Public Relations Expert and Lead Consultant of Komskraft Consult, Gayheart Mensah, has shared bitter concerns over the lack of appreciation towards the Public Relations profession in Ghana and largely around the world.
According to him, Public Relations practitioners have failed to position themselves devoid of the misconceptions surrounding the profession and for that he feels “awful” as a Public Relations person.
In an eventful dialogue organized by Global Media Alliance to celebrate World Public Relations Day (WPRD) on the theme, “The Evolution of PR: Shifting Skillset Required of Today’s PR Professional,” Mr. Mensah reiterated the nobility of the PR profession as he admonished fellow practitioners to “reposition the profession where it ought to be and do what it ought to do.”
“I feel awful but also feel optimistic. I feel awful because we belong to a profession that is good at building the image, reputation and perceptions around individuals and organizations. But as a professional body we have failed in positioning the negative notions and perceptions about PR and that is why I feel awful,” he said.
“But this also molds me into optimism, institutionalizing an event like this gives us the opportunity to try to rewrite those wrong notions and perceptions about this profession. I think ours is a noble profession. Noble to the extent that if you look at what CEOs in an organization, what politicians do, it is in essence an exercise in PR. It is about brand building, communicating for the CEO both internal and external. It’s about advocacy and building relationships, about identifying and driving purpose within an organization. These are the things that we do as CEOS and do as politicians,” he stressed.
He further shared his excitement over the evolution of PR thus far, indicating that, “the process which started last year by trying to create a lot more understanding of what we do as PR practitioners in order to reposition this profession the way it ought to do and ought to be. I’ve molded from feeling awful and now in the mood of optimism.”
