5 Things All Young PR Pros Should Know

Best Publicist

In my very first PR internship, I was in awe of my boss. She was smart, witty, had a killer resume and could write a pitch like nobody’s business. I wanted more than anything to become my own version of her. Beyond going down in history as the juncture in my life when I officially caught the PR bug, that internship taught me a great professional foundation that has taken me where I am today. And while I’m by no means an industry veteran, I’d like to think that foundation has given me some room to offer advice to the next up-and-comers of the PR world.  For as many publicists and PR agencies there are out there, there are probably about as many unique approaches to handling clients, crafting a great press release and hammering out a solid PR strategy. However, there are a few things that undeniably apply across the board that will help you learn, grow and earn respect.

1. My Social Media, Myself

You’ve heard it for years – “don’t put anything on public social media channels you wouldn’t want your mom/grandma/boss/teacher to see.” Many people, especially those lumped into the “millennial” category, disregard it. Well, from one millennial to another – don’t. PR is social-savvy trade by nature, so I guarantee any prospective employers and coworkers will check you out from Twitter to Tumblr. Save the profanities, compromising photos and any dramatic recounts of fights with significant others for after-work vent sessions with your friends. They have no place in the professional world.

2. You Will Mess Up

People make mistakes. People who are new to something, by default, tend to make more of them. Guess what? It’s ok. When – not if – you mess something up, just be a realist about it. Think:

How can I handle this? 

Think of a solution (or several) before ‘fessing up. Your supervisors will appreciate the forethought, and it shows maturity and initiative. However, if you’re really struggling, of course ask for help.

Who needs to know?

More often than not, probably just your immediate supervisors. If a client needs to know, they’ll guide you on next steps.

What can I say?

Explain what happened, apologize and move on. Unless it’s something absolutely earth-shattering, other people involved will, too.

Then, just make sure you learn from what happened and let it go.

3. Don’t Be a Diva

As you’re finding your place in the industry, you’re going to have to be an intern or an assistant, maybe even several times over. You’re going to have to do things that aren’t “fun” or “cool” or like you’ve seen Samantha do on “Sex and the City” (which, let me say, is incredibly unrealistic for 99% of PR pros). Don’t ever think you’re above it. The people that are directing you to do these things probably did the same stuff 5, 10, 20 years ago – they earned the right to move forward in their careers. As cheesy as it sounds, doing it with a smile on your face and gratefulness for the experience will take you far. If you’re up for a promotion against someone who sulks when they’re asked to update a media list or scan in new press hits – you’ve got that thing in the bag.

4. Media Hits Do Not Make a PR Strategy

Yes, media hits are an important component of a PR strategy. But, they are not a strategy in and of themselves. It will behoove you to learn to think strategically from an early point in your career. When you’re building a PR plan or pitching a story, think not just, “who is going to see this?” but “what is this going to do for my client?” Sure, an editorial feature in a magazine looks impressive, but is it going to sell hotel rooms? Encourage people to sign up for a new juice cleanse? Spread the word about an upcoming charity event and boost ticket interest? If it’s not the right audience or market, the answer may very well be “no.” In that case, move on – don’t waste your time or the client’s budget spinning your wheels on something that doesn’t make sense. Your clients will appreciate you far more if you get them two hits in publications that return great results rather than 20 in publications that just don’t connect.

5. It Gets Better

Being a publicist can be extremely stressful. You have clients to please and coordinate with, deadlines to meet, plans to create, press releases to distribute, events to attend – phew! Keeping it all under control can be a daunting task, especially if you’re a newbie. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Write it down

Some studies have indicated writing down to-dos actually decreases your memory capacity, but I wholeheartedly disagree – to me, they’re essential. Before leaving my office each day, I make a list of everything I need to do the following day. In the morning, I check my email, add to my list and prioritize accordingly. As I wrap up, I check things off – it gives me an idea of where I stand on important projects, plus, it’s always satisfying to cross another thing off your list.

Roll with the punches

There will often be things that come up that are an instant priority above all other tasks. Evaluate your status on other projects and adjust accordingly. We publicists are a paranoid bunch, and we often have the urge to do everything in one day. Resist – there are generally things you can swap around so your plate isn’t so full.

Ask for help

Don’t be afraid to reach out to a senior staffer if you’re feeling overwhelmed or need help figuring out how to plan your day. They’re experienced and they’ve been in your shoes, so they’ll be happy to guide you.

Suck it up

Sometimes, you have to work late or start your day at 6am. Own it. Accept it. That’s your job.

As you start to come into your own and develop a pattern for workload and client needs, your stress will start to subside. It’s all part of the process of becoming a full-blown, a**-kicking communications professional. And, on the days when stress does get the better of you, remember this advice from PR great Kelly Cutrone: “If you have to cry, go outside.”

Top Marketing and Communications Trends for 2014: Part Two

 

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Curious about what new marketing and communication trends 2014 will bring? In part one of this post, we identified three key trends for the New Year: social media becoming pay-for-play, branded journalism, and wearable technology and the Internet of Things. Today, we’ll discuss three more trends.

Collaborative economy:  Crowd sourcing, crowd funding, crowd storming: Fab, AirBnB, Uber, TaskRabbit. These are all examples of the collaborative economy. Recent advances in technology like mobile, social, 3D printers and the Internet of Things are empowering people and businesses to share existing resources with each other rather than buy anew or reinvent the wheel. It’s a simple, but revolutionary concept. The collaborative economy was a huge trend in 2013, but is likely to grow in 2014 and marketers should challenge themselves to think about how they can leverage it. ‘My Starbucks Idea’ is a good example of how a brand creatively harnessed the power of crowdsourcing, not only for marketing, but to innovate their business.

Anticipatory computing – This is the act of serving up information a person wants before they even know to ask for it. Mobile users have been checking into their locations, listening to music on their phones, and updating ical events for years. Now, companies like Foursquare and Circle are using the data from these mobile interactions to tailor suggestions specific to the user, which effectively means that your smartphone could dictate your preferences and purchases.

For example, Foursquare is rolling out push notification recommendations to help users find what’s happening in their area. People who opt-in to the push notifications will get suggestions on where to eat or what to do in their neighborhoods. I predict that this idea will proliferate in 2014, and will have a significant impact on advertising and marketing.

Super fans as marketers: The idea of engaging an audience that is already passionate about your brand isn’t new, but social media makes ‘super fans’ even more valuable. It’s easier than ever before to find and reach super fans, and they have a menagerie of tools at their fingertips to evangelize their brand affinities.

A recent Mashable article stated that a Facebook friend is now worth about $174, which 28% higher than 2012, and that figure is expected to increase. Online friends are clearly valuable, but if recommendations from Facebook friends are worth almost $200, what’s the value of a recommendation from a real-live friend? Super fans can be a brand’s secret weapon, not only because of their power online, but also offline.

As we progress through the age of the ‘super fan,’ marketers will enlist these ‘assets’ to market and sell for them, both online and in-person. Here’s an example: Pepsi rewarded selected Beyoncé fans who created videos based on the singer’s latest commercial with the chance to appear in a video made with her choreographer, as well as a trip to her concert in Brooklyn. Smart.

What do you think will be the major marketing trends in 2014? Tell us in the comments.

Five Questions to Ask When Hiring a PR Firm

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Good communications can make the difference between winning and losing. It can elevate small companies to the national stage. It can help businesses keep their noses clean in front of investors and the public. It can generate sales, leaving the competition in the dust. Clearly, it’s important, but many companies don’t have the internal resources to do it on their own.

That begs the question: How do you find a PR firm that can help you achieve your unique business goals in the most cost-effective way? Choosing a PR firm can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are so many firms out there: how do you know what to look for? Here are five questions that can help:

  1. What is the spectrum of services you provide? Many PR agencies do little more than media pitching, but public relations is so much more than just getting your company’s name in print. Last year, Arik Hanson wrote about the skills that the PR pro of the future should possess, and I argue that many of these skills are necessary today. When hiring PR experts, look for a full-spectrum communications agency. Seek a firm who knows digital PR, video, multimedia, graphics, social media, employee outreach, and crisis communications. A firm with well-rounded capabilities can promote your company more effectively than a simple media relations shop. Remember: the goal is to make your cash register ring. If the firms you interview don’t know how to integrate media relations into a larger communications strategy, move on to the next. And that’s a good segue into the next question you should ask…
  2. How do you evaluate results? Again, you shouldn’t seek an agency with short-sighted measurement goals. Media impressions and advertising equivalency alone do not move the needle on ROI. Those aren’t results; they’re metrics. You should only work with agencies that can tell the difference.
  3. How do you stay on top of trends? I recently blogged about the importance of being a ‘know-it-all’ (in the least annoying way, of course!). Agencies who have a clear pulse on emerging industry trends are flexible and adaptable. It’s likely that they’ll be more creative in their approach. Agencies that aren’t on the cutting-edge of new best practices or technology are more likely to stick with a traditional approach, which is becoming less-and-less effective. Your PR agency should be a team of trend-spotters. Rely on them to proactively identify ways for your company to leverage new trends. Remember you’re paying them to be on the lookout for new ideas and opportunities to benefit your organization.
  4. Can you provide a case study of one of your successful campaigns? This is your opportunity to hear how the agency defines results. It is crucial that your expectation of good results is in line with the agency’s. Also, this gives you the opportunity to see what kind of clients are on the agency’s roster. You’ll want to pay attention to whether they’ve worked with established brands, and if they have experience working with clients in your industry.
  5. Is there anything else you can help us with? To circle back to question #1, you should seek to hire a full-spectrum communications agency. You may be looking for help with media relations, but perhaps the agency can also help you produce video, develop graphics, write grants, execute events, write a crisis communication plan, or help manage your social media accounts. Your organization would surely find it more efficient to work with one partner to manage these disparate needs.

Here are a few other things to consider:

  • Seek a true communications partner, not just a vendor. When clients treat their PR agencies like vendors, it stifles results and can harm the relationship. Think of your communications consultant as an extension of your team. The team needs to know your industry and the details of your business in order to do their best, most creative work. Be willing to invest in the relationship and help them stay informed on what your company is doing.
  • Pay for strategy, not tactics. Companies who look for a PR firm to fill a tactical need are missing out. If you’re already paying a company to write press releases or create videos, why not leverage their creative, strategic thinking. We love to make you look good in front of your boss. Why not take advantage of additional brainpower to come up with strategies that support your company’s overall business goals?
  • You can’t be absent from the process. Companies hire PR firms to develop campaigns and provide strategic counsel. But firms also help ease a resource burden – to take over work that the internal team is too busy to do. Even though things might get busy, you still need to be involved. You can’t remove yourself completely from the process. Whether we need you to serve as a spokesperson, provide approval, keep us in the loop with what’s happening at your company, or to bounce an idea around, the results are always better when everyone participates.

Four PR Trends

trendsLooking at past trends in an evolving industry can be a poor predictor of future trends—whether you’re talking about the stock market or the PR field.

Witness Facebook (a 9-year-old), Twitter (a 7-year-old), Instagram and Tout (both 2 year olds). These are among only a few of the game changers that disrupted the publishing industry. Each is a relative toddler by traditional business standards, and not that many years before their existence I don’t recall anyone predicting them. But their global impact on the human condition is already established.

The trend impacting the PR industry, therefore, is not which new social tool will take off, but that game changers are now the norm. Expect and anticipate them.

Here are four things (among many) I see near through long term impacting PR.

The Story Stays

We like a good yarn. Stories have been told throughout human history and they’re not going away anytime soon. So while the delivery method may continue to break speed records in the unprecedented data age we’re now in, if there isn’t a compelling story to whatever the communication is, it won’t leave the station.

In creating your communications, think about your story. How compelling is it or could it be, and why should others care? And if you don’t have one, then either create one or rethink your communication strategy for most effective resource use.

Multimedia Explosion

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We are a sensorial species, and with the written word there’s a terrible lack of engagement of the senses. True, imagination can help make up for that. However, the way I imagine Utopia and you do can be very different, meaning there’s a significant control loss of the intended message. But what if I could not only tell you a story, but also engage you in it by your five senses? Instant communication around the planet is now possible with video covering sight and sound that will only increase. But I think it’s only a matter of time before technology allows for an online cook ‘book’ to not only convey with what and how something’s made, but also how it should look, feel and even smell and taste.

Additive Manufacturing

3d printing

…aka 3-D Printing will change everything, and this means for PR too.  I think 3-D printing is trul yRoddenberry’s Star Trek replicator come to life like the cell phone, and why I see it profoundly impacting PR is that currently the world’s societies are built largely around traditionally manufactured goods and related services – shoes manufactured in China are consumed in the USA; medical implants created in New York are used in Canada; an airplane is created and assembled from many different places; etc. Things today are still made for us and we don’t make things for ourselves. PR supports all of this ‘traditional’ world commerce that in the next decade will dramatically change with the advent of 3-D printing for the masses. Like intangibles such as information value decreasing with increased accessibility, so will the value of physical goods change. As it does, PR will change as well, becoming less about conveying a compelling call to action to buy consumer products, say, and more about strategically helping communicate things like B2B opportunities, services expertise, key events, experience opportunities, and political and societal agendas.

Local & Smaller

It’s well established doctrine for good communication to know thy audience, and reach them where they are. With billions of us now having our heads buried in our smartphones more than we’d like to admit, guess where audiences are? Sure, we’re still driving down the freeway ready to notice a billboard, pouring over that quaint thing called a newspaper at Starbucks occasionally, and watching commercials whip by as we watch our favorite DVR’d show.  But increasingly we’re more interested in our immediate environs – our local neighborhood – than otherwise. So as opposed to a broad shotgun approach, PR will increasingly need a precise rifle approach tailored to local geography and interests. And in doing so rely less on large real estate like a full magazine, in-depth television reporting or a regional newspaper spread, but instead plan for consumption to be increasingly on a screen just four or five inches wide—that if it’s showing a picture of a rose, soon enough will probably smell just as sweet.

Public Relations is More Than Order Taking

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Recently at a luncheon for hospitality sales and marketing professionals I heard the phrase, “I don’t care if you’re an order taker, be the best order taker you can be.” I suppose the phrase makes sense for a restaurant server, for example, since what typically sets the best servers apart is their ability to upsell: As you’ve each selected the same glass of wine, how about sharing a bottle? But could the same phrase also be applied to a PR professional? I certainly hope not.

At (W)right On we take ‘project orders’ from our clients all the time. In any given month we fulfill a myriad of requests from writing a press release or designing a brochure, to producing a video or strategizing an email marketing campaign. But it’s not our goal to simply be great order takers. As PR consultants, our goal is to help our clients achieve their communications goals while helping them to see a bigger picture. And that means steering them to the right strategies to reach their goals.

For example, before we ever sit at the table to create compelling copy for a brochure, we may first have to spend time gently explaining to a client why his company jargon isn’t compelling or why a brochure is not the communications vehicle in the first place. Or when a client comes to us with a “great idea” for a press release, we can’t be afraid to ask: so what? We’re in the business of communications, so it’s our job to pinpoint the “so what?” in every project we collaborate on.Is this idea newsworthy? If not, let’s come up with an idea that is! Will anyone care? If not, let’s look at why and figure out how to make it so! Is there a different marketing route we could take instead of a routine press release? Let’s brainstorm the possibilities!

When I heard that phrase, “…be the best order taker you can be,” I immediately thought of (W)right On’s Core Values and how five of them illustrate why we will never consider ourselves order takers:

We act with intention. When we know the outcomes that are being targeted and how these will help our clients reach their goals, we make the best use of client and agency resources and we can anticipate problems before they arise.

We focus on the important. We don’t confuse flash for substance. And we don’t confuse activity for productivity.

We are relentless about results. We are creative and thorough in helping clients achieve their goals. And we accept that we won’t always be successful, but when we aren’t, it won’t be because of something we didn’t think of or do!

We embrace and lead change. We accept and strive to stay ahead of changes in our industry and our clients’ industries.

We do what’s right. We always act with integrity and don’t compromise on excellence. We don’t take short-cuts that sacrifice quality or our reputation. When we make a mistake we own it and make it right.

Fact of the matter is, for us, relationships rule, and you can’t really have a relationship with a client if you’re just an order taker. Order takers are a commodity. Leaders add value. We take the time to build relationships with our clients by adhering to our Core Values and setting clear expectations and goals, having open communication channels and showing mutual respect.

How do you build relationships in your industry?