Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Public Relations is not about serving tea and doing office errands






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

Public Relations is not about serving tea and doing office errands






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

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