What impact does the lack of diversity have on the advertising industry?

By: Jackie Sears

Diversity in the advertising industry has been a topic of discussion for more than fifty years. Little progression has been made since many advertising agencies today continuously lack diversity among ranks in the job ladder (Vega, 2012). This lack of progression is also influenced by the low percentage of minorities currently working in the advertising industry (Vega, 2012).

The advertising industry is one that is available to directly communicate with consumers that come from diverse backgrounds. With this said, it will only benefit from building an inclusive environment that reflects a highly diverse group of people (Grillo, 2015). In 2014, the lack of diversity was implicated through the Bureau of Labor Statistics it stated “out of 582,000 Americans employed in the advertising industry, less than half were women, 6.6% were black, 5.7% were Asian and 10.5% were Hispanic” (Grillo, 2015).  This is a problem for the advertising industry because insight from all different backgrounds, genders and lifestyles are needed in order for advertising to evolve.

There have been multiple instances where the industry tries to encourage diversity but there is still more to be done. By encouraging diversity, the industry needs to focus on consequentialism theory. This is because the end result justifies the mean, meaning that by encouraging diversity and creating an environment that works with all backgrounds, the end result in this case would be the diversity of talent will continue to retain in the industry.

The problem that the advertising industry currently has is that it has not been reaching a diverse amount of people. Without having a diverse team, groupthink and ethical mishaps can be prevented. Research has discovered that diversity stirs constructive conflict around the task at hand (Stanford GSB Staff, 1999). By including diversity in people and thought, brings new expression from different backgrounds and if properly implemented will generate more income for the advertising industry (Vaux). Ogilvy & Mather is a great example of an advertising group that values diversity in their corporate culture and have won multiple industry awards.  The solution that allows this agency to excel in their values is the environment that they have created that allows employees of all race, color, religion or gender identity among others (Ogilvy & Mather). Ogilvy & Mather state that a diverse workforce generates benefits in customer understanding and creates a rich consumer insight and understanding (Ogilvy & Mather).

The advertising industry has a long way to go to continue the progression of diversity, but if done right, the workplace for advertising will become rich with information and be able to reach diverse demographics through advertisements.

Works Cited

Grillo, G. (2015, April 23). The Advertising Industry Needs Diverse Leadership to Thrive. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/agency-viewpoint/advertising-industry-diverse-leadership-thrive/297998/

Ogilvy & Mather. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ogilvy.com/About/Diversity-and-Inclusion/Diversity-and-Inclusion.aspx

Stanford GSB Staff. (1999, November 1). Diversity and Work Group Performance. Retrieved from https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/diversity-work-group-performance

Vaux, R. (n.d.). How Does Diversity Affect the Workplace? Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversity-affect-workplace-10510.html

Vega, T. (2012, September 03). With Diversity Still Lacking, Industry Focuses on Retention. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/business/media/with-diversity-still-lacking-industry-focuses-on-retention.html?_r=0

What Every Strategic Communicator Should Have on Their LinkedIn

 By: Jackie Sears

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LinkedIn is a online professional social media website that networks people with coworkers and other professionals. Launched in 2003, LinkedIn has stretched to over 330 million professionals. This social networking platform has become a primary way for employers to seek out potential employees. With this said, it is extremely important for strategic communicators to have top-notch profiles. In order to have a profile that stands out against competitors, here is a check list on what should be available on your profile:

Professional photo. This may sound like common sense but has been overlooked by many. According to LinkedIn, adding a photo to your profile can expand the views 14x than someone without. A crisp photo is a major factor in determining whether or not you are professional or not. Photos are critical in the way you are representing yourself to an employer. Now that you have selected a photo, it is important to keep in mind two things: not have another person in the image or have it look like a photo taken at a party. 

Fill out and complete your profile. As a communications professional, the copy you write in your LinkedIn profile can set you apart from any other candidate. Make sure to fill out a summary about your strengths in strategic communications and what type of job you are looking for while including keywords in order to be easily found by employers. To top off your profile, fill out and address your past experiences in the workplace as well as what all it entailed in precise detail. 

Add skills and endorse. Select the skills that best define you and begin to endorse people you know and coworkers in order to encourage others to endorse you for your strengths. According to LinkedIn, people who list their skills get 13x more profile viewers. The more views you receive, the more likely you are able to be contacted by a potential employer or further your network.

Publish your work and blogs. This is where your profile comes to life. By displaying your work, you are showing and not telling about your writing skills. This can easily make your profile pop and employers are able to get to know you as a writer. If you have works that are already published, it is a good idea share on LinkedIn. 

Join groups relevant to PR and Communications and you. Great, now that your LinkedIn is recognizable by employers, it is important to take advantage of the opportunities of communication LinkedIn brings to professionals. By joining a group that is related to PR in your city or wherever you may want to work, you are able to  reach out and start a conversation with like-minded professionals and network throughout the world in a way that you couldn't do before LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn offers many opportunities, it is up to you to take advantage of the free networking platform.

Works Cited:

LinkedIn. (2014, July 1). 10 Tips for the Perfect LinkedIn Profile. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin/10-tips-for-the-perfect-linkedin-profile

Kumar, S. (2011, May 12). 10 Ways PR Professionals Can Leverage LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://www.edelmandigital.com/2011/05/12/10-ways-pr-professionals-can-leverage-linkedin/

Smith-Proulx, L. (n.d.). How to Double (or Triple) Your LinkedIn Visitor Traffic with Keywords. Retrieved from http://www.job-hunt.org/social-networking/LinkedIn-job-search/linkedin-keywords.shtml

 

Pinning, the Future of PR

 By: Jackie Sears

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Public relations is a process underlining two-way communication for clients and their public. What better way to have an organized and thought out messages to be sent directly to the public by an instant share, save and open communication? The best social media platform to fit this description is Pinterest. Pinterest has been a website since 2010 and has become a tool that reaches audiences all over the world. To benefit from Pinterest in a PR perspective, take advantage of the influences it has to offer.

Creating boards targeted at your company's mission statement, theme and what the company stands for. Information on these boards need to be appealing, visually and mentally intriguing to the public and potential followers of the company's Pinterest. As the advertising and PR world becomes more and more visual with content shared, it is important to stay prominent on clear and eye-catching photos that will link to articles, websites and blogs that improve your solidity as a company.  Take advantage of the foot traffic Pinterest offers by linking back to your company's website and blogs, this is a subtle way to get your message across. Within the mix of promoting your company's personal website and features, it is important to also post about important causes that relate to your company on a board to keep a "personal" feel to your postings. 

Once your company's Pinterest is live and gained a following from your public, it is a good idea to promote events and what is going on in your company's world. This way, people are updated with newsworthy events, will pin and promote what is going on since the post is directed at the public to attend and read about the event.  

A great feature on Pinterest that can be used for PR professionals is the collaborative secret boards. This feature allows your company to share ideas and links to articles, brainstorm ideas and create mock-up posts for the boards on your Pinterest. After all, it is important to do research on other  companies and competitors to gain ideas on posts and how to perfect your Pinterest.

Analytics are always important when it comes to posting on social media. Pinterest offers analytics that allow you to see the impressions and success of each pin. Hashtags are a feature used on Pinterest as well as Facebook and Twitter. It is important to consider posting hashtags to pins, but do not overdo it, Pinterest is not Twitter and you want to avoid looking spammy. 

Pinterest is the up and coming social media for PR, use it. 

Works Cited


Conlin, B. (2015, February 03). The Why & How of Using Pinterest for PR | Cision. Retrieved from http://www.cision.com/us/2015/02/jennifer-cario-pinterest-for-pr-webinar-recap/

Idugboe, D. (2012). How to Use Pinterest for Public Relations. Retrieved from http://www.smedio.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-public-relations/

Solms, A. (2014). 7 Things about Pinterest Every PR Pro Needs to Know - CommPRO.biz. Retrieved from http://www.commpro.biz/social-media/social-media-pr-social-media/pinterest-for-public-relations/

Meeting with Clients as a PR Professional

 By: Jackie Sears

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The public relations field is filled with conversations ready to be started. This field is considered to be very hands-on and the success is determined by your experiences and network you've made throughout it. Clients are an extremely important network to keep as top priority. Not only are you representing them, they are referring you to other potential clients. Public relations is built from a mutual beneficial relationships between clients and their publics. In order to maintain a good relationship with clients, it is important to be prepared to grow and maintain the success of the organization. Here are some useful tips to stand out as a PR professional and a competitive PR firm:

Do your research. This is a reoccurring factor in public relations. Having the skill of being a substantial researcher will put your credibility and professionalism above others who are competing in the field. It also makes a significant difference when meeting with potential and current clients when they know you are prepared and are able to discuss potential strategies and tactics, with a sturdy platform of facts. 

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Meet with clients. Once you have met with a new client and have proved as a good fit for its organization, it is important to have access to the background of past and future assignments, an established way of communication, deadlines, goals that are needed to be established and a person to keep in constant contact within the organization. Once these are established, meeting with clients become more strategically organized and goals are made.

Establish a (roughly) six-month adjustable plan. Each client will have different time requirements, but it is important to establish a plan that determines deadlines and what deliverables need to be made and when to make it public. An important note to keep in mind is the 4 step PR Management Process because it is essential to refer to as a safety net when working on a project for a client. By doing this, the PR team can begin to put in place targets that need to be hit and evaluate the successes or failures throughout the process. After establishing the six-month plan in the meeting, make sure to send out a detailed report within a day to cover what important topics discussed and all of the agreements that were made during the meeting to have in writing so it may be referred to at any time.

Open communication. By keeping open communication through out the partnership between the client and the public relations firm will benefit both parties. This is because it is important to communicate being on the same page for projects, keep trust and transparency strong and maintaining a reliable relationship.

Clients are always in search of new PR strategies and approaches whenever current plans are not meeting standards or are looking for fresh ideas to try. Make sure to jump on the opportunity to research and help establish a profitable and outstanding plan to follow and watch it improve viewers, purchasers or whatever you are establishing.


Works Cited
Aspectus. (2011, June 7). Top tips for a successful PR kick-off meeting. Retrieved from https://www.aspectuspr.com/news-insight/2011-06-07/top-tips-for-successful-pr-kickoff-meeting/

PRSA. (n.d.). The Four-Step Process. Retrieved from http://www.prsa.org/Learning/Calendar/display/5520/The_Four_Step_Process#.Vr5cDvHNWCQ 

Siegel, L. (2012, December 3). Public Relations Best Practices: Client-Agency Relationship Rules. Retrieved from http://www.bridgeny.com/blog/bid/242582/Public-Relations-Best-Practices-Client-Agency-Relationship-Rules

What obligation do strategic communicators have in terms of goodwill toward the audience and are they fulfilling this obligation?

Strategic communicators are supposed to follow a goodwill objective in order to promote a positive manner with the said market. To properly define goodwill, it is important to consider the communities and where the strategic communicator does business with. Goodwill is defined as, “the amount of value that a company’s good reputation adds to its overall value”, according to Merriam-Webster. With that said, not all audiences will agree with what strategic communicators display. In order to achieve goodwill as a whole, the strategic communicators must build a form of trust with its audience. Without trust, the strategic communicators messages will not be effective and will fail. In some instances, strategic communicators lose trust from being a once transparent trustworthy organization, to having a crumbled destroyed reputation based off fabrication. In order to not fail, goodwill towards its audience should be obligated to display what is preached by the organization through its strategic communicators and within the organization itself.

The Page Principles define what goodwill is expected for strategic communicators. These are: tell the truth, prove with action, listen to the customer, manage for tomorrow, conduct PR as if the whole company depends on it, realize a company’s true character is expressed by its people and remain calm, patient and good-humored (The Page Principles). In a perfect world, strategic communicators would follow these principles to a “T”, but in reality they fall from it. If a firm or organization gets caught in a situation where information is leaked that may destroy its reputation, goodwill and transparency is sought because it is not fulfilling the goodwill obligation and is just making up for its reputation. For an example, take the recent Volkswagen scandal to heart. Volkswagen cheated emissions test, stating its cars were environmentally friendly when they were emitting nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times of what the United States allows (Hotten, 2015). In order to prevent the destruction of the company’s reputation since it was not promoting goodwill to its customers and the environment, Volkswagen has stepped up and has admitted fault and is back on track of promoting trust and goodwill.

As a whole, I would say no, goodwill is not actively fulfilled through strategic communicators because it is used in a sense of marketing or making up for a scandal. To have strategic communicators not come off this way, it is important to have employees actively involved in the community and building long-term relationships with its audience (Kokemuller). The decisions that strategic communicators make will influence how the public sees them. Even if mistakes are made, giving back to the community with goodwill and being transparent will make all of the difference.

Works Cited

Hotten, R. (2015, December 10). Volkswagen: The scandal explained - BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772

Kokemuller, N. (n.d.). Goals & Objectives in PR Campaigns. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/goals-objectives-pr-campaigns-21010.html

The Page Principles |Arthur W Page Society. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.awpagesociety.com/about/the-page-principles/

Social Media and PR, how to Choose the Correct Platform for Your Public

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By: Jackie Sears Social Media is every PR professional's dream. It gives the ability for instant two-way communication from an organization to its public. Before your organization jumps on Social Media here are some determining factors to consider which platform is best for your organization:

Research on your target market/public. This is critical. If you do not know who you are marketing to, then you are starting from the beginning. Once you have found the select age range that is already part of your public, do research on who you want to attract and from then you will find the correct platform for social media postings.

Social Media Do's. Once you have figured out the best platform(s) for your organization, it is important to create one voice that goes across all social media platforms whether it be Facebook, Twitter, organization's website and any other public platform. Once the voice of the organization is established, be active in your postings of newsworthy information, but do not overdo postings per day. A great way to know when to post is to look through Facebook and Twitter analytics to see when your public following is active on the particular social media platform and aim towards posting during the heightened times of active followers.  

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When to use Facebook as a platform. According to Sprout Social, the highest percentage of Facebook users is 18-29. With this said there still is still a number of young adults using Facebook, but it also attracts adults over the age of 30. In order to gain a following from your public on Facebook, it is important to have a verified page and post at least once daily. This way you are able to post happenings, share infographics, photos and videos and interact with your public. Facebook is an open forum for people to comment, share experiences and can make or break your organization’s reputation. In order to keep a positive reputation, it’s important to interact and respond actively to your public. Most importantly, never delete any negative comments posted on any social media, respond professionally and leave contact information for the person to personally speak with a representative. 

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When to use Twitter as a platform. Twitter would be a great go-to for a great reach for a public of 18-35 years old. This age range is the most prominent on Twitter according to Sprout Social. Twitter is a platform that allows for a higher number of postings per day, but keep in mind the difference between being informative and annoying. Just like Facebook, Twitter allows instant two-way communication that needs to be attended to. Twitter has great resources of using hashtags to follow, make sure to check hashtags before posting to avoid problems of controversy or negative affiliations.

There is such thing as spreading your Social Media platforms thin, so make sure that your organization is clear and concise on Social Media, whether the organization be on one platform or multiple, make sure it is a platform that your target audience uses.  

Works Cited

Patterson, M. (2015, May 04). Social Media Demographics for Marketers | Sprout Social. Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/

Tjepkema, L. (2015, October 28). The Top 10 Do's and Don't Do's of Social Media for Business. Retrieved from http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/332506/The-Top-10-Do-s-and-Don-t-Do-s-of-Social-Media-for-Business