I also think this post brings to mind the importance of relationships. As a PR person my main relationship tends to be with the editor or blogger but that doesn’t mean I don’t also reach out to the publisher, marketing manager, etc on occasion to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Thanks for the post!

This also demonstrates to your clients that you don’t just view your work, and subsequent success, as a one-off proposition that is solely confined to your work. You are willing to collaborate with others that the client is working with, which in my mind, shows a lot more value for your PR efforts, as it demonstrates to the client that you have a full working knowledge of everything about their company and their brand, which almost every PR practitioner professes to in new business meetings, but honestly, how often does this really happen?

I think PR reps having a better understanding and collaboration with the advertising folks would go a long toward making this promise a reality.

@KeithTrivitt

And, as more time is spent in social media, I’ve found that this is fertile ground for collaboration across other areas of a business to bring all of the best content to the wall or the feed where customers can find value in being the brand’s friend or fan.

I wholeheartedly agree that overall messaging is best developed with a cross-functional team. Unfortunately, some organizations still operate in silos. For example, I had a PR client several years ago who only found out what was happening from a marketing/advertising front in her company when we shared details we found out from our integrated team at the agency. There were lots of internal issues at that company that kept people from sharing information and fostering collaboration. Definitely not ideal, but it’s still a reality in some places.

The real charge in that statement was for consistent messaging. If you can’t be there for the initial development, you should know what it is so you can decide whether or not it’s useful for your PR efforts or if there are any issues/concerns with some particular messaging that would be worth raising with the client or internal colleagues.

Thanks again.

Coordination across communications functions often seems to be a challenge for brands and organizations. That is why it is so important to pull together key members of each communications function before final messaging documents are created – and, preferably, from the very beginning. Combining the varying expertise of marketing/ad pros, PR pros and corporate communications pros ensures all of the brand or organization’s communications priorities are being considered and addressed in the overarching messaging.