BP, Exxon, Toyota.  Sounded like I was about to name gas companies right? Well, sorry no, I decided to name companies who had a serious company crisis and had to deal with it under the scrupulous eye of the public.  As most know, BP and Exxon both have cause huge oil spills and Toyota had cars that just didn't want to stop.  In all three cases, the damage done was great enough to ruin any company.  If you look up these companies today though, you'd find all three are still in business and making plenty of money.  So how did these three companies find a way to fix their situation with as little damage to the company as possible? Well they got help from their Corporate PR team. So what exactly is corporate PR and what do they do?

Well as one could assume from the above examples, one function of a corporate PR practitioner is to provide a company with assistance during a crisis.  This means helping them decide the best way to handle the situation, how to not only get in touch with the desired publics but what is appropriate to say, and the best way to save the company's image from what seems like eminent negativity.

Most companies hope for no crisis so while things run smoothly, what does the corporations PR team do? As explained on hubpage's site, the team must aid the experts for that company by providing them with the resources needed to do research to further the company.  The PR team is also involved in finding potential investors as well as promote the company and the products or services it provides.

While I will later go into more detail on Agency PR, there are some differences between the two.  While it is possible for a corporation to hire an agency to handle their company, there are reasons companies still create their own PR team.  For starters, the corporations PR team handles only the company's issues.  They are not distracted by a job they're doing for another company.  The members have a more focused agenda and through their strength in specific areas, they are able to see the changes they caused.  These positions are harder to acquire without experience but do offer a lower level of stress and daily turnover as well as on average a higher salary and more opportunities. 

...so first focus of PR down, how am I feeling? To be honest, this sounds quite appealing to me.  I like the idea of being able to focus all my time on one client and having the consistency of one client.  The slower pace and on average lower stress level also is quite appealing seeing as I tend to stress easily.  While I do not base my life decisions off money, a higher salary would be nice, not many people would complain about that.  So overall, I would definitely consider a position at a corporation.

Here goes nothing...

When I first entered college four years ago, I was a PR major.  I quickly switched to a liberal arts undeclared major, then to a math major, then to a psychology major, and then finally entered the MAT (masters for teaching) program.  This was all before junior year began. 
Within the first two days of being back junior year, I switched back to PR. I've spent the last year playing 'catch-up' with classes and have found myself in a position where I should try and pick a focus.  Unfortunately, there are numerous options and not a lot of time, seeing as by next semester I need to do an internship and will be graduating this May. 
It is with this fear and lack of options that I've decided to dedicate my blog to the exploration of the different branches of PR.  Each entry will focus on a different type, giving me the opportunity to further explore each one and hopefully narrow down my options. 
Any comments or recommendations of branches to explore are more then welcomed!!