Image is Everything

(OK, so I know this picture doesn't really have anything to do with the topic...but it says PR, and the puppy is adorable, so the picture stays! haha)

In this week's class, we talked about Public Relations (P.R.). Now, I have to be honest; I've never really invested any time in thinking about P.R. or even trying to understand what it is. However, after listening to our guest speaker, (I think her name was Laura Welchar, but I'm not sure on the spelling), I realized that P.R. is really necessary if you want the public to know about your topic (product, company, etc).

At first, I didn't really understand what a P.R. professional actually does for a living. But, I think the Princeton Review http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/profiles/dayInLife.asp?careerID=171sums it up best when they say "A public relations specialist is an image shaper. Their job is to create positive publicity for their client and enhance their reputation." Now, the part of this idea that makes people in my class-- and even myself-- wary is the fear that truth and honesty about an company, etc get overshadowed by creative writing and presentation skills, coupled with some good schmoozing with reporters. Yeah, it's part of life. You never want to publicize your weaknesses.

That reminds me of the time I got a negative comment card when I was a hostess one summer at Ruby's. One of the customers said "Amanda didn't smile enough when she was taking my money." I was pretty surprised since my job was to greet customers and be nice...and I was good at it, according to my boss and all the people I worked with. But, apparently I wasn't smiley enough that day. Anyway, one of the servers read it and ripped it up. I was confused because part of my job was to turn in all comment cards to the manager. She told me, "We never keep the bad ones...only turn in good comment cards. You were going to turn that in? Are you crazy?" Well, I guess she was just demonstrating good P.R. skills there.