October 21, 2011
Roger Nyhus Speaks on the Future of PR for PRSA Puget Sound
Yesterday morning, the Puget Sound Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) hosted its annual meeting, which included a panel discussion on the future of public relations. Nyhus President and CEO Roger Nyhus participated in the panel, and I attended. Other panelists included Shauna Causey of Nordstrom and Susan Gregg of UW Medicine, with David Postman of Vulcan as moderator.
The conversation focused mostly on social media’s role in the future of our profession. Below are links and highlights I’ve compiled.
Event Twitter hashtag: #prfuture
Speaker Twitter profiles:
Shauna Causey: @ShaunaCausey
Roger Nyhus: @rogernyhus
Conversation highlights:
- Roger: Whenever a job candidate at Nyhus makes it to the final round, Roger does a social media background check because he thinks of employees as ambassadors of the Nyhus brand.
- Roger: There’s a lot of future potential for niche, credible online media such as POLITICO.
- Roger and David: As PR evolves into real-time, direct communications, successful companies are making their work cultures more open and nimble.
- Susan: A decrease in the number of full-time journalists in the world is making it increasingly difficult to land stories via proactive pitching.
- Susan: You shouldn’t underestimate the value of your website as a place your stakeholders go for information.
- Shauna: She loves pitching journalists via Twitter direct message and has found success through it due to how concise she must be. Social media, especially Twitter, require you to focus on the key facts.
- Shauna: When she helps a corporate executive or nonprofit start using social media, she offers counsel and teaching but feels they must own implementation in-house to create and maintain their unique voice.
Roger was invited to participate in the panel, and he and I were talking about how he started his career as a Sally Heet PRSA scholarship recipient. Several Nyhus employees, including Roger and I, like staying involved in PRSA and PRSSA as a way to network and advance our profession. We’ll make sure to keep you updated on our activities with both organizations.
Do you agree or disagree with the speakers’ ideas above? Let us know in the comments.