Politicians accused the IEBC of not adhering to court order that annulled the August 8th 2017 presidential elections. They summarized the litany of evils as follows:
“It has wasted valuable time engaging in public relations exercises intended to create the illusion of motion without any movement.”
By so doing politicians, particularly, from the opposition, who have consistently accused the government of engaging in “meaningless public relations exercises”.
MISCONCEPTION
But every time they say so, they irk the thousands of fellow Kenyans who claim public relations as a profession.
Unfortunately, politicians are not alone in this mistaken view of the profession.
For many outside the public relations industry, their perception of PR professionals is that of people who plan parties, coerce journalists, and lie for a living.
The alternative title is ‘spin doctors’.
MANAGEMENT
Indeed, there are professionals who — for fear of being branded flimsy — choose titles with the word ‘communications’, which is deemed more serious.
Public relations people recognise that theirs is a “…management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and the publics on whom its success or failure depends”.
The key words here are management function because every organisation has relationships that must be strategically addressed.
This means identifying those relationships and what their interests might be so that they can be nurtured to build and maintain the mutually beneficial relationships.
PUBLIC IMAGE
There is a price to pay for this. Successfully managing the relationships leads to success while the opposite is also true.
The office of the public relations officer (PRO) needs to be an extension of the office of the top-most person in the organization — the one who drives perceptions and thought processes about it.
The PRO serves as the “intelligence service” of an organization, picking up the criticism and concerns.
She/he works to correct errors and misperceptions about the organization and drives the message about what the organization is doing.
EDUCATION
From government offices, to state corporations, private sector and non-governmental organizations, a public relations person will be found.
In the institutions of higher learning from diploma to doctoral level, public relations is now a taught and research subject.
Speaking on behalf of the organization, creating communication collateral products such as audio and visual materials, training, fundraising, reputation management, campaigns (including behavior change), and organizing events are some of the functions.
The work titles vary from plan public relations officer, communications officer, campaign communications coordinator, manager of internal (or) external relations, PR & awareness officer, chief of protocol, director of communication, community liaison officer, advocacy & publicity, head of corporate affairs, to corporate communications officer.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
Philanthropist Bill Gates, the co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation, says: “If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget I’d spend it on PR!”
Article by Ms Gitau, Communications Consultant, Chair PRSK and Sec Gen. APRA
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