FIVE SIMPLE TIPS TO CONSIDER WHEN STUDYING PR

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN STUDYING PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION

It’s great to be writing a blog again in hope that you will enjoy and share your comment.

Today we discuss considerations when studying Public Relations.

Public Relations Institute of South Africa( PRISA )states that Public Relations is the management through communications of perception and strategic relationships between an organizations and its external and internal stakeholders

This definition simply explains how a Public Relations Practitioner plays the middle guy between an organizations internal employees and external (communities, target public and clients) by forming and sustaining the image of the organization. Essentially this is to develop relations of mutual benefit between the organizations key stakeholders.

Managing and forming own perceptions is also a key focus as every organizations reputation is very important.

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• Dynamic – Because Public Relations is dynamic we must consider it as a continuous process with constant changes and adjustments. This is a very important factor for students interested in this field, it’s never too early to learn how to adapt to change this can only make you the best Public Relations Practitioner you aim to be.

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• Analytic-Public Relations Practitioners are often hands on and very analytic which means you constantly determining and analyzing possible situations. If thinking ahead is a habit you cannot do without, then already as a PR student you’re on your way to being a great practitioner. The point of having Public Relations in any firm, company or organizations is to avoid crisis, being analytic is a great skill.

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• Training – For any organization to succeed, management such as executives should be trained at all levels, from public Speaking, in giving speeches to responding to the media as polite and as honest as possible. If you do not have patience nor the compassion to train people then do me a favor acquire those skills immediately because at the end of the day you need a proper trained team to succeed.

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• Networking – Public Relations Practitioner are meant to network that is like a communications commandment and I quote “the purpose for managing strategic relationships can mostly come from networking and social media. You cannot hate social media or dislike meeting people, you need to be able to meet and keep people in your networking cycles let’s use all channels both traditional and social media to network.



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• Media Relations and placement – a 100% of the time in PR you want to put our names out there, we aim to create awareness in order to get favor from our targeted public. We need to know how to speak to journalists, construct grabbing news releases , use free media channels to generate free publicity after all no company wants to lose money. Not liking the media is no option for a Public Relations student.

If all these simple tips do not apply to you as A Public Relations student, I suggest you take a deep breath and reinvent yourself.

Till next time…

SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESCUE...

Reputation Management via Social Media

 Welcome to my first blog ever. My name Nhlanhla Shezi, I am a second year Public Relations and Communication student at the University of Johannesburg. I am thrilled to present  my thoughts on the South African e-tolling system and how social media can and could have assisted in its reputation management. It has taken me a lot of thinking, contradiction and role playing to come up a with win-win solution for all stakeholders involved. After reading this blog, I hope that you're not only enlightened  but also entertained. Relax, feel at home and don't forget to share your views on the matter.

File photo by Ihsaan Haffejee
source: times live

 As you may remember the 2010 Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa, a Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) was put in place to widen freeways and ensure bottlenecks in interchanges were resolve.  The GFIP which was planned before SA's World Cup Soccer bid was accepted, is an initiative by the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL)  which is also accountable as state-owned entity to parliament via the Minister of Transport. SANRAL announced the E-toll system which was its only means of paying back the debt by the GFPI. It sanctioned motorist in Gauteng to paying e-tags and noncompliance is considered a criminal offence. The number of complaints, strikes/protest and anti-campaigns... that followed emphasize the power transparency.

A short snippet of how citizens respond when feeling deceived

There are plenty of social media channels such as Facebook and twitter that the E-toll can take advantage of and increase its awareness in a positive light. Although transparency does not come without a price, it is essential that the e-toll puts itself out there to hear out the voices of its stakeholders, mainly its citizens.Lets look at far less dramatic ways in which E-toll could have avoided controversy through the use of  Social Media, I present to you
Guidelines to good reputation management using social media

transparency

• Being Transparent- Discussing both the GFIP plan and the E-toll before implementation would have allowed for citizens to voice out their opinions and not feel deceived.Transparency in any organisation whether public or private is very important. It is mostly crucial in South African government as citizens  have the need, right and desire to know why, how and on what basses decisions are taken. Some South Africans that could afford to pay their tags chose not to purely 
• Regular Interactions- All SANRAL and related website have a top-down communication and its impersonal on social media such as its twitter . This can be made more conversational. 
• Open up to criticism and feedback- YES, We all dislike negative comments and opinions  spoken about us, the E-toll could have helped show it public's that it cares by responding. 
• Hiding from criticism- can only make things worse it may show guilt, rather than remorse and wanting to understand the citizens. 
• Address the Public- There are a number of phony social medias and anti-campaign accounts created on behalf of upset motorist. E-toll should have addressed citizens that these were fake and therefore should not be taken into consideration. If not they some of the people who go online may believe these to be legit. VERIFY ALL ACCOUNTS.



DO NOT HIDE

• Asking for feedback- Citizens are not the same, they are different individuals from different backgrounds, they may have different opinions and even suggestions. For instance, others just cant not afford to pay their e-tags and may not qualify for discount, if the e-toll would be willing to hear the out and maybe come to a consensus or compromise.  Encouraging  feedback may actually be good for the E-toll. 

Till we meet again, lets continue to use social media in ways that can benefit both us and our stakeholders, don't forget to share our views, signing out, goodbye!