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Is PR same as telecalling?
By Palin Ningthoujam on Aug 6, 2008 in Indian PR industry, PR professionals
Recently I was having a conversation with some industry colleagues. Among them was a new intern who majored from IIMC and who was not so satisfied with her first experiences with practical PR in an agency. She said she often feels like a telecaller who gives unsolicited phone calls, selling stuffs to uninterested and rude customers. Her products were stories of her clients and her customers were the journalists whom she was calling.
She continued that her professors at IIMC had warned everyone that theoretical PR and practical PR would be a bit different from each other. But what they failed to warn was these two run in parallel - never to meet.
That was bad. I thought. If the PR industry compels freshers to go out of steam in the first few months, how many bright minds are we going to lose to other industries in the coming years and how many are we actually going to groom well? I tried explaining her a few bits why she should not think of her job in that way, which I am trying to recollect here, and I am sure many can help me out here.
Let’s do a bit of analysis. PR students in the course of their studies read about Edward Bernays, Ivy Lee, and their theories, build teams and construct PR campaigns in their project work, read case studies of the best and worst of PR, and listened to all the lectures of seasoned professors. By the time they majored, they have developed high expectations and are all geared up. But what do they get?
When these students become the young PR professionals in an agency, they are suddenly the junior most of the team. They get to work on activities like making media monitoring reports, weekly reports, follow-up with journalists who often are not so supportive. Many of these activities just appear so mundane and truly things that can be done by any class 12 student. Their dreams come crashing and they think- I have to change the line.
Is this what has been happening?
But for the time being, let’s suppose indeed this is what happens typically. But then young professionals need to understand that everybody has gone through the grind and everybody needs to in order to become mature professionals.The same logic of many great marketing professionals starting out as sales people might apply here.
Often in these so called ‘mundane’ jobs, we learn the finer nuances of the art of PR and discover little secrets for ourselves that we can use for the rest of our career. For instance, if someone is making media monitoring reports for the automobile industry, by the end of six months or so, he/she would have automatically figure out a lot of information and up-to-date knowledge about what’s happening in that particular sector. Imagine doing this for other sectors. By a year or two, how many sectors can one keep abreast of? Documentation skills are also very important in the PR profession. All the monitoring and weekly reports are geared to help one with that. Following up on journalists for months will teach one how to speak in 10 seconds that can grab attention.
Then there is the complaint of theoretical and practical PR differences. Though in early years it sounds like there is a mismatch between what one has learn and what one is doing in an agency. But later on, having a sound theoretical knowledge will always prove to be advantageous. We have to take the theories as a good foundation. And when the foundation is strong, we can create anything we want and the possibilities are not limiting. So for example, when one starts doing a brainstorming and explanation of PR to clients, you know what you are talking about and is not limited to just what you have experienced in an agency.
Earlier I wrote a piece on 10 things a young PR professional should learn before finishing an internship. I think PR interns should focus on these activities and try to get the most of their internships. If they are just made to do one particular activity, they can always ask for variety.
Now that I have said all that I want to say, it looks like I have put everything on the young intern. Sounds like a crafty agency person! Let me also write this that agencies hiring interns have as much responsibility in grooming young professionals and in bringing out fine professionals for the industry. There should be some genuine intent towards this cause rather than equating interns as cost effective short-term solutions. If all agencies start doing their bit, we wouldn’t have so much attrition problem as we are having now.
On Aug 6, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
a great piece palin, it so true, and not today when i joined this inustry 15 years back i too felt the same where from 9 am to 6 pm my job was to tear papers, i felt like a rapist which is worse than a teleoperater. A sugesstion, i have seen that especially today the work force wants instant results, instant coffe, instant online info, ticket bookings to movies , jobs etc. They just need to have patience all will come and people like you and many more are there to guide them, but filter cofee is passe, waiting for hours for a ticket on the box office is like a old dream. my take for youngsters you will be king/queen , have shradha and saburi( faith and paitence as sai baba would say)
On Aug 6, 2008, Ruchi said:
Hey Palin,
I completely agree with you. I remember my first month in Adfactors PR, it really felt, like I was doing telecalling. I spoke to my sir about it and he came up with an awesome idea. We use to have this weekly meeting where everyone discussed about the work done in the previous week. My sir suggested me to do a presentation on the industry I was tracking, in the weekly meetings. It gave me a huge boost to my ego. Doing the presentation not only helped me to improve my presentation skills but also i realized that i was adding value to each and every person sitting in that room. This was because I was more updated about the media movements and the kind of stories journalists were currently doing.
This is one way the intern can feel he/she is doing some good work, but yeah everyone has to go through the grind:-)
On Aug 6, 2008, Shael Sharma said:
Provocative headline Palin. Good things come to those who wait, no one did top hat strategy stright out of school. Yes, there is a industry academia disconnect, yes it has been discussed to death, welcome to the great Indian education system, so what else is news? I would look for a mentor, someone who ‘gets it’, someone who’s been there done that, that will see you through for the first few. After that if you can hack it great or if you are going to be debris, there is place for that too!
On Aug 6, 2008, Francis said:
Public relations, done properly, could not be further from telecalling. If a PR practitioner, no matter how experienced, feels she or he is making an unwelcome sales call on a reporter, something has gone terribly wrong.
The opportunity to communicate with anyone exclusively exists at the intersection of interest between the two parties. If only one party is interested in having the conversation, it simply can’t happen. This is as true of simple conversations on the street as it is of formal communications practices.
In media relations, that opportunity to communicate exists where the client’s interest in generating strategically relevant media coverage intersects with the reporter’s interest in that client’s story. No call should be made until and unless the practitioner has established that the reporter has such an interest or in whom such an interest could be awakened.
Regrettably, two things very often happen to derail this. The first is that insufficient research is conducted to determine how, or even if, the reporter is interested. Too many PR practitioners take a scatter-gun approach, calling every reporter imaginable and pitching wildly in the hope that someone — anyone! — will bite.
The second is that media calls, as the most labour-intensive function in an agency, get assigned to the lowest-cost resource in the agency, the newbie with little or no experience. Now, no matter how qualified the media list, the caller knows too little about the client and the story to know how to properly engage the reporter’s interest.
The worst-case scenario is when both these malpractices come together — the rookie practitioner handed today’s release and unqualified media list with instructions to dial and smile.
Just like a telemarketer.
On Aug 7, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Great inputs we have here. I am sure everyone reading this must be finding all these comments very useful.Thanks to all.
On Aug 20, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
dont see updates, its been over 10 days
On Sep 17, 2008, Sanghpriya Gauta said:
Hi, This is strange that a graduate from IIMC said this as it happens with every industry u join even in journalism as well.
All the aspiring journalist dreams off doing good touchy , human angle oriented stories though there dreams shatters tooo…
One thing i m really pissed of with the PR industry is there are hardly any good educated PR persons in the industry…. ans these ppl follows very restricted work action plan and there understanding of PR is limited to get something published in some publication and at higher level it ends with pitching client several story ideas and i beleive wattever one has studies never goes in vein as one just has to twist it a bit and it can be make useable….When one fresher joins in the industry he/she’s welcomed with rigerous scanning of newspapers not EXPLOIT THEM BUT IN A WAY TO FAMILIARISE THEM WITH THE WAY STORIES APPEARS’S IN THE NEWSPAPER ……and i would like to add that this is practiced worldwide and there is no harm in this……..;.
I would like to share the origin of this telecaller kind of expereinces as i earlier mentioned that there are very few ppl in the industry who understands PR …………..Just imagine the first call to a journalist where one PR guy discussing about a new story idea or providing information about the upcoming press confrence………..journalist must have welcomed the thought……AND NOW IMAGINE ONE PERSON WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT CALLING A JOURNALIST’S SEVERAL TIMES A DAY WHAT KIND OF PERCEPTION IT WOULD HAVE CREATED IN THE MINDS OF JOURNO’S IN PAST TEN YEARS………….
Pr Guys often makes a wrong approach as well they forgets that they are part of a $bn industry which is flourishing worldwide and often i hear pr guys calling journo’s and start’s conversation with……..Hello sir how are you, kya chal raha hai aajkal why cant we have a professional attitude towards them and the ppl today complaining about being a telecallers can SAY THAT HAVE STUDIED PR BUT UNFORTUNATELY CAN’T SAY THEY ARE EDUCATED. Pr is an open world with enough space so that evryone can explore the all kinds of possibilities ……….go guyz
Cheers
On Sep 17, 2008, Sanghpriya Gautam said:
Evryone in this world is striving for the sucess ant the dear graduate from IIMC my advice for you is ……..Stop thinking about the kind of work you are doing start doing it with an open mind and let things happenn step by step n then a day will come wn u will be creating the pathway to others
Cheers