PR Primer: SWOT of the PR Industry

This past weekend was the 2014 PRSA Western District Conference. While the agenda was full of great programing, one particular breakout session really stood out, mainly because it was a different take on a topic that is discussed on a regular basis – the state of PR.

Glen Broom, Ph.D., and Bey-Ling Sha, Ph.D., APR, created a thought-provoking discussion about the current state of our industry and what opportunities lie ahead for us. The discussion was designed as a SWOT analysis, highlighting the public relations industry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Here are some of the insights Dr. Broom and Dr. Sha shared with the attendees.

Strengths:

• More and more people going through a PR-specific educational process. Public relations is recognized in the academic world and students are able to graduate with a degree in the field, which wasn’t available a few years ago.
• Despite any challenges we are faced with, PR professionals are very willing to have the hard conversations and deal with the issues within our industry.
• When functioning at its true form, where public relations impacts organizational behavior, PR demonstrates that it is a truly strong profession.
• The public relations industry has an established code of ethics, which most professionals, especially those who are members of PRSA, know and abide by.

Weaknesses:

• We, as PR professionals, cannot define what we do. We operate under so many different banners and do so many different things that we ultimately confuse people. Dr. Broom joked that PR would make the perfect CIA cover.
• Communications is not the broader term for PR, rather, PR is the broader term and communications is just one aspect of what we do. We also change organizational policies and structure, but so few people understand this definition of public relations.
• Although being able to influence a company is one of our industry’s strengths, achieving that voice is often difficult, and therefore, it’s also a weakness.

Opportunities:

• PR is the big wheel that includes all the little things, a bunch of little wheels – customer relations, consumer relations, stakeholder relations, internal communications, marketing, etc. We are able to influence the greater good in an organization.
• PR professionals build genuine relationships, which fosters genuine engagement with our stakeholders and customers.

Threats:

• The murky definition of what PR is and what we do will continue to be a threat.
• In many organizations, PR gets co-oped by the marketing department.
• There is growing public cynicism of all organizations, which makes the efforts of PR professionals much more difficult as we are trying to build relationships in an environment that is corroded.

After the nearly 90 minute session, filled with a lot of questions, comments and differing opinions, the theme I saw overarching everything was the public relations profession still has a lot of potential and a lot to offer. Yes, we have improved and constantly evolved in this era of the continuous update, but there is still room for growth – and we are heading in the right direction. We have to remember to continue to take the time to reflect and have the tough conversations with our colleagues, industry thought leaders and the leaders of companies and organizations, because we can be (and should be) influencing companies, organizations and society.