When most people think about public relations, they invariably think about women.  It’s understandable, considering the trends:  Forty years ago, 27 percent of the PR profession in the U.S. was female and today, it’s nearly 80 percent (Ragan.com).  PRSA’s 2011 member survey reports 70 percent of the membership is female, and in the UK, 64 percent of the UK public relations workforce is female (2011 PR Census).  But what about PR agencies and communications companies that are owned by women? 

When we looked around for the most shout-out-worthy, women-owned PR firms, we had a few specific criteria in mind:

• these firms had to be doing great work in the social media arena for clients;
• they had to be doing a good job with their own companies’ social media; and
• they had to possess je ne sais quoi, that special something that made them stand out.

Numbers are only part of the equation; being top in sales doesn’t necessarily mean that an agency is being a great social citizen. Some of the firms we researched that had the highest gross revenue didn’t even feature their social media presence on their website, and that didn’t fit the goal here.   We wanted to showcase agencies that are not only owned, led and staffed by women, but agencies that took their “social selves” seriously.  The companies listed here are terrific examples of how public relations can excel in an environment of audience engagement, community and sharing. 

• J Public Relations
• Hunter Public Relations
• Widmeyer Communications
• CJP Communications
• Kaplow Communications
• Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
• Sparkpr
• rbb Public Relations 
• Simon PR 
• M Booth

This post is part of “The Pulse,” a weekly feature that explores trending topics, rankings and industry “bests” across a wide spectrum of communication disciplines.  We’ll post a new “Pulse” each week through 2011 here at Channel M. Next week  we’ll feature “Top 10 Picks for a Social Media Comeback Award.”  We’ll take a look at top brands and companies that took a bad situation and improved it by making great choices in how they interacted with their audiences on social media.

Be sure to read “Engaged to Win: 10 Social Media-Enabled Agencies,” our inaugural “Pulse,” to learn which companies are connecting with their audiences to really make a difference.

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