Ratio: Public Relations Practitioners : Non PR Practitioners

[Mikael Fabel]

I chose to say I'm in Public Relations, which of course in one sense is true. However it's only part of the truth. I work for government, and at least over here in Sweden we have a certain Swedish term for people working with information in the public sector. The term is "informatör", which would translate into Information Officer had not IO as a title been kidnapped by the computer geeks

The difference with government information is that it's not geared to sell anything in the traditional sense. It's more public interest, or citizen interest rather, that dictates what we strive to inform about. At the moment I'm working on a programme to reduce the number of infections in the heathcare sector by better adherence to basic hygiene rules. Target group is professionals working in healthcare and medical services (e.g. nurses, doctors). Although one could argue that I'm "selling a best practise", it's not easily compared to sales oriented marketing and PR.

Any thoughts on the difference between public sector PR and "commercial" PR? =)

[Penny Haywood Calder]

Surely with the advent of online PR, the indirect/direct distinction between PR/marketing/sales is breaking down, where comms favours those who can create content that actually interests people. That's opposed to reeling off features & benefits expressed in the second person in a forlorn hope than a potential customer might think they are relevant to them....
We're all having to become brilliant publishers with great stories delivered in lots of rich content packages to exert the peer group pressure that makes the client's offer un-miss-able. Backed up with great marcoms & sales to turn all that interest into cash.
Too few (imo) think of PR, marcoms & sales as inter-related. Instead of squabbling over the publicity budget, just think: if PR boosts sales & marketing by 50%, do you really want to be held responsible for delivering 50% of zero sales & marketing?

Penny Haywood Calder