Dear Non-Public Relation Majors: A letter to everyone who is not a PR Major
Dear Non-PR Majors,
Public Relations has been around just as long as many other majors, but yet you do not seem to know anything about it. No, my major is not marketing or advertising, but it has some similarities. Yes, there are plenty of jobs for someone with a PR degree. And if you are thinking about Samantha from Sex in the City or Olivia Pope from Scandal, do not let a fictional character represent my intended profession.
My major is more than just “playing” on social media. I am learning to use social media in a way bigger than most will ever understand. Everyone underestimates the power and importance of social media until a celebrity or company posts something worth raising an eyebrow to in disbelief. Tweeting 140 characters can make or break a reputation and posting #sorry afterward is not going to fix anything. The underutilization of social media can be just as damaging to a company as using it incorrectly. Think about that friend you have on Facebook that never posts. You forgot you were even FB friends. Now think about that friend who posts every single day about stupid stuff. You are pretty annoyed by that friend. There is a proper recipe to social media success and PR professionals have the ingredients.
No, I am not going to be a wedding planner. Event planning is a popular focus many PR professionals take, but there are more events than just weddings that need planning. Who do you think organizes the countless fundraisers for non-profits?
Contrary to popular belief, the government is not the only place that utilizes PR. Every single company that you know has PR professionals working for them. That image that pops into your head when you think of a famous brand was painted and is maintained by a team of PR professionals. External communications is what engages consumers to allow the company to make a profit or in the case of non-profit work, raise awareness.
Think about “scandalous” events that have happened in the news: Carnival Cruise crashes, Josh Duggar sex scandal, Chipotle E. Coli outbreak, NFL player Ray Rice, car company recalls and cyber attacks on major franchises’ customer credit card information to name just a few. Today, those companies are still functioning and profiting because of crisis communication plans conducted by PR professionals. People still cruise with Carnival, people now watch the Duggar spin-off Jill & Jessa: Counting On, people still eat at Chipotle, people will still go to NFL games, people still buy cars from the recalled brands, and people still shop at Target and the many other stores. Trained PR professionals came in and coached the companies through what to do in order to recover in the eyes of consumers. It is kind of like a superpower.
PR is one of those things that no one notices until something goes wrong. Good PR is the difference between a thriving and failing company. I will spend hours studying theories, strategies, cases, campaigns, laws, ethics, press releases, articles and Adobe/Apple software to just name a few things. My future is unpredictable and I cannot wait to figure it out.
Sincerely,
A Public Relations Major
This article first appeared on The Odyssey Online.