Meet PR Blogger Richard Bailey

Hello and welcome to my twelfth interview of my ‘meet the PR blogger’ series.

I’m almost finished with this series, so if there are any PR bloggers reading this that would be interested in getting involved – please drop me a message! Keep your eyes out for new additions for the next few weeks though.

This time around, my ‘PR blogger’ is the brains behind PR Place – Richard Bailey.

What is the ‘meet the PR blogger’ series?

This series has been put together, in short, to delve into the PR blogging industry. PR blogging is a niche area, but an incredibly interesting one. Therefore, I am committed to finding as much out about it as I possibly can. I want to leave no stone unturned. Having ‘PR blogged’ for over a year myself, I’m all too familiar with the quality content circulated, the brilliant connections made and the overall fun of it all. PR blogging is certainly a niche worth getting involved in and I hope this series will encourage some to do so.

I’ll be posting a new addition to the series once a week, with a new PR blogger in the pipeline every single time. Look out for some big names as I’ve got some fantastic PR-famous people on board.

If you’re a PR blogger, or simply work in PR/business yourself then I couldn’t recommend connecting with every participant in this series more. Each interviewee has been chosen due to their outstanding skills and expertise in the areas of business & PR. Alongside, of course, the quality of their blog.

Here’s my twelfth addition of my ‘meet the PR blogger’ series with Richard Bailey.

Meet the PR blogger – Richard Bailey

Introducing Richard

If you’re a PR student or blogger, then you’re likely to have heard of Richard Bailey. Or, if not him, then perhaps his famed platform that is a go-to place for anything PR and comms: PR Place. Alongside PR Place, Richard also blogs over on PR Studies too.

Formerly named ‘Behind the Spin’, PR Place is an operational blog that includes Richard’s opinions and insights, as well as a popular weekly round-up of the best news and the most influential blogs. Richard is the editor of PR Place and writes alongside the likes of Ann Pilkington, Kevin Ruck, Chris Tucker, Paul Noble, Heather Yaxley and Maud Davis.

I know of Richard only through blogging. He began featuring thoughtsofjessica.com in ‘This Week in PR’, under the best #PRStudent blogs category. Then later he kindly ‘highly commended’ me as one of the best PR student bloggers of the year.

As an established public relations educator and exceptional blogger, you can really trust that Richard knows his stuff.

Let’s find out a little more about him.

The ‘meet the PR blogger’ interview with Richard

Jessica: How long have you been blogging for?

Richard: Longer than most! When I started a self-coded blog about public relations in 2001, I was one of only three people in the world blogging about this topic. This became PR Studies in 2003; I then focused on editing Behind the Spin from 2008-2017 and have been editing PR Place since 2017.

J: What are the main things you blog about? 

R: I’m interested in the intersection between education and professional practice in public relations.

J: Have you always been a PR blogger?

R: I have a one-track mind. I only write about public relations.

J: How have you found your blog to be beneficial to you in the PR industry?

R: I’m better known than I would be without a blog or social media presence. Blogging has opened doors for me.

J: Do you have any blogging inspirations?

R: There are people I look up to, but I’m particularly proud of helping student bloggers to stand out from the crowd. You featured Marcel Klebba in your first interview: he went from being a student blogger to an award-winning national blogger within a year.

J: What was your main reason for setting up your blog? 

R: I write to make sense of the world. Blogging started as a form of diary writing and just as with a diary, the writing is more important than the readers.

J: Do you have any advice for someone who may want to set up a PR blog? 

R: Think carefully. You might achieve more by focusing your energies on LinkedIn Pulse, say, or going straight to YouTube.

J: Why did you choose a career in PR? 

R: I’ve always been a writer or a teacher. Public relations is the perfect fusion of the two.

J: And finally, what do you enjoy the most about PR blogging? 

R: Writing is a solitary activity. It suits me (I’m an introvert) – but I most enjoy building a community of bloggers. First, there was the student #bestPRblogs community; now there’s #ThisWeekinPR. My writing rarely delights or surprises me – so I look to find these qualities in others.

Thanks Richard – you’re one of the reasons this blog is still alive and i’ll always look up to you because of that.

Connect with Richard

You can read Richard’s PR blog here. Or, how about keeping in touch on Twitter or Instagram?

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