A well-known self-media person said that when working with companies, they are especially afraid of “counseling” by the boss of the public relations department. They like the company’s specific words. If you don’t write it according to your format, won’t you write it yourself? I persuaded him to put his position in the right position and establish customer awareness, but when I talked about it, I felt the same way. In the past few years, I have written dozens of corporate public relations in the form of character interviews. Sometimes I write proud texts and send them to the parties, but the results are greatly changed, even beyond recognition. An inspirational story of a professional person’s difficult exploration has become A corporate website promotional document. Their reasoning is simple and sincere: talk more about businesses and less about individuals. You don’t always say that the sense of accomplishment of a publicist is to set the stage for others and stand behind the scenes. Also, recently, our dissemination must be closely related to the core information of this year. With such a good opportunity to cooperate with such a famous celebrity as you, we must strengthen our core information. My complaining heart was lightly dissipated by their careless and scheming touts.
I often wonder, is PR a management process that seeks control, or is it an interpersonal art that insists on letting go?
When I first entered the business, my mind was full of control, corporate communication framework, core information, and spokesperson system to prevent anyone in the company from speaking to the media without authorization. It is necessary to ensure that the core message of the company’s communication is met. Public relations have management functions, and management is inseparable from control. For example, production management, from raw materials to the operation of each production station, must be strictly controlled to ensure no defective products. The CEO said that public relations also focuses on management. It is necessary to manage the communication well, to ensure the image of the leader, and the product must not be negative. Every day, the public relations department is trembling, afraid of making mistakes, from fear of things that are controllable going wrong to things that are uncontrollable. In the era when the media does not pay for press releases, we can tolerate different voices. Now the environment is complicated, and it is difficult to control what we media say, but I must control the cooperative drafts of paid media. Control comes from the publicist’s sensitivity to control, and sometimes from the publicist’s self-esteem, as the pride of Party A’s father.
I have always paid special attention to the sensitive self-esteem of journalists. When a company is doing public relations, I only change the facts of a reporter’s manuscript, and do not interfere with the logic of the writing. Of course, there are many young reporters who don’t care about this. They want you to change it, especially the paid cooperation manuscripts. The interviews are all pretentious. He sends you the interview records, and even keeps them. Change it yourself, and you’ll be fine.
No matter how the environment changes, I think earned media, owned media, paid media, represents the real value of PR. From the perspective of control, the uncontrollable media is the most valuable, because it truly represents the third party and reflects the value of “public relations is to let others say hello”, otherwise, if you say you are good, you will spend money, not the same as advertising ?
Among today’s entrepreneurs, there are public relations masters like Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu who are especially good at creating topics for free dissemination, but the one I admire most is Cao Dewang of Fuyao Glass. Based on Fuyao’s American factory, the Oscar-winning documentary “American Factory” is a masterpiece that truly “let go” from a corporate perspective. This film took 5 years and more than 1,300 hours of material. The most important factor for its success is that Cao Dewang allowed the film crew to follow him in all of his activities in the United States. He inspected factories, communicated with workers, held business meetings, and participated in major events. All received in the original way. Cao Dewang said: “I think if we use our own mouths to introduce Fuyao to Americans, it will cost a lot of money, and we can’t do it.” It will be used by the American trade unions and vilify the Chinese people. Cao Dewang said, “You have overinterpreted it, and you have not understood what he is saying.” The director of the film said in his acceptance speech: “Whether they are Chinese or Americans in the factory, they always have a way to live in harmony, even if they don’t speak the same language, they can always find fun, they can always find a way to understand each other, one day. It will be over soon.” This is what Cao Dewang understands, and what the director really wants to say in the film. In the choice of control and letting go, Cao Dewang chose to let go. With an entrepreneur’s global vision and cultural tolerance, he gave us a vivid “public relations letting go” lesson.
Doing public relations, knowing how to let go is a high level.
