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9 More Nuggets of Advice for the Young PR Pro
Season’s greetings, to all of my readers and supporters! If you know me well at all, you know that the frenzy of the holidays gets me hyped (in a good way). I can’t stop singing Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole songs… In other words, I’m all about holiday cheer, and I wish you and your loved ones a very special holiday season. With that said, I have an article I’d like to share…
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called “9 Nuggets of Advice for the Aspiring PR Pro,” and detailed a few lessons of wisdom that I’ve picked up in the industry. I also promised a follow-up article, and now I’m making good on that promise. Without further adieu…
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9 more nuggets of advice for young PR practitioners:
1 ) Be a consumer of news media. Just because you’re not a journalist doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be knowledgeable about what’s going on in the world, and know how reporters think. Pick up a paper every day, if you can. Bookmark the New York Times or Huffington Post as your Internet browser’s homepage. Make sure to read as much as you can, and have an educated opinion on the “latest” news.
2 ) Learn the art of small talk. If will come in handy more times than you know. Most of the times, you won’t walk into a meeting and get straight to business. That’s not how it works in the real world… Even the most “down-to-business” execs usually want to chitter-chatter for a few minutes. Sometimes a few friendly words exchanged early in the conversation can make the tough questions later on a bit more palatable. Remember, you are dealing with people.
3 ) There’s no “I” in team. Not much more to say here. If you think you can carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, even if you’re built like a professional bodybuilder, you’re severely mistaken. The field of public relations is a team sport.
4 ) Write to be read. It’s not enough to write for yourself; read aloud everything you put to paper (or on the web) before you hit “publish.” Make sure the words you’ve written effectively communicate the desired message. Think about if you’ve represented your client’s wishes. Have you addressed all of the key stakeholders? Is the writing clear and concise? Ask yourself these questions. If it makes sense in your head, but your audience can’t understand or relate to what you’ve written, then your writing is ineffective.
Don't be ashamed to go "back to the drawing board."
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4 ) Some clients will be rude. Just like in middle school, you’ll find that in this career field, you’re not going to be best friends with every client. Rest assured, there will be a small handful of clients that you may secretly wish bodily harm upon. Your task: to keep smiling, be polite, and make sure the work gets done anyway. Remember, you work in “public relations.” Your job is to relate to people; even if they seem to make getting along with you harder than Calculus II. In other words: “take the high road.”
5 ) Think like an editor. When dealing with information, both verbal and written, consider newsworthiness, angle, bias, etc. It will make your dealings with reporters that much easier, reviewing information from all angles before you meet with clients or your boss helps you anticipate all possible questions and/or sticking points before someone else brings them up. You always want to be as prepared as possible.
6) Organize your thoughts with a blog. Start and maintain a blog related to learnings in your field. It definitely helps to analyze your thoughts, and can even help with your career down the line. Just remain transparent in your writings, and keep in mind any confidentiality agreements you’ve signed with your company.
7 ) Things will change… often. How effectively you deal with change (i.e., keep a cool head in the middle of a tornado) directly affects whether you keep your job, get promoted, and succeed throughout your career.
8 ) Pay it Forward. If you keep up with your craft long enough, and follow these tips, eventually you’ll be in a position of power, where you have the ability to teach and mentor others. Remember the help that you received on your climb to the top of the mountain, and be sure to lend a helping hand to the next person in your shoes.
9 ) Get a good stress ball. Sometimes, it will be your best friend. ‘Nuff said.
So there you have it: 9 more nuggets of wisdom that will serve you well in the public relations world. Hopefully you find these tips useful. And now I turn to you… What are your thoughts?
Agree? Disagree? What advice would you offer to young and aspiring PR pros? Weigh in and post a comment below.
9 Nuggets of Advice for Aspiring PR Pros
Although I’ve recently graduated from college, I’ve been in the field of public relations for some time now, having gotten valuable experience working with several businesses and non-profit organizations. Over the last several years, I’ve seen quite a bit of both good and bad. I’ve witnessed — and made — mistakes that have taught me valuable lessons for the future, and I’d like share these with anyone considering a career in PR, or as reminders to even the more seasoned industry professionals. I’ll post nine today, and nine next week.
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So here are 9 nuggets of advice for aspiring PR practitioners:
1 ) Know upfront: hand-holding won’t happen. PR is a fast-paced field. Don’t expect that your colleagues will hold your hand or spoon-feed you your work in bite-sized chunks. It’s true, you’re a team, but you still need to keep up with the pack. When you get your first job in public relations, you might not get the chance to only dip your feet in; it’s quite possible that you’ll be thrown in headfirst. Anticipate this and plan from Day 1 to work hard. Be prepared and fully commit yourself.
2 ) Be outgoing. If you’re the slightest bit anti-social, this career path most likely isn’t the right choice for you. You will need to talk to people. Why? Because when it all comes down to it, you are a professional communicator. You’ll need to discuss client expectations and what steps you plan to take to meet them. You’ll need to be able to hold down a basic conversation, listen, ask questions, engage and show a little personality every once in a while.
3 ) Do yourself a favor: learn the utility and format of a press release. Please. Whether you believe it or not, knowing this information will form the backbone of everything you do going forward. Not understanding how to write a press release is like trying advanced algebra without understanding the basic concept of variables. Also, make sure you know how to write a social media press release (I promise you, there’s a difference).
4 ) Deadlines are crucial. While working in PR, you may not have to write a hard news story by a 1am deadline for the local Gazette like a journalist world, however, there will be times that you’re handed a task, with expectations of, “It needs to be done yesterday.” Even if it annoys you, remember: there’s most likely a reason that the deadline is so strict; it must be important. Be excited that you get so much responsibility, take ownership of the task and find a way to get it done with a minimal amount of whining.
Thou shalt meet deadlines. Thou shalt not whine (audibly, at least).
5 ) Plan ahead, and for the worst. Nine out of ten of your clients might be unprepared for a meeting with you, but every single one will want the work done anyway. So make it easy on yourself, and plan ahead where you can.
6 ) Excellent customer service is not just for fast-food restaurant chains; if your clients are consistently dissatisfied with the way you do business, talk to them, etc… Rest assured that you won’t have that PR job long. Go the extra mile, and make sure that every person you work with is taken care of. Even if you can’t make miracles happen, you can try. Most clients will appreciate your efforts. (Some won’t, and that’s okay too. There will be rude clients… you still need to be professional, though.)
7 ) Help others. Take a genuine interest in making sure that those you work with, and work for, have what they need to be successful. Make someone else’s job easier, and they’ll most likely do the same in return for you.
8 ) New media is here to stay, whether you like it or not. You can be tired of new media all you want… When you’re not at work. Utter the words “I’m sick of it” in the office, and you’re as good as out the door. Show me a PR company recruiter who’s not interested in getting their hands on a social media guru, and I’ll show you a recruiter who’s on his or her way out the door him/herself. The Internet and new media are shaping the field of public relations.
9 ) By the same token, know when to put down the new media. I’ve already stressed the importance of knowing how to use social media, but in the same breath, it’s also key to know when to put it down. Facebook and Twitter is not the end-all, be-all of PR; not right now, at least. Remember, social media is a tool, not crutches.
…So there you have it, nine golden nuggets of advice that have helped me to survive in the PR world this long. Hopefully you find them as useful as I have. Make sure to check back next week, when I follow-up and post nine more. Now it’s time to share your thoughts:
Agree? Disagree? What advice would you offer to young and aspiring PR pros? Weigh in and post a comment below.
#NowTrending in Social Media: Geo and Q&A
(Note: I’ve included a lot of hyperlinks in this post to add some context. Make sure to read them.)
There's a turf war brewing in the social media scene, and the 'mobile throne' is up for grabs.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Foursquare, the explosively popular social gaming platform based on check-ins and badges? But did you know that Twitter, Google, Gowalla, Facebook and countless others are all fighting for the same territory? It’s true. What do these contenders have in common?
They all offer some form of geo-location-based service, which have been gaining popularity for some time now in the social media world. At a glance, it appears that each of these titans wants a shot at wearing the ‘mobile crown’.
And what about social media Q&A platforms– social sites built upon community question-and-answers, such as Formspring, Quora, Aardvark, and many more? They’re going mobile too. Aardvard and Quora have had cell-phone friendly versions for a while, and Formspring just released their mobile site a few weeks ago.
It’s clear: both geo and Q&A have been gaining steam recently in the mobile trend, and are important to the future of social media.
Why?
As the social media power players are duking it out, geo-location and community Q&A is getting bigger. Social sites and applications based on “check-ins” are quickly gaining in popularity with consumers, and it’s only naturally that businesses and advertisers are in turn responding. Social media going mobile means that ‘consumers’ are creating new opportunities for retailers and advertisers to make money. As Business Week explains about Q&A, for example:
“The attraction to business of this new flavor of search is that as users pose and answer questions, they’ll reveal more data about themselves and create discussion threads against which ever more targeted advertising can be sold.”
While I think it’s a bit early to know for sure who’ll win the mobile ‘turf war’, I’m confident about one thing: the words “cell phone” and “shopping” are about to become as synonymous as “peanut butter” and jelly.” You can bet on that.
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Geo-Shopping and Q&A are Trending Topics in the Social Media World
Consumers are snapping up Smartphones at a record clip, and there are no signs of slowing down. Smartphone sales are rapidly increasing, and predictions indicate that this trend will continue. In short: people really want their Androids, iPhones and Blackberries. And the power players in the social media industry have no problem keeping up with Smartphone technology; iPhone apps like Bakodo and Stickybits are giving all parties just what they want.
Smartphone apps like Bakodo are just the beginning of geo-shopping.
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For the last few years, industry experts have been claiming that web browsing (and by extension, social media) will go mobile on a large scale in the next few years. The limitations of currently available technology, however, challenged these predictions, as most cell phones web browsers were notoriously slow and clunky. With recent technological advances, things are changing, and according to research by International Data Corporation, for example (in addition to many more studies) there will likely be more than one billion mobile devices accessing the Internet by 2013. And IDC isn’t the only one predicting that mobile is expanding.
Mashable recently posted a list detailing their picks for the five biggest social media trends, and as expected, each of them are integrally related to geo-shopping and community Q&A. I’ve posted it below, for ease of reference (Make sure to read the original article here too):
1) Social Scanning
2) Q&A and Intelligent Information Discovery
3) Group Buying
4) Mobile Meets Loyalty
5) Checking-in to Entertainment
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So what does all of this mean for field of public relations?
Quite a bit. Here are just a few implications that these trends have for the field of PR:
New Technology to Learn
At the end of the day, whether you like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, or any of the other location-based social incarnations is totally irrelevant: you’d better know how to use them, if you want to work in PR. Your clients will want to know exactly how Foursquare can make money or win press for a company. Guess who’ll be setting up an account and teaching them?
- Increased Immediacy
Social media’s immense popularity over the course of the last decade has already forever changed the way we consume news information. But as the social/mobile web grow, people demand information sooner and sooner. In terms of business, customer support are changing the way they operate to better accomodate consumers’ needs. Smartphone-based scanning and intelligent information discovery, as Mashable notes, will only further drive the need for immediacy, even from PR people.
- Increased Transparency
It’s clear that community Q&A sites like Formspring, Quora, and Aarvark are seeing popularity like never before. Right now, only a few major brands are truly taking advantage of this opportunity to connect with their customers by providing answers to their questions, but if Mashable’s list is any indication, it’s only a matter of time. As more social sites go “Q&A”-style, the more chance they can make money from their users. PR people need to know that this trend will be linked directly to geo-location. If brands and their advocates (read: us) expect to keep customers, then we’ll have to be honest like never before.
While it’s no surprise that all of these trends are mobile-based, it’s important for that they each have the potential to take advantage of geo-location technology and community crowd-sourcing. The reality is, both of these features present major implications for the future of commercialism, and therefore public relations.
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Takeaway Points for PR pros
The main thing to understand here is this: the Web’s is not just coming to our Smartphones.
Smartphones are changing the Web as we know it — through features like geo-location and Q&A.
This means that we can’t ignore them; we must change along with the web — companies, consumers, advertisers, and even us, public relations professionals. Just as we adjusted our press releases for social media, we’ll soon have to do the same for a mobile format. We must be prepared to interact with clients, consumers and the media in countless new ways.
Here’s the question: Will you be prepared?
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Join the discussion and share your thoughts below.
About Me:
I'm Robert - a Technology Underwriter at The Hartford Insurance Group, one of the nation's top 10 carriers. Having worked in the communications and risk management industries, I've become passionate about the fields of PR, tech and new media. Thanks for visiting my website!
Linkedin.com/in/RobertBurnsII
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