Author: DTW Agency

Sarah Pinch is managing director of Pinch Point Communications, President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and a non-executive director for the Health and Safety Executive. Here DTW invites her to talk about her priorities  as president of the CIPR for 2015.

Every year the CIPR elects a new President, and after three years as the chair of the CIPR in the South West and many more as an active member, I am this year’s President. I came to office on February 1, as I was still on maternity leave in January. This was a first for the institute; and a reflection on how the work already highlighted here, by Sarah Hall my board colleague, on gender pay and gender equality in PR is central to making membership meaningful to CIPR members.

I was elected to focus on four areas and this is shaping my mission and the mission of the board for this year:

• To make membership more meaningful to clients and employers
• For the CIPR to stand up for a profession confident in its high standards and able to demonstrate its value
• For the Code of Conduct and our CPD system to be positioned as assets that build trust in our practice
• To reach audiences beyond the industry.

It’s my privilege and responsibility to lead a membership body that is represented by four foundations of professional standards in public relations, and thereby in turn we hope to influence business to understand what it means to be professional. Professionalism for members of the CIPR includes:

• Being held accountable to a code of conduct,
• Having the right skills or qualifications to carry out their role,
• Being engaged in continuing professional development, and
• Enabling the public to find validation of these points in a way that can be easily accessed and understood.

This means we have a busy, exciting and challenging year ahead. I hope many of you will join us.

Following Meerkat’s launch last week, Twitter sped up the release of it’s own integrated live streaming app Periscope. Despite still being in beta, the social giant quietly acquired Periscope in early March for around $100million. With Meerkat beating it to release, Twitter acted quickly to shore up its new acquisition and blocked Meerkat’s access to some of Twitter’s core functions.

Periscope is available now on Apple’s iTunes store (the Android version is currently TBC). Like Meerkat its users can broadcast a live video stream direct to their followers, allowing businesses and individuals to communicate messages to their Twitter followers simply by providing a link they can click through to a broadcast they can watch on their mobile, PC or laptop.

This type of service is not new, Amazon spent almost $1billion last year acquiring live game streaming app Twitch. Twitch allows gamers to broadcast live gaming sessions to fans, who can message and chat within the stream. While Twitch is hugely popular with gamers and the video and computer game industry – Periscope brings live streaming to the masses, and taps into Twitter’s huge mobile-focused user base.

The potential for Periscope is mind-boggling and the service is expected to mark a significant shift in the ever-changing world of social media. Think of it in terms of business. Using Periscope you can now broadcast live video of meetings and conferences to your pre-warmed list of followers, or customers, providing an even more intimate insight into what you do. It allows experts, celebrities and bloggers to speak directly to the people who follow them, negating the need for any third-party media outlet to help them get a message out.

In terms of PR, PR professionals are looking at how they can use Periscope with their brands’ Twitter accounts to help them engage more directly with the people who follow them and raise awareness of their brands. It’s a powerful tool as it adds to the arsenal of ‘owned’ social media tools in a big way. 

PR professionals need to learn how to use Periscope. Those that can master this new channel will help set their brands and clients apart from the crowd. 

This is the first in an occasional series of guest blog posts from DTW. In today’s post Sarah Hall, managing director of Sarah Hall Consulting Ltd and board member for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), outlines why gender inequality still exists in PR – and what the leading industry body is doing about it.

What’s the problem?

The CIPR’s annual State of the Profession Survey has identified that there is a clear £8,483 pay gap in favour of men, that cannot be explained by any other factor such as length of service, seniority, parenthood, or a higher prevalence of part-time work amongst women.

In an industry dominated by women – more than two thirds of practitioners are female – this is embarrassing and has to change.

What is the CIPR doing about it?

Engagement around the State of the Profession Survey from both CIPR members and non-members has clearly shown that people are looking to the Institute for leadership and guidance.

We’ve taken up the challenge and have a big ambition – to become an exemplar for other sectors.

In 2014 we kicked off our gender balance and pay gap policy work with the development and publication of guides to ease maternity leave and the return to work for both organisations and employees. We also produced a comprehensive guide to flexible working in public relations.

This year, we have published a four point manifesto outlining what we will do as part of our drive to narrow the gender pay gap. This includes focusing on pay transparency and helping our members develop excellence in pay system management. We’ll also look to develop a competency framework relevant to PR today and will continue to lobby UK Government on opportunities to strengthen the Equal Pay Act.

The call to action

Cultural change across the industry is not something we can achieve alone so we are asking practitioners to support the work we are doing and to adopt any guidance launched, which will be based on current legislation and around the CIPR’s Code of Conduct.

Equally any managers, directors and employers who are leading the way with regards to workforce recruitment and retention policies are asked to get in touch so we can share and promote best practice.

If you’d like to get involved or find out more, please visit www.cipr.co.uk.

Through my work in the FE sector over the last 20 years, there is no doubt in my mind that further education has, and continues to, transform the lives of many young people and adults who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to improve their lives and contribute to society.

College staff, passionate about their work, inspire students who often suffer low esteem from poor achievement at school and/or difficult home circumstances and provide them with the skills, knowledge and support to gain good jobs and progress to higher education.

Often seen in the past as the ‘Cinderella’ in the education sector, struggling with old and inadequate premises, the investment programme in new FE college buildings during the early 2000s provided a glimmer of hope that FE was at last to be recognised for its true worth.

However, the last few years have seen constant changes and a decline in funding, resulting in staff insecurity and job losses. Some smaller colleges are being forced to consider mergers in order to survive.

Recent announcements of further funding cuts threaten yet again to change the face of FE as we know it. Headlines warn of at least 400,000 people being prevented from accessing adult education. The AoC say that if cuts continue at this rate, by 2020 adult further education will effectively be a thing of the past, there will be an end to courses which help people in their early 20s find a job and an end to GCSE and A Level equivalent professional courses.

Times of change invariably pose communication challenges. Colleges will need to rethink their communications strategies in order to remain competitive and viable in a crowded marketplace. Lower budgets will mean that smarter tactics will be required to ensure that the right people hear the messages.

The value of further education should not be under estimated. Student success should be celebrated and the dedication of those working in the sector acknowledged. The opportunity for young people and adults from all backgrounds to access quality education and training should not be allowed to become elitist.