The Fundamentals of a Strong PR Department

Do you know the fundamental building blocks of a solid internal PR department? Matt Broder, VP of External Communications at Pitney Bowes, shared his perspective on a PR Management Roundtable webinar this week. The five elements are:

• Ownership and accountability: ask yourself what parts of the communications and marketing function you are most accountable for and own them, measure them and be ultimately accountable for their success


• Domain expertise: in the case of the media, he said, “you want to be the person in the room who knows the most about the media: who owns what papers, who’s part of what chain,” and all about the individuals you need to interact with


• Smart hiring decisions: hire people who a very strong service orientation, who have a bias toward taking action and who know how to push back effectively


• Be flexible and adaptable: because you never know when and how the winds of change will blow


• Focus on relationships: with your internal customers and partners, and with external audiences like the media