Public Relations Issues In Barbados and the Caribbean

Press Release or Advertising? When Did we Cross the Line?

2011-12-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

There was a time when a press release was a press release, and advertising was advertising. The difference was clear.

In media school we were taught that an ad was ‘paid for’ content which comes in the exact form you created or dictated, while a press release was published at the discretion of an editor, who had license to do whatever he or she willed with it. This is all well and good. However, how do you explain to the upcoming students the differences in our craft when seasoned professionals pay scant respect to the discipline? READ MORE

Public Relations Defined

2011-12-06T06:53:00.001-08:00

The Public Relations Society of America has launched a project to have its members and others submit definitions for Public Relations. I read a number of stories surrounding this project and felt as if all of them were mine. Especially Rosanne Fiske’s story on your family not understanding what you do. When I worked at the Nation Newspaper as it Corporate Communications Manager, my mother was fine with that because she understood the concept of working for a reputable organization no matter the job. When I set up my own PR Agency she was however very worried for me because she could not fathom how I would make money and what service I was truly offering.
The PRSA 1982 National Assembly formally adopted a definition of public relations, which remains widely accepted and used today: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics  adapt mutually to each other.”READ MORE

PRSA Chair Comments on Growing Stature of Female Executives in PR in The Financial Times

2011-09-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

PRSA Chair Comments on Growing Stature of Female Executives in PR in The Financial Times

Never Say "No Comment"

2011-08-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite areas in public relations is working with the media. Having worked alongside journalists for 10 years at the Nation newspaper as its communications specialist- “I get them.”

I loved to pass through the newsroom when there was a good story brewing. The discussions, the possible treatments as well as the circulation department’s excitement in the whole matter as it spelt paper sales - the news dynamic is a very enthralling and captivating one.

Journalists get really excited at a good lead. I remember one of the female journalists at the Nation carrying a sticker on her car that read ‘news hound.’ Journalists see their names on the front-page byline and their adrenalin starts pumping. READ MORE

Guest Post: Four Digital Skills PR Pros Should Have - PRNewser

2011-08-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Guest Post: Four Digital Skills PR Pros Should Have - PRNewser

Public Relations Practitioner as Boss/Owner

2011-08-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

On PRMR Inc.'s blog this week Mariama pointed readers to 101 tips for leaders and reading the post I could not help but think what tips are there not just for a manager, but also for a business owner especially in these harsh economic times. Being a public relations consultant who preaches employee engagement and creating a positive work environment, I am very cognizant about practicing what I preach as a business owner.

But do employees really understand what you the employer go through on a day-to-day basis to keep them employed. How you may have ten accounts one day and within the blink of an eye just three with the same overheads? One of the harsh cold realities of owning your own business is that if you don’t produce for your clients/customers you don’t get paid. As a small business owner I try to get this message over to my staff by breaking pay down to the day, productivity level and value added. But how hard can you be when a staff member has had a death in the family for example and takes a day off for the funeral and to be with family or if they are sick or have some appointment and come in half day. Read more

Green Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility The Way to Go

2011-08-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past decade, businesses around the world have been focusing on creating products and services, which have very little impact on the environment.

Several international companies such as S. C. Johnson, TESCO and Honda have implemented environmental management systems, which go beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way.

Many businesses recognise that being environmentally responsible can translate into sales. Consumers understand more than ever the importance of environmental conservation. Even more important is that with this increased knowledge; consumers are choosing to boycott businesses that have not made the decision to go ‘green.’

This has caused several businesses to utilise greening as simply a PR tool to attract consumers and increase sales. However, several international certifications exist which can assist customers in deciphering between these ‘green washed’ businesses and those businesses which have invested in ensuring they reduce their impact on the environment.

Environmental certification programs are useful for identifying environmentally preferred goods and services. They are typically run by third party organizations that establish environmental standards for goods and services and then certify supplier offerings against them. These certifications include (among others) GreenSeal, EcoLogo, ISO standards of certification and Green Globe.
Read More

IABC Barbados' New Board - Public Relations and Communications In Barbados

2011-07-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I retained the presidency of IABC Barbados. Having been a founding member of the chapter I am witnessing first hand its struggles and its mini victories. We started with just about five members, grew to 15 last year and now at the start of my 2^nd year as president, we have 23 members. For
READ MORE

PRMR Managing Director Receives IABC Designation

2011-07-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

Also at

http://www.prmrinc.net/media-centre/news-releases/local-communication-professional-earns-international-accreditation/

PR In the Headlines

2011-07-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

Not quite a sitting duck, but well, these are larger fish

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rupert-murdoch-calls-pr-guru-212334 The Rupert Murdock saga continues and PR gets the headline. Perception is reality and from this Hollywood Reporter headline the appearance to me is that Steven Rubenstein will be doing some dirty work. Do you get that? The PR professional sharing the same prominence as the lawyer. At least we are getting some attention and prominence if for the wrong reason. A school of thought says all publicity is good. Maybe Rubenstein will have the Johnnie Cochran effect and come up with his own cool slogan. "if the glove don't fit..."

PR Practioners Don't Think Up Stories: My Response to Mail Online Story

2011-07-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

I read the Mail Online story “Insider reveals: PR men would think up a story and Rebekah’s Sun and News of the World would run it word for word. Some were complete fiction” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013046/Rebekah-Brooks-Sun-News-World-run-fictional-stories-insider-claims.html) and was pretty much disgusted as a former journalism student and more so as a seasoned PR practitioner.

Clearly the story was fired with the passion of a disgruntled employee but despite this fact I took issue with the salacious depiction of the field of public relations. I take issue with the suggestion that we in the profession ‘think up’ stories. Yes writing is a big part of what we do, but to say we sit and dream up stories for clients shows a total disregard and lack of respect for the profession. Professional Code of Ethics governs the way the majority of professionals work on a daily basis. Both PRSA (http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/) and IABC (http://www.iabc.com/about/code.htm) have these codes prominent on their websites. READ FULL STORY

Disengaged employees costing companies dearly

2009-02-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

Many companies today are operating at one-third of their people potential because the remaining two-thirds of their employees are not engaged, says an internationally respected specialist in employee engagement and internal communication.

And according to Ken Milloy, President of Ken Milloy Management Consulting Inc. those disengaged employees are costing their companies dearly through lower productivity and profits and by chasing away potentially loyal customers.

“The collective capability of a company’s workforce is a source of competitive advantage – a unique characteristic of the business that cannot be copied,” he told human resources and corporate communications professionals at a recent workshop hosted by the International Association of Business Communicators, Barbados Chapter. “But that competitive advantage cannot be tapped unless employees are truly engaged.”

Milloy said engaged employees are those who feel a “heightened emotional connection” towards the organisation that influences them to exert greater discretionary effort.

“Discretionary effort is that extra effort that employees can give or withhold – it’s their choice,” he explained.

The Vancouver-based management consultant said engaged employees can be recognized by the passion that drives them to build and innovate and to find new and more effective ways to accomplish their roles.

“They will take less than half as many sick days off as the average employee, and they are 87% less likely to leave the company,” he added.

Milloy identified several “core drivers” of employee engagement, including how well managers “walk the talk”, how well employees understand how their work contributes to the company’s performance, and whether the company makes an effort to develop its employees’ skills.

But the most important of all, he stressed, is the nature of the relationship between employees and their managers and supervisors.

“If employees don’t have a strong relationship with managers who set clear expectations, knows them, trusts them and invests in them, they are less likely to perform or stay,” he said.

(An IABC Barbados Release)

Be Remarkable

2008-12-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

I copied this from Judette's Facebook. Why? - because only last weekend someone asked me about putting merchandise from my company PRMR Inc. in a bag of give-a-ways for a Jazz show.

Not being prepared I insisted that there was nothing I had suitable to project my brand image at the show, and here it is I stumbled on Judette's Facebook post and she says it sucincthly for me. Have a read.

By Judette Coward-Puglisi

I swear most marketers have no clue whatsoever what to do. So we do unoriginal things, or stall, or fail to deliver on our brand's promise.

Take this weekend for instance, master designer Claudia Pegus launched her resort collection," Breeze" at the picturesque Crews Inn. Pegus' line was stunning, what was in the goodie bag was not.

I imagine that the designer's team asked the show's sponsors and corporate partners for stuff that could be placed into the bag and guess what they all did? Each (with the exception of one) gave the exact same thing: flyers, brochures, newsletter, all good stuff, sure, but nothing bold or remarkable.

The exception here was the Jamaican milliner whose stuffer included a stunning red and black pin that could be worn on a hat or dress. It was something tangible. Something that the fashion savy crowd could use. It was cleverly branded.

Marketers need to give deeper thought to how they position their products in the context of each sitaution instead of rolling out the same things, the same collateral in the same way.

Truly brilliant positioning is hard to quantify or predict. Same is true with marketing.

Free Webinar to Help NGOs Strategy

2008-11-19T07:02:00.000-08:00

I have been working for a number of non-profits recently and one thing is true of all of them - they are very budget conscious. Sometimes you find the program you are working on has to be self sufficient.

You may find yourself having to raise the funds to pay yourself. Despite the budget challenges, working with non-profits is always morally fulfilling.

Just got this email from PR Newswire and I thought I would share it for all of you who are working with non profits.

Register its free!

Great Marketing and PR Strategies on a Non-Profit Budget

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
10:00 AM Pacific, 11:00 AM Mountain, 12:00 PM Central, 1:00 PM Eastern
Duration: Approximately 45 minutes

You don't need to have deep pockets to execute a successful marketing or PR campaign, but you do need to have a great strategy. Even big businesses with huge marketing budgets will fail if they don't have effective strategies backing up their campaigns.

Join PR Newswire for a FREE webinar and find out how you can use your resources and creativity to come up with great communications strategies that will help you get results and leave you with money to spare in your marketing and PR budget.

Guest Presenter: Kelley Weir, American Humane Association

IABC Barbados host Its First Panel Discussion

2008-09-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

IABC Barbados is gathering momentum. Members are trickling in and the organisation will host its first event since its launch this September.

It will be a panel discussion on What Is PR's real function and Who should it report to. Yours truly is on the panel which also features Sara Odle of Cable and Wireless, Debra King of First Caribbean International Bank and Greg Hoyos of GHA DDB.

My take on the matter is that PR is a strategic function which informs organisations decision making process with regards to its relationships. It therefore must report to the most senior executive if it is to be effective. Of course a lot of organisations devalues or undervalues relationships as they cannot or refuse to see the correlation between the relationships they have with their various stakeholders and their success.

Not having a pr strategy is like having cancer. You go along oblivious thinking that everything is fine and then a serious crisis come along and your dead.

Come to the Panel Discussion and here more on this, or check out my paper on the topic later on this blog.

No Time To Blog

2008-08-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of IABC Barbados I have been too busy to blog. Sacrilege, according to Christal Mc Intosh, President of the Chapter who has recently made a commitment to blog every day.

Wow!

My PR world is wonderful and my client list is growing. I am working on a number of very public projects, including Caribbean Wellness Day which is in Bridgetown on Saturday, September 13. Cannot promise to blog every day by I will try for at least once a week, especially since I have part two of an earlier blog to complete.

Check out the ad below on Caribbean Wellness Day. Hope to see some of you in Bridgetown

IABC Barbados Launch

2008-07-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Barbados Chapter of IABC was formally launched last Thursday at Herbert House, the home of the Cricket Legends of Barbados .

The majestic old building, beautifully renovated was an auspicious setting for the occasion. The ceremony was simple. Vice President Development, Richard Thomas was the Master of Ceremonies and he provided the forty plus audience with enough humor mixed with the business at hand to keep this session lively and excited.

President of the Association Christal Mc Intosh gave an address which listed the five main goals of the Association as:
1. To create meaningful opportunities for networking while bringing an end to the isolation in which professionals currently work;

2. To create genuine opportunities for professional development;

3. To create a local community of professionals whose members are committed to a single code of ethics;

4. To create a platform in which business communications speak with a single united, credible voice; and

5. To demonstrate to business leaders how public relations and corporate communications practiced professionally, can enhanced all those desirables such as corporate reputation, stakeholder trust, productivity and profits.

The featured speaker was the Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager of the Barbados Light and Power, Stephen Worme. Stephen took an unusual route towards heading the communications area at Barbados' monopoly power company. An engineer by profession, he has become respected as a honest voice for all the island's power crisis. Stephen gave an excellent speech about his experience, his relationship with the media, and his dream for the profession locally.

A delightful wine and cheese cocktail followed the speeches.

IABC Barbados Launch Invitation

2008-06-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Barbados - IABC's Newest Developmental Chapter

2008-06-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Christal Mc Intosh, president of the Barbados Public Relations sent the following note to members this weekend:

Hi everyone,

We've done it!

The IABC international board has formally approved our application to set up a Barbados Chapter.

We have achieved this in the unbelievably short time of about four weeks. I believe it's because of the large number of people who showed up for our initial meeting on May 8 and expressed their interest and support. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Barbados Chapter, I want to thank you for being there.

For the next two years, IABC Barbados will enjoy "developmental status". This means the IABC appreciates that we are on a learning curve and will give us some time to find our wings. We have to use that time to prove our commitment to becoming a fully-fledged chapter.

You can help us do that by becoming an IABC member now. Membership in this association will be one of the best investments you will ever make as a communications professional. And that membership is yours to keep no matter where you end up living and working.

At this early stage, I want to stress that being a member of BPRA will not automatically entitle you to membership of IABC Barbados with all of its privileges. The two are not interchangeable, and only a paid up membership will admit you to IABC Barbados (iabc.com/join/).

DOWN IN THE TRENCHES

While we were awaiting formal chapter approval, the board of directors you elected has not been idle. We have been meeting every Thursday evening for several hours to come to grips with our various responsibilities and to scope out what we have to do quickly to get up and running.

We have also put together a tentative schedule for professional development and networking opportunities over 12 months, starting this August. However, we haven't got every topic and event nailed down, because we want to hear from you rather than making all decisions on our own.

This is why we have also developed a short survey that you will find attached and in the online forum for download. It will provide us with much needed demographic profiles of our target market and how best to cater to their needs.

Please complete it and return it by e-mail to our co-Vice President of Professional Development, Vicki Olton: vicki.olton@gmail.com. It will help us enormously.

We are also working on how best to market the IABC and to whom. We know that there are many more communication professionals out there besides all of you who showed up for our first meeting.

And there are lots of people in allied professions – such as HR, printing, photography and graphic design – who are valid potential members. We are digging to uncover them, in both the corporate and public sectors and we would appreciate any leads you can provide us.

We plan to hold our inaugural meeting as a registered IABC chapter on July 3 at 6:00 p.m. at Herbert House on Fontabelle. By then, I trust that many more of you will have become IABC members. We will keep you posted about the format and content of that meeting, as soon as we have finalized the details.

Again, thank you for your support. And if you haven't already joined up, do it now!

Membership Fees

Membership in this association, which has been set at US $231 if you include the one-time $40 application fee, will be one of the best investments you will ever make as a communications professional. And that membership is yours to keep no matter where you end up living and working.

The Press Release and The Press Conference- Tools and Tactics

2008-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

You know the saying the more things change, the more they remain the same. Well I was at a gathering of pr professionals recently and a number of issues came up. None of them were new, which was no surprise. But what did surprise me was that the topics that received the most attention were not new media and social networks on the web, what received the most dialog were the century old press release and press conference.

I was blessed to be a pr professional working at a media house for a very long time so I understand intimately the stance and motivation of the journalist versus that of the pr professional. And all the professionals that thought that I had it easy… well, yes the journalist and I did have the same organisation at heart which was our bread and butter, but each editor had different motivations, tolerance levels, deadlines and egos that had to be pandered to, to get releases in the papers. In other words I had to do some pitching like any other pr professional working on the outside.

Early in the game I studied the newspaper’s style of writing and matched it as best as I could, because I came to understand and appreciate the long hard hours that journalists work and how taxing it is to produce an informative, educational, entertaining, error free publication everyday. Editors are usually working on tight deadlines and a well written story already in their style is more likely to be placed immediately than one that they had to try to interpret and doctor to suit the paper’s style. I have seen a number of press releases that came to the paper and wondered where exactly is this person going with this – no news value and poorly written.

From my experience as long as the news value is high editors may look pass the quality of the writing because at the end of the day, what they want to put out is an interesting product. Press releases are looked on firstly as companies’ propaganda. In more recent times they are being viewed as ads. This has created a new set of tension between the media and pr professionals, especially in those organizations where the measure of the success of the pr is judged only on column inches in the newspaper. Is it then correct to say that if your releases don’t get publish that you are not doing good work? (This sets me off on a totally different road of what is the role of the pr professional and how should success be measured? To be explored in another article.)

Editors try to be fair and impartial in placing releases. Of course with tons of releases hitting their desk everyday and the space in the paper for stories rapidly diminishing due to ever increasing aggressive ad ratios, the onus is on pr professionals to do what I consider to be job 101 of the profession – build relationships.

Relationships should be established with all the persons on whom your success and the success of your company or client depend. It is not enough to write a great press release because it may be shelved because a bus load of people crashed in St. Joseph and seven people died and suddenly all the vacant slots in the newspaper are taken up with all the human interest, eye witness stories for weeks. And hey, this will sell a couple thousand more papers, your release won’t. You need to have a relationship with the editor so that you can pick up the telephone and remind him or her of your great release.

I have spent a mighty long time on the press release because I think that it is a useful tool and should be used in a lot of instances instead of a grand press conference. (To be continued).

Barbados' Business Communicators Board 2008

2008-05-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

VP Administration, Petal Barclay Smith; VP Professional Development, Richard Thomas; Executive Vice President, Pamala Proverbs; President, Christal P. McIntosh; VP Membership/ Marketing, Cliona Donohue; VP Finance, Fay Best; and VP Communications, Lynette G. Taylor. (Photo compliments PBS Communications)

Hello IABC

2008-05-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

Well we have made the first step! After a successful meeting of a good mix of Barbados' pr stalwarts, mid-career professionals, newbies, and individuals interested in the profession, a board of management have been chosen to do the work to get the Barbados Chapter of IABC off the ground.

Judette Coward-Puglisi, president of IABC Trinidad and Tobago did a fantastic job telling of the Trinidad experience and helping to guide the meeting into making solid choices for the vacant board positions. She told the communicators that her chapter was founded on the principle of the 3 Cs - Content, connections and credibility. She said that Trinidad's membership of 80 in the first instance had grown in two years to about 370 and that the Chapter was actively podcasting, blogging, hosting a website, conducting conferences and ongoing educational forums for members. The Chapter had also received a "Certificate of Excellence" from IABC for its outstanding performance.

Judette spoke of some of the common universal concerns of pr persons which helped forged the backbone of her Chapter's coming together - 1. CEO not valuing our work 2. Building relationships with the media and forming a body to bridge the gap. 3. The issue of measuring ROI and 4. Accreditation.

At that end of the night yours throughly had become the Executive Vice President and President Elect. Our good friend Christal Mc Intosh who was mentioned in the earlier post is the President. Other members of the executive are:

Petal Barclay-Smith - VP Administration
Lynette Taylor -VP Communications
Cliona Donohue - VP Marketing/ Membership
Fay Best - VP Finance
Richard Thomas - VP Professional Development
Vicki Olton -Co-VP Professional Development

The board has its first meeting on Wednesday.

A New PR Chapter In Barbados

2008-05-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

T.S. Elliott referred to April as being the cruelest month. He probably was a Bajan hotelier because April signals the end of the booming winter season and the start of the low occupancy period for hotels. April however for the rest of the world is a glorious month ushering in spring - flowers, butterflies and all things bright and beautiful.

For pr professionals in Barbados April also brought great news. The online community which had been gathering for the last six months or so will finally be meeting. The community was occupied for a long time with which international association it should align itself to, PRSA or IABC.

As a member of both organisations for a very long time, I felt the topic did not need much discussion it needed a decision. Both organisations give great value to members, it is really a question of preference. I maybe a little bias towards PRSA, being an accredited member and the only person in this part of the region with the APR for the last six years.

At one stage when my good friend Cheryl Procter-Rogers was president of PRSA I had flirted with the idea of establishing a chapter in Barbados. All the materials were sent to me and I passed them on to another professional but I was knee deep in a MBA and she was a new mother, at a tender stage in a very big organisation. All our good intentions remained just that.

I was delighted to see Christal McIntosh, full of youthful zeal and clearly a web2.0 junkie leading a serious discussion on the Internet encouraging local professionals to gather. I immediately offered her my full backing although I warned her that having just launched my own company my time would be limited. Of course if you know Christal you would know that this was no deterrent and she is somehow able to squeeze every ounce of advice and work out of me.

The inaugural meeting will be held on Thursday May 8 at 6pm at the Small Business Development Centre on Fontabelle. Judette Coward, the Chapter President of IABC Trinidad will be on the island to tell of the T&T experience and to give us some advice on starting the chapter. Judettte, like Christal, was responsible for the formation of that chapter. Christal has also sought the help of IABC International and has received a lot of support from that organisation to facilitate the first meeting. All business communicators are invited.

Can anyone guess which organisation Barbados will be going with?

The Barbados Polo Odyssey

2008-04-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

I found myself in the midst of what most people in Barbados were calling a Polo War in February of this year.

Actually for me on my new solo journey as an independent pr practitioner it was a welcomed assignment - I am an avid sports enthusiast, polo fits the profile of the type of client anyone would like on their books and it was a fantastic opportunity to build my portfolio.

Not a follower of the sport before this I had to learn the jargon quickly. I am proud to say that I am now a 'chukka chic', and although you would not find me on a horse anytime soon, I have fallen madly in love with the sport.

Back to the war
Up until last year Barbados had one polo season where all 30 something polo players in the country played against each other and visiting teams.

Reportedly this all changed with the development of the Waterhall Luxury Estate at Apes Hill by Sir Charles Williams, and of at least two other grounds by other players/developers. There was intense pressure now to host games at these new grounds to promote the properties. In answer to this Sir Charles created his own season with players predominately from his family and workers of Waterhall, while most of the other players on the island continued to played in what I call 'the local league'.

For the first time on the island there was a media blitz for Polo. A full media mix of television, radio, newspaper, magazines and the Internet were used to get the messages across. There was a big fight on for the small numbers of what was predominately white spectators who previously frequented the games.

With the majority of players staying with 'the local league' then it was natural to assume that most of the original spectators who were friends or family would be at this venue. Being a man of the people Sir Charles went after the people. Affluent Barbadians of all colours, most of whom had never before been to a polo match flocked to Waterhall attracted by its contemporary style of advertising.

In a press briefing to announce what was to be Waterhall Polo Club's penultimate and most important match series, Sir Charles said it succinctly - he has sponsored a professional team "Apes Hill" to play in the Queens Cup and Gold Cup in England to promote his condo project at Waterhall. He said that he saw both himself and the sport of Polo benefiting from this.

This is a first class pr strategy by Sir Charles. There is always dialog of pr being an intangible that cannot be measured, but Sir Charles is proving to the hard core pr pundits that sponsorship can generate a tangible/measurable return on investment.

To one of the journalists' question on Polo being played at different venues being a negative for the sport, he made reference to first division cricket which on any given Sunday is played at about six or more different venues across Barbados.

Waterhall's season finished one week before the Holders/Lion Castle's and the Waterhall players were all over at that venue playing and supporting on the final day. The perceived war is clearly not about the polo.

What is at stake however at each polo ground is valuable real-estate that each developer wants exposed and sold to potential buyers who frequent the games.

The two seasons in my estimation is the best thing that could have happened to Polo. Every Sunday polo was live on Love 104.1 FM. It was covered on CBC TV on Sports Locker, and there were numerous stories in both the Advocate and the Nation newspapers. Ordinary persons became aware of the sport and everyone knew that there was a season on.

Three cheers for Polo the eventual winner for having finally arrived on the island!

2008-04-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

A good friend and pr practitioner Christal Mc Intosh read my blog post about the Hill rice saga and told me I was bourgeois because I buy Uncle Ben Rice. She said that she loved what I was doing with the blog, but that I could relax a little and not always be formal.

Well right away our age difference showed. Being about fifteen years Christal’s senior I did not see my site as formal at all, in fact I just thought that I was discussing pr issues. Well gosh here’s perception creeping up again ( a major factor in our business).

Well here is my attempt at casual.

This site is a source of infinite pleasure for me, even more than my corporate site www.prmrinc.net. Why so? Because I built it myself from scratch (with the help of Google tools of course). I chose the design, the colours, wrote the articles and woola my site was up. Isn’t it wonderful that there are tools for non-techies to use, and anyone can have a site without knowing a bit of code? My corporate site took about three months to build. Back and forth with my webmaster, brand designer the works. By the time it was finished I realized that I had really just gotten started because a website is not a substitute for a brochure, it is a living, breathing organism, that needs to be fed.

The blog spot because of its simplicity really puts traditional media under treat, and the danger although present is not clear. The web is aptly named because you can get lost here. Your company’s reputation can be bandied about without your knowledge for months before you know a thing, unlike with traditional media. Companies that do not have as standard alerts on their names are behind the times and it up to the pr professional to keep abreast of the technology and keep their clients and organizations on top of its issues.

Oops I may have fallen off the casual wagon there for a minute but I can’t help it, for me pr is no casual affair, despite the façade of glamour, it is vital to the very soul of every living organization.

Public Relations Issues In Barbados and the Caribbean

﻿﻿﻿Press Release or Advertising? When Did we Cross the Line?

Public Relations Defined

PRSA Chair Comments on Growing Stature of Female Executives in PR in The Financial Times

Never Say "No Comment"

Guest Post: Four Digital Skills PR Pros Should Have - PRNewser

Public Relations Practitioner as Boss/Owner

Green Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility The Way to Go

IABC Barbados' New Board - Public Relations and Communications In Barbados

PRMR Managing Director Receives IABC Designation

PR In the Headlines

PR Practioners Don't Think Up Stories: My Response to Mail Online Story

Disengaged employees costing companies dearly

Be Remarkable

Free Webinar to Help NGOs Strategy

IABC Barbados host Its First Panel Discussion

No Time To Blog

IABC Barbados Launch

IABC Barbados Launch Invitation

Barbados - IABC's Newest Developmental Chapter

The Press Release and The Press Conference- Tools and Tactics

Barbados' Business Communicators Board 2008

Hello IABC

A New PR Chapter In Barbados

The Barbados Polo Odyssey

Press Release or Advertising? When Did we Cross the Line?