to temper the celebration and recognize that the vestiges of inequality persist. The author offers examples of how PR can attack current instances of inequality.

In this difficult moment, veteran communicator Marc Whitt offers a pep talk to fellow PR pros. He compares PR work to a craft and concludes that like a stonemason, the communicator’s reward is personal. It’s knowing that you’ve done your job well and that its benefits may last for years.

Should you defer media training owing to the pandemic’s restrictions on travel and social distancing? While it’s a bit trickier during COVID-19, and in-person coaching is best, technology workarounds exist, our author, a former TV journalist, argues.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. Corporate communication veteran Adam Snyder believes the 181 companies that signed the statement have yet to effect significant changes. He offers three ways they can start.

The media market was changing before the pandemic hit. Some of those changes have accelerated or slowed as a result of the novel coronavirus. How should PR pros approach the next few months and the years after that? Our author offers three trends to consider.

Engaging content can not exist in a vacuum. It must respond to the times that created it, argues Thomas Gillespie, a PR pro fresh from an internship. In an age where politics, culture, entertainment and mass movements merge, PR pros must be quick, thorough and compassionate. They must lead the conversation, not react to it.