Let’s continue this blogging party, shall we?
What does this self-proclaimed PR gal know about public relations and marketing?
Well, I’ll go ahead and tell you this much, you’ll never hear me call myself an expert, though I do have expertise. I hate the word guru, so that’s out. I much prefer being referred to as the PR gal because it’s laid back, like me, and it just *feels* appropriate for my stage of life. I’ve got eight years experience in-field, and my education adds in a few more, so we’ll go with 10 total.
In the past decade, I’ve learned a lot and I want to take what I’ve learned about the industry and share the following:
1. It’s ALL about relationships.
They’re are a lot of great definitions out there for PR, but the best ones include mention of mutually beneficial relationships. Back in college, I remember my first Media Day event where a speaker mentioned “playing nice in the sandbox.” That’s absolutely relevant in PR. You may have a client or department that drives you absolutely insane… but at the end of the day, you’re on the same team. That and you never know who may be your boss down the road- people change careers…weird stuff happens.
2. But you can’t just be a people-person.
This one sets me on fire when I hear students talk about why they want to go into PR. Yes, it helps tremendously that you like people, and that people typically like you…but there’s a lot more than simply shooting the breeze with folks and being likable. See below.
3. Writing is the foundation of a skilled practitioner.
If you can’t write, learn now. Pick up a copy of On Writing Well and The Art of Feature Writing (shout out to Doug Vinson for making us read these in various COMM classes). Take ALL the writing classes you can. And editing. Learn the difference between to, too and two, then and than, and my personal favorite: ensure versus insure. We can debate the Oxford comma all day long, but some things are pretty solid. Writing is the largest chunk of what you do in PR. Press releases, copy for various media, feature stories, bios, speeches, thank you notes, and emails! Oh. My. Gosh. The. Emails!
4. Time management and organization are vital.
These obviously go together. You have to be organized. I plan on writing a good bit about my own struggles with organization in this blog. I’ll even share some of my tools for time management and how I organize my insanely messy life. Spoiler alert: there are bullet journal posts coming. But back on point, without some type of system you will fall behind.
5. Social media is awesome! But, you can’t ignore the old school.
I love social media. I was on Facebook the night it launched at my college! I remember the days when you could only be on Facebook with a college email address (yes, I just dated myself). I have watched the medium grow and change- it’s wonderful! The analytics you can collect from social media are amazing in our data-driven world. But, there’s still something absolutely vital about the old school. For me, I think it has to do with what your intended audience is using. If the intended public is 65+ would it really be best to throw all your money on social? Not to say there aren’t older folks on social- my parents in their 60s love catching up on Facebook with friends, but my parents also still check the mail daily. I think maybe they finally kicked the local paper, but only in the last year or so. They’re still big fans of broadcast. Me? I can remember in grad school going maybe once a week to my mailbox. I only read the paper because it’s my job to do so, and full disclosure: I rarely watch the local news. I pay for a monitoring service to watch it for me.
6. You get the weird jobs thrown at you (especially true of small business and nonprofits).
If it doesn’t fit anywhere, 99% of the time it’s going to end up in PR. I don’t know who decided this, but that’s just how it goes in my experience. I tell myself it’s because we are the creative ones, the get-er-done folks, the rock stars, but it’s probably because people think all we do is play on social media all day, so of course we have “free time.” One day I am going to write a book called Other Duties As Assigned. And yes, one of those tasks includes the time I helped with the hosting of a funeral. Fun fact: I don’t like funerals…and I don’t work at a church…to say this was other duty as assigned is definitely an understatement.
7. It’s incredibly rewarding work.
I know I’m being kind of funny, or trying (is it working, haha), but I really love working in PR. I graduated with a MA in Communication/PR and I was blessed to find work in-field and that’s not something the rest of my cohort can say. I absolutely love strategic planning. I get to use creativity to solve problems. Because I’m a solo-department at my current organization I dabble in it all. I’ve put some serious sweat and tears into projects. Sometimes they fail, but sometimes they succeed, and the rush you get from knowing YOU made it happen- well that’s a pretty good feeling.
Ms. PR gal 