"Reflecting the views of more than 1,500 professionals, #StateofPR returns for 2019 to paint a picture of a commercially robust industry that isn't always the people-focussed profession it aspires to be."

This is the first thing that I read about the latest research into the UK PR profession by the CIPR and I'll be honest, it didn't exactly make me want to read more. It sort of depressed me.

But it's important to know what's going on in the PR industry, especially on my quest to help transform it with my book Inbound PR so I wanted to dig in to understand why this statement as a summary of the research.

I cover the StateofPR every year (here's 2018, for example, which to me was all about the need for business acumen in PR). This year, I noticed 5 key issues that I want to share with you below. 

#1 PR is growing but still has a skills gap

Republished with permission from ITPR's blog. 

New is always scary, so when we sat down as a team around a year ago and decided we were moving away from ‘traditional PR’ to Inbound PR, it’s fair to say I was a little apprehensive. 

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, plus I’d only ever worked in the ‘old’ version of PR, so moving to something I didn’t have a lot of knowledge of at the time took me a little out of my comfort zone. 

As it turns out, Inbound PR isn’t scary, doesn’t mean learning completely new skills, and certainly doesn’t take long to realise the benefits – especially for our clients, of which there are quite a few new faces!

Inbound PR resonates!

It’s fair to say the Inbound PR way of life has resonated with a lot of our clients, especially those who’s bosses have been sceptical in the past about the value of PR as a business function.

This is a guest post by Mike Davies from ITPR.

Given that 99% of a PRs job is to understand the media and build relationships with journalists, it might sound a bit strange that the practice of “selling in” a story to a journalist can be so nerve wracking.

But this process of pitching stories is often the most daunting task for any new PR exec; and still conjures a few moments of hesitation for the odd seasoned professional.

Anyone who has ever caught a journalist on a bad day will understand why pitching stories can be so nerve wracking. Short replies and quick hang-ups can leave even the most thick-skinned with a feeling of trepidation.

As an ex-journalist, I must confess to understanding some of the frustration felt by my former colleagues.

Like any first in your life, I will never forget the first PR pitch I received as a young journalist that made me question what exactly these public relations people were being paid for.

Not only did the “pitch” start with a generic “hi there”, the story was completely irrelevant to the area I was writing about and had no value to my readers.

Worse still,

This is a guest post by my friend Edyta Kowal from Prowly.

A newsroom has always been a brand’s window on the world.

But the way we’ve been communicating with the world through this tool has changed quite a bit over the years.

Today, in the era of oversupply of all sorts of content, which almost everyone creates now, we find it increasingly difficult to be distinct.

On the other hand, PR people some time ago already accepted the fact that they wouldn’t be able to accomplish much by speaking just to journalists or keep focusing on the same dull formats used over and over again.

The development of new technologies, the ever-present digital connections, as well as the increasingly demanding and well-informed audiences—all these elements have contributed much to the fact that working in PR today requires a more comprehensive approach and oftentimes taking actions that are far from standard.

Most of all, however, it requires a focus on activities that will make audiences come to you because you can offer something extra, like a solution to their problem or something that will address their needs.

It is this subtle contrast between outbound and inbound that makes all the difference. And makes PR now more exciting than ever.

I consider myself very lucky to have some super intelligent and talented friends. 

Kareem and his brother Aamen are among them. Kareem worked with me at HubSpot and Aamen was at Google. After gathering some great experience at those software companies they both set out to start their own business around content and are doing a terrific job at it. 

I was honoured when they invited me to participate in their sparerooms talk show. 

We chatted about:

• public relations,
• my Inbound PR book and how small business and entrepreneurs can take on some of the tips,
• the writing and publishing processes while working full-time and how others can do it too,
• building a personal brand online and offline, 
• and building a partner program for smaller companies.

Check out the video for the full conversation, there are some fun moments as well!