“You have to ask yourself, are you a business person driven by helping companies succeed, or are you a communications person driven by educating and generating awareness as a service to the public?”
My public relations professor posed this question to the class during my public relations 101 class. If the first, you belong in PR and corporate communications. If the second, you belong in journalism.
It stuck with me, even 20+ years later, because it is an approach I’ve taken in my career. I’m a business person – not ONLY a brand storyteller, writer, messaging guru, communications strategist, crisis communications expert or a whole host of other descriptors for what we do in corporate communications professions.
I’m a business person who happens to use communications expertise to advance an organization’s goals. It’s important we don’t lose sight of that or we risk loosing footing as business experts and advisors with a seat at the executive table.
How many times have you heard a PR pro start describe their work by the tactics first? The how of what we do is too often spoken vs the why. Don’t get me wrong, the how is vital. But if we do too good of a job at simplifying the descriptions for what we do, we might lose our seat at the executive table. We risk being perceived as writers, talkers andmessaging gurus rather than executive leadership advisors.
“I work with press and place news stories”, “I write content for companies”, “I manage companies social media”. Sure, you might do all of these things, and do it well, but it’s not all you do. There’s a reason you’re working on that content, placing that news story and managing the social media, it all ties back to specific business goals. You, myfriend, are a business person.
You’re helping a company go public by creating awareness in investor publications, you’re preventing a crisis by advising how a business decision could lead to a damaging front-page news story serving as a catalyst for additional negative implications resulting in damaged brand and sales, you’re writing content that’s engaging your associates helping with employee retention to advance the bottom-line.
So, this is my plea to my peers: Don’t lose sight of being a business person first. Talk in the ‘why’ of what you’re doing, not only the how.
How do you describe the communications profession? Do you agree that we’re business people first?
