By Iylia Marsya Iskandar
KUALA LUMPUR, 11 October 2019: “The Public Relations industry is often misconceived as glamorous but seen as merely an event management related job,” Ms. Anita Selvamalar told a group of students from the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia Student Association (IPRMSA) – IIUM chapter during their educational trip to TQPR Malaysia today.
Anita explained that most people often have the wrong impression that the Public Relations industry is confined mainly to event management.
She said, “Many people think that public relations executives attend to a lot of events when in fact we mostly spend our time doing office work.”
Anita also told the students that public relations executives are always called spin-doctors who only protect the interest of their company, when in fact, they need to protect the company’s reputation.
She said, “PR officers are all-rounders, we do a lot of writing, building brands, handling crisis, as well as managing press conferences, dealing with the media and copywriting.”
“We also have to be careful on what we tell the media. Even if you slipped a very tiny message, it might be all over in the news tomorrow.”
Anita also touched on the influencer culture and how marketing products on social media has helped to reach a wide range of audience expediently.
“However, most companies still prefer websites and traditional media as it holds more credibility than the social media. If you read an article from a website, of course, you’d think it’s more credible than reading it on social media,” she added.
Meanwhile, the principal consultant and Director of TQPR Malaysia, Mr. Niall Dologhan, told the participants that more companies are spending their budget on marketing online. “Therefore, the newspaper companies are now under increasing pressure,” he pointed out.
The educational trip to TQPR Malaysia in Sri Hartamas was joined by 13 participants from various departments of the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (KIRKHS) who are members of IPRMSA.
TQPR Malaysia is a known Public Relations agency which has worked with some of the big companies such as AirAsia, Intel and Volvo with more than 110 partners worldwide. ***