I'm currently taking off a few pounds through dieting. My goal was 15 pounds and I'm current down 10 pounds (so far I'm four weeks into the diet). During this process it occurred to me that there is a lot of similarities between losing weight and the process of public relations.
Anyone who has dieted will attest to the frustrating obstacles that are associated with shedding weight. While you may do the same thing for weeks, the results are not the same day to day. You might go a week without losing weight and then - BAM - you drop a couple of pounds. One week you might lose three pounds, the next week nothing.
Anyone who has dieted for over a month will tell you that at various points you want to quit, because it feels like it's not working. Yet, the reality is that it is working. If you stick with it, the pounds do come off.
Public Relations often feels that way to me. Organizations often view it as an event-driven activity - we have a new product, let's do some PR.
But that's analogous to dieting where you only cut calories on days when you are really motivated to lose weight. A day here, a day there, unfortunately won't help you shed pounds.
With public relations it's the steady, continuous commitment to external outreach and communication that gets you to your end goal. Almost all of my most successful moments in public relations have come after months of slugging it out in the trenches.
Building a brand, gaining mind-share and establishing equity with key stakeholders is not something you can just decide to do in a day, week or month.
It's self-evident in the world of weight loss. No one would say "You know, I think I'll lose 20 pounds this week because I'd really like to be 20 pounds lighter." Everyone knows that if you want to drop 20 pounds, it's going to take months of commitment - day after day of losing .2 pounds.
It's a bit basic, but if more organizations understood that PR is not an event-driven activity, but rather a process through which daily hard work and efforts result in a cumulative ROI over time (which may be highlighted at times during event-driven activities), they would then reap greater benefits from their investment in PR.
PR I think is often viewed as a sprinter... locked in the starting blocks and let loose at certain times. But in reality, PR is more like a marathon runner, constantly in motion.
Anyway, just a thought I had today as I move towards my last 5lbs in my diet. My success at dieting is due to nothing other than sticking to a regimented diet. My success in PR has also been a function of a regimented outlook - do the right things, day in and day out, and in time you will hit the milestones you are seeking.
Anyone who has dieted will attest to the frustrating obstacles that are associated with shedding weight. While you may do the same thing for weeks, the results are not the same day to day. You might go a week without losing weight and then - BAM - you drop a couple of pounds. One week you might lose three pounds, the next week nothing.
Anyone who has dieted for over a month will tell you that at various points you want to quit, because it feels like it's not working. Yet, the reality is that it is working. If you stick with it, the pounds do come off.
Public Relations often feels that way to me. Organizations often view it as an event-driven activity - we have a new product, let's do some PR.
But that's analogous to dieting where you only cut calories on days when you are really motivated to lose weight. A day here, a day there, unfortunately won't help you shed pounds.
With public relations it's the steady, continuous commitment to external outreach and communication that gets you to your end goal. Almost all of my most successful moments in public relations have come after months of slugging it out in the trenches.
Building a brand, gaining mind-share and establishing equity with key stakeholders is not something you can just decide to do in a day, week or month.
It's self-evident in the world of weight loss. No one would say "You know, I think I'll lose 20 pounds this week because I'd really like to be 20 pounds lighter." Everyone knows that if you want to drop 20 pounds, it's going to take months of commitment - day after day of losing .2 pounds.
It's a bit basic, but if more organizations understood that PR is not an event-driven activity, but rather a process through which daily hard work and efforts result in a cumulative ROI over time (which may be highlighted at times during event-driven activities), they would then reap greater benefits from their investment in PR.
PR I think is often viewed as a sprinter... locked in the starting blocks and let loose at certain times. But in reality, PR is more like a marathon runner, constantly in motion.
Anyway, just a thought I had today as I move towards my last 5lbs in my diet. My success at dieting is due to nothing other than sticking to a regimented diet. My success in PR has also been a function of a regimented outlook - do the right things, day in and day out, and in time you will hit the milestones you are seeking.
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