Build up your image with one shot

Famous artists, politicians and other public persons work hardly to build up them image. Companies also try to create good perception and image of them products or services with the public. For image building can be used many tools.

Among one of the most effective tools can be mentioned photography. Sometimes pictures can quickly damage the person’s or company’s image (as McDonald experienced story with widely published chicken nuggets picture).

Or Janet Jackson just with one picture managed to create scandal and get most media attention. Her breast exposure moment even appeared as CNN lead story on February 2, 2004 on national television.

As we see, pictures can be very effective tools for representing yourself and creating your personal brand in the virtual environment and media.  

Talking about the pictures, which form image, the first idea, that often comes to mind is paparazzi shots. Paparazzi pictures traditionally goes together with celebrities brand. They are main formers of the brand. For example, the last years Britney Spear was a target of paparazzi and her negative image was mainly formed by them.

Paparazzi pictures are really “dangerous” when you try to build up best opinion about your brand, because you cannot control and plan them. But sometimes paparazzi specialize to opposite activity and start taking planned PR pictures. As it made PR Photos company. From being celebrities’ enemies they became best friends.

They transformed from paparazzi to PR Photos. Our company name changed in order to form a stronger and better alliance with Celebrities and PR Firms worldwide.

In this PR Photos companies web page you can find thousands of celebrites’ photos. And taking the same example - Britney Spears, you won’t find any compromising pictures of her.

Check her pictures, press here.

The future of PR - new opportunities bring social media

Talking about the future of Public relations it is essentially important to highlight the changes of current cultural life. Digital age has evidently touched the ways of cultural expression, the information flows and access to the texts, pictures, video and audio material. This let us draw up the image of the current cultural life that is based on improved computer operations and functions.

It means, that Public relations have huge perspective to expand them operating fields. First of all, the biggest area of PR growth is new media. The opportunities of the Internet communication are hardly counted and evaluated. However, there is an evident true, that those, who manage to follow and handle all new computer challenges, reach progress much quicker.

It can be adopted to all PR agencies and departments. It follows, that PR experts, who integrate new communication forms in them operating systems, will easier set balanced two-way symmetrical communication. The virtual environment has already suggested great opportunity of interactive communication. Social networks and social media, active forums, opportunity to post comments under the articles or pictures and many new communication perspectives are creating open and easier spread communication between the companies or organizations and public society.

On the one hand, this huge growth of new computer based communication forms has helped to improve quick and effective PR. However, on the other hand, it is very difficult to keep up with all these new technologies. As social media professor and researcher has noticed, “it has became a part of my job to stay abreast of these developments”.  

Before the explosion of virtual communication and Internet media, the most important PR communication targets were newspapers, radio and television. It was thought that if you reach the publicity, your PR program was successful. However, it is particularly important to notice, that those media channels spread messages to unknown audience. Of course, there are many ways, how to research that anonymous audience. However, to measure the effectiveness of the communication through those channels is hard task and the results are not accurate.

Later the spread of new technologies and social media, has made first strong step of new PR. When the user got opportunity to express his opinion just after reading the article and get the reply of the article author, real two-way communication started. Social networks later expanded the interactive communication that was strong kick to PR evolution.

According to Grunig’s communication theory, the two-way symmetrical communication is an ideal form. More popular social networks become, more closer to two-way communication has became current PR.

Social media has already reached high level of popularity, however, not so many PR agencies know how to use all the opportunities of social networks communication platforms.

In the future, PR agencies are supposed to find out how to reach the right audience on social networks. Current situation shows, that to spread information through facebook or twitter is easy task, but to spread the message to right audience is still challenging work. In the future, the platforms according to the users’ demographics would be provided. It means that communication would be more effective.

When people register to social networks and participate in the virtual network activity they share them private information, hobbies and other personal ideas. This personal data helps to build up platforms that are very useful to PR agencies, when they need to find exact niche audience.

The social networks should become perfect place for reaching clients and partners. However, the other media participants, mostly journalists will use the social networks as the source of information for them reports more and more often.

What is more, PR agencies will have to concentrate on other Internet media channels.

PR agents will have to follow the flows of information online, because more popular social media becomes, more challenges it brings. Blagging, virtual chats, pictures, video sharing sits – all these channels will have to be observed.

It means, that PR agencies will not forget the basic rules – research, action, communication and evaluation. Monitoring and measurement tools, deep analysis of PR processes and organization’s environment will stay extremely important for effective PR.

All in all, to indicate the direction of the contemporary movement of PR is challenging task to analysts. Because the culture and environments of communication fields have experienced multiple transformations.  Digital age has caused cultural revolution. Explosive intervention of computer machines with software and virtual screens has enabled those machines to participate in cultural life and to create new PR environments. 

Experiment: how to spread your picture in the world?

"I have seen some of my friends pictures on google search, but I could never figure out how to do it myself. So I was just wondering how to do it."


I have found this question in one of the chat forums. Google now is really powerful system, "if you not exist on google, you not exist absolutely". Most organisations pay much attention about the image of them company on the Internet. First of all, if person is interested in organization, he usually tries to find textual information about it. Without any doubts, the person firstly tries google search. 
After getting textual background, the visual material on google pictures' can be explored by interested users as well. That is why PR departments usually try to handle the ways, how the company is represented in virtual environment. If the first pictures of your company found on google are unrepresentative and contrary, you can add photos that you think are appropriate and more valuable.
I have decided to do an experiment to know if to make your picture available on google search is compicated task. 
First step: choosing the picture

The easiest way for publishing pictures in worldwide site is using picasaweb program. This program is one of the google brands.


I have created my account here and uploaded the picture with the electricity pole. Firstly, I had to describe the image using the key words. I have chosen "Jyvaskyla electricity". When you create your picasaweb album, you just need to choose the availability of the picture - who would be able to find your photo on the Internet. I have chosen public access, and when the picture is online on the JPG format, everyone can vary and use your photo to the blogs, websites and etc. 


All in all, the experiment has showed, that it is very easy to make your photos widely available to the world. It is enough to spend 5 minutes to create your account and upload your picture. Just few moments and the world can access and use your visual message.


With this example I have wanted to illustrate the PR agents work. They can suggest hundreds of photos in order to achieve the publicity and to create the organization image on the virtual, and nowadays, the most important environment for organizational communication.


Publish Post

One picture disclosed McDonalds

I have talked about the best PR pictures, which can circulate through media channels and help to obtain the objectives of organization. When pictures are well planned and made by professionals, the only question is "if the picture would be published and reach the publicity?". 

However, PR agencies cannot control the pictures that are shot by photojournalists or each social media participant. Recently the social media has experienced huge explosion in media system. That follows, that everyone can spread pictures trough media channels. Blogging, social networks make information flows unexpectedly intensive. Especially pictures can easily steam on the Internet. And the virtual environment can be said to be the perfect place for unplanned and undesirable information spread.

McDonalds last year has experienced that one picture can easily destroy the image. What is more, this anti PR example shows that visual language is more effective than textual. If the words can lie, the picture stucks in memory and is supposed to be truth.


One of the worst PR story of 2010 started when this picture was published on the Internet.

The fillings of a chicken nugget

What seems to be cream, or strawberry ice-cream, actually is chicken nuggets. This pink sludge pretends to be chicken meat!  That picture quickly spread through many sites and Internet channels. Hot discussions about the McDonalds food components started. As it was written in Joe Weber article on Internet news portal, many chicken nuggets contain less than 50% meat leaving the majority of the nugget to be comprised of skin and carcass. 

"Mechanically recovered meat is a process by which the carcass is pushed through a giant tea-bag like screen which produces a slurry of protein which is then bound back together with other proteins, polyphosphates, and gums". 

This picture chocked many people, that had loved McDonalds food. Of course, many of them believed, that fast food is healthy. However, the visualisation of the components of chicken nuggets was something unexpectable.


What is more, this picture has encouraged other actions of New York photographer Sally Davies, who decided to photograph "Happy Meal"  every day for six months as an art project. After that he discovered that the Happy Meal looked exactly the same six months later. This experiment also attracted much attention of media, it even appeared on YouTube. 


This video started the discussions if this food can grow mold. Apparently, McDonald’s issued a statement claiming: “No preservatives are added to the beef patties in McDonald’s hamburgers.” However, finally,  the City of San Francisco banned Happy Meals. This denial and uncertainty claims showed that McDonalds probably took worst PR beating in 2010.

Media firendly pictures

I have tried to find small tips that are used by PR agencies to obtain publicity of the pictures.  When you notice picture in newspapers, pay attention how many pictures are made by newspapers‘ photojournalists, which part of published pictures came from press photo agencies (such as epa).

And how many of images came fro different sources? Mostly, those sources are the heroes of the articles or the PR agencies. 

So PR photographers have to do the best job to make them pictures published. They shoot better picture than photojournalists and show more then press photo agencies  archives.

Firstly PR photographers should know that photos must be in a variety of sizes, they should suggest colourised and black and white pictures. What is more, extremely important is high quality of pictures (at least 300 dpi (resolution)).

Secondly, action in pictures is more appreciated than just standing and smiling people. The picture should tell the story. More action and description in pictures make them eye catching.

What is more, editors appreciate opportunity to choose. If you can suggest several great pictures, add all of them.

The greatest mistake – boring, standard pictures. For example, executives smiling and talking on the phone. A lot of stock photography do this, but media is not interested in such a “saying nothing” pictures. 

Usually difficult task is to take a great picture from press conference. If there is no action, just people sitting around the table and presenting some information, to take an attractive picture is almost impossible. With some exception, when photographer catch strange grimace.

The organizers of the press conference should think about some sort of action that would have visual value. For example:

                       

Editors can deny, however, they subconsciously choose pictures for publishing, that include some “herous”. In Sarah O\'Brien article I have found the list of objects, that print media look for in a picture: 

Children

Animals

Colour, glamour or fun

Unusual visual opportunities

Young, attractive people

Celebrities

So what is PR photography?

Photography has so many classifications, that is why to describe what is PR photography is really complicated task. First of all, I would say that PR pictures help to balance communication flows and to reach natural understanding. Sometimes a great picture can be published when words not. And the text with good photo is more appreciated by editors than just a textual report. That means – pictures are not just an extra material. Photos are even more important!

I have divided the PR pictures in several group. Of course, my classification is based just on my own observations, what I have discovered exploring the photo industry.

I was reading the websites of PR agencies and I’ve found that they put more and more emphasis on visuality. They create separate sections in the websites to explain how they deal with photo material.

Professional PR agencies more often include photography in them services. They use pictures as extra material of the press releases. They put emphasis to great quality and professional visual language of photos in order to attract the editors‘ attention.  For that reason PR agencies hire photographers that help to ensure full package of service.

The second group, for example such agencies as Alan Howarth, suggest PR photography as one of them workspace in photography field. So PR is lined up between architectural, website, advertising or people photography. It means that PR photography still stands more in photography than public relations field.

In such an organizations you can usually find a team of professional photographers, who are concentrated on doing best pictures, but the PR process finishes after selling the images to organization. They are not interested how the pictures will be integrated in PR process. They just shoot pictures.

So Public relation‘s department must decide if they are qualified enough to handle PR pictures processes and to buy photography service from PR photographers or they need to pass on responsibility to PR agency, that knows how professionally integrate PR pictures in effective communication processes.

Woman, look at the picture and smoke!

First strong steps of growing PR after the First World War showed that pictures will play important role into the process of Public Relations. I'd like to give an example how one of the first PR professional Edward Bernays introduced the idea of "sexy, nice, attractive smoking" and  made people poison themselves. Sounds strange, however we can be gratefull to his Public Relation company, that trusted the power of image!