Industry changes affect public relations employment

Industry changes affect public relations employment

Katlin Francis

April 12, 2010

Public relations is not an isolated field encapsulated in a bubble. Even the slightest market trends and changes can drastically affect a PR campaign. For instance, the current fad is corporate responsibility and going green. If a small change can alter strategies and tactics think of the larger changes. Current legislature is making big changes and deserves watchful public relations attention. The new health care reforms will result in an influx of stimulus dollars. This one example can spell the end of one public relation's practitioner's job and the beginning of a new job opening.

In the economic downturn every one wants job security, this is no different in public relations and a developing trend is fluid employment changes. While reading the news is already a PR necessity, keeping tabs on changes coming from the White House will give a prepared practitioner a much needed edge in the marketplace. By surveying the political scene a well informed practitioner will be ready if their job is about to be dissolved or the opportunity for new and better employment arises.

Public relations industries need to follow the money in order to avoid becoming extinct and continue evolving. Technology plays and important factor in keeping up on industry trends. The growth and development of social media is heralded as the newest public relations and advertising necessity. Clients want to stay fresh in the minds of their target audiences and need public relation practitioners familiar with the newest technological trends and techniques such as viral videos which are impossible to promise.

image created in Photoshop by Katlin Francis

"Just one word of advice: plastics" with Jamie Miller

By Rebecca Chambers

Sure, this infamous line is borrowed from the ultimate "what do I do after college?" movie The Graduate, but plastics are indeed an interesting industry to look into after college. StoneHouse Marketing Services of Norman, Okla. has been manufacturing Teslin laminated cards and key tags since 1995, and it is in this industry that Jamie Miller practices his own brand of public relations.

After “aimlessly migrating up and down the California coast” for a number of years, Miller finally settled down in Norman, Okla. in 2004 at the request of his oldest and best friend, Jeff Tucker, President of StoneHouse Marketing Services.

Before working at StoneHouse as an account manager, Miller worked at Lucas Color Card, another business in the printing industry.

“I have the most work experience in sales and marketing, and only in the last five years or so have I found myself working more and more in ‘public relations’,” he says. “We don’t call it the ‘public relations department’ in StoneHouse or anything, but I do the basic things a PR practitioner does.”

“We are always looking for new clients, but what I do is more about keeping the relationships we already have running smoothly,” says Miller. This is no easy task: StoneHouse makes 8 million membership and loyalty cards a month for clients like American Eagle Outfitters, CVS, RadioShack, and Big 5 Sports. As the account manager, he has to accommodate each of their specific product desires so that the clients can garner the trust, loyalty, and confidence of their consumers.

Mutually beneficial relationships like the ones between StoneHouse and their clients are the cornerstones of public relations, and it is the public relations practitioner’s job to make sure that communication is clear and concise. Nobody knows this better than Miller.

 “It’s all about keeping the client as happy as you can with the resources that you have,” he says. “If they’re not happy because you can’t communicate their needs to your employer, the relationship is in jeopardy.”

As far as giving advice for a graduating PR major, Miller had this to say: take your time and get some experience. 

“I don’t have a PR degree yet, and I haven’t been doing this work forever, but I have learned that what you really need to master is the ability to be malleable in any field you enter,” he says. “If you can grow and change and roll with the punches, you will always be an asset to your employer.”