Education is the key to life and PR

It’s often tough to describe what you do to anyone who is not working in the communications sector. Most people have only a vague idea of what skills you offer, at best they will confuse you with a journalist but at worst they have no clue at all about what you do for a living... Even though PR cements the visibility and credibility of a company with its audience, the subtleties of how we achieve this remains unclear to most people.

Some would say it’s an industry issue. The public finds it easier to understand advertising as a concept,  after all it is planned, developed and quantified on a concrete financial basis. It’s far more complicated to quantify the results of press relations. PR is not just sending out press releases, it’s a socially connected web of webinars, launches, sponsorship opportunities, roundtables and content driven services that can collectively showcase a company’s strengths.

PR’s strength lies in its flexibility, over the years we have been best able to adapt to the evolving media. Following the digital revolution PR has come to flourish despite the falling readerships for print titles. Just as the publishing industry has transformed in recent years, we have evolved with it, the explosion of social media has allowed the PR industry to uncover trends, identify brand champions and react to breaking news.

As individual PRs our value lies in the wealth of knowledge and in-depth expertise we can impart, what’s all important is the clarity in how we can communicate this. I believe education is the cornerstone of a PR career because learning and passing on new information is of key importance to your clients,  to your team and to the press.

Agathe Boye, AxiCom France