PR professionals are not perfect

Learn to manage your expectations of PR professionals by not thinking they’re superhuman

Public relations is a stressful career. In fact, being a public relations executive was ranked by Careercast as one of the most stressful careers in 2019. Many individuals outside of the industry mistakenly believe that PR professionals are almost inhumanly perfect at their job because of their interactions with successful campaigns.

However, that’s not the case. It’s important to remember that PR professionals are not superhumans. They aren’t going to magically solve every issue without a hitch because that’s simply impossible.

Why? PR, particularly in times of crisis, creates and maintains relationships with third parties and depends on external factors as it’s bedrock. A single professional isn’t going to be able to somehow get your story in every relevant news outlet. Time and relationships are required for successful PR, and that’s not something a single person can do from start to finish.

Time itself is another reason why PR professionals can’t be superhumans that save the day. Building relationships with media outlets takes a long amount of time. For example, some of the biggest overnight success stories we know about actually took years of planning and relationship-building, as well as very long work weeks for the industry professionals behind the effort.

While PR professionals aren’t perfect, you can help them succeed as their client. When PR is needed for corporate communications, such as in a crisis, give your PR department or firm a very large amount of space to do what they do best. Let them be creative instead of trying to micromanage them.

Having expectations that PR pros will single-handily boost your company’s reputation in a matter of days or clear up a crisis overnight only leads to disaster for your company.

If you’d like to work with a team of experienced public relations professionals that know how the business works, contact us.

Clients love Jacob’s speed. Jacob is an inbound marketing-certified webmaster. He earned an integrated communications degree from Florida State College at Jacksonville. Jacob joined Axia PR as an intern in August 2015 and earned his way into a critical role at our PR agency.