PR Quacks Be Warned, PRSK Unveils The Noose

The Public Relations Society of Kenya AGM was held two week ago here in Nairobi. While the numbers of the practitioners had increased compared to previous years, the practitioners themselves did not turn up in large numbers for this special annual meeting. Well, I understand many of them had evening events bearing in mind that the event was held on a convenient day for cocktails here in Kenya.

 For those who did not attend, this meeting was a tipping point for the PR profession in Kenya, after years of struggle; we finally amended our constitution and institutionalized the profession. Wait …. From now on it will not just be about popping into any institution that offer courses in PR and stepping out as a PR guru but it will be about undergoing a standardized practice based process to become a certified PR practitioner. With those amends, the door was shut for all those quacks who thought PR was about knowing a few influential friends and being close to the media.

It will now take you a minimum of ten years of continuous practice to reach the echelons of the PR profession in Kenya.  One is expected to attend PRSK certified trainings and workshops, maintain your registration status all through while supporting the society’s activities .One must also submit relevant industry papers for review by a certified PRSK examiners body that will be constituted in the course of the year.

 At least for me, the Chairlady was candid enough to tell me that blogs, webzines and online submissions will also be recognized. The mention of breakfast forums with industry stakeholder also raised my hopes of becoming a fellow in a decade’s time. Am confident because the thought of hot coffee and tea while discussing a profession am passionate about makes the certification process reasonable.

Well, below is the breakdown of what it will take to become a successful PR practitioner in Kenya. 

The
practitioners Test

I know we can do it, after all lawyers and accountants  have done it with LSK and ICPAK respectively.

Quick Brand Visibility Opportunities For Your PR Clients

As the budget was being read yesterday, I also decided to review the various activities that our PR clients had engaged in since the beginning of the year. You all remember that corporates especially Public Relations and Marketing arm lost the whole of Q1 2013 because everyone was on a ‘wait and see” mode as the country warmed up to the general elections. Due the post- election violence that we had experienced as a country in 2007, no one was willing to take the risk and invest in their brand campaign before the elections.

Despite the fact that we went ahead and elected Kenya’s 4th president UhuruKenyatta peacefully, the exercise was marred with concerns from one of the presidential candidates and thus the process of going through the supreme court for their ruling seized the better part of Q2 with many organizations watching from a distance as the political elite transformed our supreme court into a legalese class for the common mwananchi.

Kenya Sevens Rugby in action

I’m sure you are still wondering what I’m blogging about. Well, I am just trying to justify why I think 80% of the companies in Kenya are yet to fully utilize their PR budgets for the first five months of this year.

In order to help you meet your PR KPIs for the year, below are a few publicity opportunities you can snap to get your brand visibility.

 Our Sevens Rugby team left the country one week ago to participate in the Rugby 7s World Cup that will be held on the last three days of this month. If its previous performance is anything to go by, the team is likely perform well and by the time it gets back, the whole country will be talking about our rugby prowess. So get your company ready and prepare yourselves to be at the airport to receive the team when it comes back. While at it, ask your CEO to announce the sponsorship of the junior rugby team.  You better do this now because Unilever has already flexed its muscle.

Ingwe Fans during the recent derby .

If you have been following the international soccer scene, I’m sure you already know that all the major leagues across the globe ended and thus the only conversations we are having is about the transfer window  and the World Cup qualifies which are not very exciting apart from a few matches in South America and Europe. Well, worry not; the Confederation Cup will be kicking off this Sunday .This tourney will be pitting continental champions against each other. The African flag bearer will be the Super Eagles from populous Nigeria. Many Kenyans will be following this tournament not because of Nigeria alone but also the Samba Boys from the football nation- Brazil. So with your pending budget get your key clients and media and take them to K1 for the soccer moment. Trust you me, you will find your brand on the social pages and fast rising entertainment blogs.

Lastly, still on matters football, our local league will be returning to action next month, I know Tusker is the key sponsors while Zuku and MultiChoice have been wresting about AFC Leopards. Don’t get your brand into these battles; just plan your activities around the stadiums that will be hosting the matches especially where Kogallo and Ingwe are involved the numbers will be huge because even the remote control fans have to come to the stadium to watch their favourite teams. The activities that can quickly be organized around the stadium is approaching the bar and restaurants around the stadiums for a partnership. In Nairobi you have Kuche Kuche and Poolside beyond the city, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisii and Mumias are perfect brand visibility grounds.

Now, go ahead and propose this to your clients and bosses but be sure to invest your budget where the brand will reap.

Social Media : The New friend of Public Relations

Barely a week after discussing  with a friend , Michael Owora on the challenges I was having with regular blogging, he sent me an email notifying me that I was to make a presentation on the role of social media in fostering  Public Relation. 

Basically, my role was to define what PR 2.0 was, its impact on our profession and how one could use it to enhance the organisation’s communications strategy.

You can follow the presentation below.

                                   

Well, despite the negative comments that have been mentioned in various boardrooms about social media, I firmly believe that Social Media is a friend to PR. All you need to do is to figure out how you can leverage on this platform

All said and done, I picked a few examples of success stories(both local & international) on the brands that have leveraged on social media

Writers block unmasked

After ranting about how I was struggling to create content for my blog regularly, a friend whom I had met in one of the many events organised by BAKE ;the Kenyan bloggers forum responded to my blog with some nice counsel that I thought you should read.

Incidentally, I am not the only one who suffers from this blogging fatigue; James Murua an ardent blogger echoed my sentiments. potentash explained several reasons that could be causing my writers block. She mentioned  that the subject matter that I had been writing on had probably become boring **** that am not sure bearing in mind that I spent three hours talking about PR and Social media in a PRSK forum last week.

She however made an attempt to solve my problem by mentioning several forums that she had been deriving the inspiration to regularly blog.

Follow this link Writers block unmasked and see how my irregular blogging woes were solved.