Our Personal PR Practitioner!

I've spent the last year studying Public Relations, but how much do others know about it? Surely our everyday life activities such as meeting people, spinning the truth and enhancing our reputation are merely examples of our own personal PR?

In the competitive world that we live in we are constantly pushed to show ourselves off. Every person has their own drive to successfully prove that they are better than others. This is clearly shown throughout development. Children push themselves to be best at skipping, sports or in class by learning their timetable prematurely. Teenagers are constantly trying to be as fashionable as Kate Moss, be the first to French kiss and get into the best universities. As adults we are motivated more by money and job security. Our CV’s are just one example of us showcasing our talents. However, the way in which we push ourselves depends deeply on our personality and motivation. I believe this can also be linked to parts of a business.
Some of us are more subtle than others. The people that shout out their talents from the street, making sure that everyone knows that they are the best - these are the advertisers of the human personality. They have no subtly with their approach to selling themselves. They want to put everything in black and white, paste it on a big screen and let everyone know that they are the best.

This can be seen as a positive trait, as they are always in the limelight, they are more likely to be spotted and their works are more likely to be displayed in places where it can be seen. These people would be recognised for who they are and what they have done. However, this can also be a disadvantage. For example, if their work was to fall through, everyone would see them fail. They would not be able to lose with dignity, and losing to these people would be a major concern. An example from the recent media is Kerry Katona, she is constantly pushing herself to be in all the papers and gossip magazines. She also makes a television show about herself and how she is coping with being bipolar. She sees this as a positive thing because she is showing the world that she is on the right track and is happy, however, with the good mood days also comes the bad days and these are what the media and people pick up on. Although no news is bad news, the media find it very easy to pick up flaws and will focus on them and sadly this is what the public remember her for doing.

Then there are the Public Relations officers amongst us who are keen to push ourselves forward and become well known, but in a more subtle way. People like this would probably become acquainted with those in higher positions, keep on good terms with these people and push themselves so that one day an opportunity would arise for them through their good relationships. Their contact list would be huge and there would never be an opportunity missed, any chance for another contact in another business would be taken seriously. These people would demonstrate their best work only, but discretely, only showing it to their target audience for examples possible future employers. They would spin the truth as to make themselves look better, if a bad piece of work was to be shown they were cover it up by producing a fabulous example of how they can do much better.
This behaviour has its advantages as only good work is usually portrayed and their ever growing contacts list would mean that many people would have heard of them. They would constantly be in contact with their contact list, ready for any possible interview for a job. However, a disadvantage of this is that they could be seen as too modest and not be pushing themselves hard enough to get to where they want to be. In the working world, especially during the credit crunch, people have to push themselves to get noticed as jobs do not arise as often as in previous years.

However, in my opinion a mix of these personalities would be necessary to be successful in life. Although, even if people are not aware of what Public Relations is, they are probably working all types of PR for themselves, to ensure they have friends close and enemies even closer. We use it to cover our everyday mistakes that we make and when promoting ourselves. In fact, we are all our own PR practitioners.