I read with interest about a certain top model celebrity who mistakenly copied and pasted a thank-you for a product from her PR, literally word for word. The gaff on Twitter was picked up by the media, who retold the story, but it just goes to prove my point that PR’s do so much more than people realise!
PR isn’t just about press released and getting mentions in the media. We work incredibly closely with out clients across so many areas including social media content, brand development, campaign ideas, viral videos and much more and whilst we may not drip feed them with words and quotes to use, we do work as part of their team and help them in anyway we can. Sometimes that does mean giving advice on how to word something so it flows better.
We can’t all be brilliant at everything and you appoint someone to do a job because you value their feedback and experience, so why wouldn’t you ask their advice, however simple? If I wanted to know how to blow-dry my hair, would I ask my professional hairdresser? Of course I would! (Please note: I do not have one, PR’s don’t earn that much!)
Asking your PR how to phrase something like a ‘thank-you’ may seem trivial to us, but when anything and everything you do is scrutinised by millions, it must make you cautious!
I really feel for the PR involved because, as a collective, we do work incredibly hard behind the scenes building the reputation of the brand, be it an individual like in this case, or a larger company. Before it was quickly amended, the post gained well over 25K likes.
While I don’t know how many ‘likes’ this individual gets per tweet on average, it was clearly very popular and while the poor PR behind the story is getting flack, he or she certainly raised the profile of their client as well as the associated brand. Hopefully this will also show that PR is more than just a post!
