By
Leona Chemtai
Miriam Macharia graduated from Mt Kenya University with a degree in Public Relations and walked from office to office in search of a job but it was all in vain.
Then she spent lots of time musing on the way forward and decided her hand in
Public relations, the sills she learnt at the varsity branch in Nakuru town.
The birth of Miriam’s idea would soon turn to be her first experience with a
ruthless manager she bumped onto while trekking.
“The manager immediately referred me to a Customer Care Relations Manager after
questioning me on my course on PR. I was directed to work at the reception.
Feeling so sad, I had to immediately explain to the manager what exactly Public
Relations entails, she says.
After a little ‘impromptu’ lesson on public relations, the manager apologised
saying he thought Public Relations is basically about Customer Care and Miriam
got her first job opened her many doors despite causing her the most painful
heartache.
In an interview, she said many organisations hardly take their image seriously
and makes no investment towards it.
“Most organizations often assume that the role of PR specialists is to welcome
visitors by smiling at them, make them tea and direct them to specific
departments in organizations. PR executives are assigned responsibilities they
should not carry out,” she adds.
The most common ones are that public relations specialists keep bad news out of
the press in case of a crisis in any organization. This, she says is a false
belief and should stop insisting Public Relations specialists mitigate a crisis
and prevent it before it occurs.
On claims that PR professionals’ main task is to spin news or spread propaganda
is a fallacy that has contributed to the low perception given to PR executives
by organisations.
Of recent, Public Relations department is a growing area in many organisations.
It is a department on its own just like Human Resource department, Finance
department, Information Communication Technology department and even marketing
department.
Its major role being to ensure that a cordial relationship is established and
maintained among the various publics found within and outside an organization
and maintaining a good reputation of a particular organization.
Other roles include: establishing organisation image through logos and signs,
boosting credibility of an organization by effectively communicating with both
internal and external publics. These specialists also draft press releases
which are tools used to reach out to different publics in corporate
organisations.
Scheduling speaking engagement for key company staff and speech writing is part
of their responsibilities.
Ideally, they prepare information meant for the media representatives,
management of a certain crisis, identify target customers and how to reach
them, analyzing advertising and promotion programs and often contacting
potential donors as fundraising strategies.
Advocating for PR practitioners, Miriam recommends that it is a high time
organisations should acknowledge the roles played by Public Relation
Specialists.
“They should know that it is a department on its own and if utilised
effectively, it can yield good results in organisations. Perhaps Managers
should be educated on the importance of public relations department and the
roles played by the practitioners so that their efforts can be incorporated in
organizations,” she adds.
Now working at the Kenya Red cross as a PR practitioner, Mirriam feels this
department should be highly ranked just like other departments and it should be
independent as well.
Leona Chemtai is doing her Masters in Journalism at Egerton University
