by Mike Robinson*

I attended the PRSA Richmond, Va chapter November program and luncheon on November 18th, which included a presentation by Tammy D. Hawley, press secretary for Richmond mayor Dwight Jones. Ms. Hawley discussed her background in public relations, the PR strategy of the Mayor’s office, the importance of strong leadership by the Mayor, and how this leadership has shaped their PR initiatives.

Ms. Hawley has a background as a public affairs generalist on Capitol Hill. After Capitol Hill, she leveraged her broad experience to operate her own PR consulting business for many years. Her recent position is her first step back into a role as a PR staff member, and she finds the job challenging (e.g., issues such as 30 million dollars in budget cuts and the politics of a new baseball team) and rewarding (e.g., winning public praise from journalists for her responsiveness).

She attributes her praise to her PR strategy of being proactive and a resource for the media. Her view: she is there to serve the public and will work hard to get the people and press the information they need to be successful. The PR tactics that her office uses include, an electronic newsletter, email, messages in public utility mailings, video on local TV channel 17, timely website postings, a phone number for formal complaints and feedback with a tracking system, and long-term plans to integrate social media (such as Twitter, Facebook ,and blogging) to reach a wider public audience in new and effective ways.

The Mayor has made her job that much easier because of his open leadership style. As many good leaders do, the Mayor consults with other Mayors of like-size cities to discuss ideas, problems, and solutions. His mission phrase is “Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration.” With a vision like this, communicating messages to the public is viewed as part of strategy of governance, not just a tactic to be used.

Ms. Hawley finished the talk with some personal stories and Q&A, most notably that her days have now thankfully leveled off a little after a very thrilling and time-consuming start to her new role as press secretary.

In your role public relations how are you working to ensure that you are meeting the needs of your publics and the media? How are you working to become more responsive? Please share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

*Bio: Over the last 15 years, Mike Robinson has gained a lot of experience in business, sales, and marketing.  For the past eight years, he’s worked with BurrellesLuce out of its D.C. office,  advising businesses, organizations, and government agencies of all sizes on effective solutions for measuring press outreach, reputation management, and message analysis. He is passionate about news analysis, politics, and policy. And looks forward to sharing his thoughts and insights on the PR industry and media monitoring and measurement. LinkedIn: mikerobinson1 Twitter: @mike__robinson Facebook: BurrellesLuce

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Industry Events, Media Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.