PRSA

Get Involved With New Pros in 2015

Jess Noonan Leave a comment

If you’re like me, the end of the year is a time to reflect on successes and challenges from the past year, as well as make plans for the upcoming year. New public relations professionals face a lot of challenges: a fast-paced and competitive job market, demanding clients and colleagues, and an evolving industry with an array of new channels and tools.

One of the best things you can do for yourself in 2015 is invest in your career to help stay on top of these challenges. The New Pros Section is designed for this person. My partners on the New Pros leadership committee are dedicated to building programs and opportunities for advancing the careers of our members. If you’re not already a member of the Section, consider joining now and jump starting your professional development.

If you’re looking for ways to get involved, here are three to plan for in 2015:

  • Take part in the PRSA New Pros Section: As a national group, you have the opportunity to engage with fellow new professionals across the country who work for agencies, nonprofits, large and small organizations and more. We offer regular virtual programming, a Section members-only e-group, a newsletter, engagement on our social channels including regular Twitter chats, and host a month dedicated to New Pros in November.
  • Get active in your local New Pros group: If you’re looking for more in-person programs and activities, you can check out your local PRSA Chapter. Depending on the sponsoring PRSA Chapter in your area, there might be a local group of young professionals who get together for different programs and networking events. Reach out to your local Chapter’s leadership to see how you can get involved.
  • Mentor a PRSSA student or Chapter: One of the best ways to enrich your career is to begin mentoring and giving back to students. Whether it’s an informational interview, guest speaking at a local PRSSA Chapter or offering to be a sounding board, giving back to the profession of tomorrow is an important part of a public relations pro at any level. You never know if that student will become a client, colleague or even your boss.

How are you planning to advance your career in 2015?

Lucido_NickNick Lucido is the incoming Chair of the New Pros Section. 

Why PR is Essential to Content Marketing

Lauren Gray 1 Comment

PR and marketing used to be separate. But now more and more of their job responsibilities are starting to overlap.

Image credit to 5wpr.com

Go to a well-known public relations or marketing blog, and you’re sure to see something about content marketing. Content marketing is kind of in the spot social media found itself in a few years ago: no one agrees on who should own it.

I won’t go into my thoughts on the topic, but I will say this: successful content marketing can’t happen without some PR. And while not every marketing team needs a designated PR pro, the team’s success depends on having strong public relations skills.

Good Content Means Nothing Without Good Distribution

Sure, it’s great that you wrote an awesome ebook. But tell me this: how is your company planning on getting people to read it?

Many content marketers say you should spend twice as long promoting a piece of content than you do creating it. That may sound daunting at first,  but think about the ongoing nature of blog promotion. One hour of that promotion may be broken up into creating several one-off shares over the course of a few months.

A rounded content distribution plan might include:

  • Sharing on social media

  • Including links in a company newsletter

  • Syndicating the content on other websites

  • Optimizing the content for shares

  • Personally emailing content to interested contacts

  • Linking to content in guest posts

  • Earning inbound links to the content

  • Getting influencers to share or endorse the content

Those last four bullet points? Yeah, they take some PR savvy.

 

Public Relations for Content Marketing

The most important reason that content marketers need a grasp on PR is the need for relationships. PR pros are experts at building relationships – it’s one foundation of PR as a whole.

Content marketing is a whole lot easier when you have strong relationships with people who can help you get your content out there. It all boils down to knowing how to write a pitch. Let’s look at those bullet points again:

Personally Emailing Contacts

You just wrote a post about something and think several of your contacts would enjoy it. Don’t leave it to chance that they’ll see your social shares of it or find it on their own. There’s nothing wrong with sending a quick email saying you wrote something on a topic they’re interested in. But if you don’t know how to write a good pitch, you may come off sounding more pushy than helpful.

Linking to Content in Guest Posts

Guest blogging can be as valuable for content promotion as it is for personal branding. You can link to content in the body of the post, provided it’s related to what you’re talking about in the post. Or you can highlight specific content in your bio instead of including a link to, say, your blog’s home page.

But once again, to secure great guest blogging gigs, you need to know how to pitch yourself and your writing to relevant outlets.

Earning Inbound Links

Have you ever seen 10+ outlets writing articles about the same company’s recent report or whitepaper? Think about how valuable those links are, especially when they’re from authoritative, high-ranking sources.

Do you think that those publications all just fell upon that data? I’m betting that in most cases, they received a great email from the original company. It probably stressed why the report would be valuable to readers. I’ll also bet that the publications receive pitches like that a lot, and only pay attention to the good ones.

Getting Influencers On Board

I love stories where one tweet boosted a company’s subscribers or conversions by crazy amounts. It may seem like exaggeration, but it happens. Influencers can drive hundreds of visits to a small company’s website. That may be twice as many visits as they usually see.

This kind of success depends on targeting the right influencers and building a relationship with them. Then you need to show them the value in your content. If you spam them, are pushy, or use any other combination of bad pitching tactics, you’re making that success next to impossible for yourself.

So while everyone debates on whether content marketing should fall under marketing or public relations, you can focus on how to combine the two for content success.

What PR tactics do you think are most important in content marketing?

 

710T3ue1Brittany Berger is currently a Digital Content Supervisor at eZanga.com. She graduated from University of Delaware in 2012 majoring in Mass Communication with a public relations focus and minoring in Interactive Media and English. Connect with her on Twitter @bberg1010.

PRSA 2014 International Conference Highlights

Lauren Gray Leave a comment

This year, the PRSA International Conference was in Washington, D.C. and a few members of the PRSA New Professionals Section executive committee and members of the Section overall were in attendance to give a recap and highlights.

Here are a few key insights shared to #PRSAIcon throughout the conference:


What was your favorite part of this year’s PRSA International Conference?

Five Ways to Raise the Bar in Your First Six Months

Jess Noonan 2 Comments

Raise_the_barThe first six months of your career are incredibly important. Throughout this period, you are setting expectations for what people can expect from you, and also what you can expect from yourself. You are learning a ton about your company and co-workers and simultaneously establishing the habits and work-ethic that can make or break a career.

I recently had my first six-month review as an account coordinator at Text100. While it was great to receive feedback from a number of colleagues and clients, it was also a great opportunity to reflect on my own about what has gone well since I began and what I could still improve upon.

If you are a new professional, consider these tips to push yourself through the first six months of your new job.

  1. Be present

Of course, it is (or should be) a given that you are physically at work when you need to be. But that isn’t exactly what I mean by being present.

This tip applies much more broadly. For example – if your company hosts happy hour events, you should be there. If your colleagues participate in volunteering opportunities, fundraising efforts, fantasy-football leagues, etc., try to be a part of the fun.

Being present extends to the online realm, as well. If your company is active on social networks, you should do your best to be active in those communities.

  1. Raise your hand

Raise your hand whenever it’s possible to get involved in something. This could be in the form of new business pitches, helping out a team with some work that needs to be turned around on a tight deadline, or more operational activities like joining an HR committee or holiday party planning committee.

Not only will raising your hand and saying “yes” show your colleagues your flexibility and dependability, you will also be exposed to more projects and activities. Ultimately, you will learn more and be a more-rounded professional.

  1. Ask questions

You’re young and you’re new; nobody expects you to jump into the job already knowing how to do everything. And, frankly, if you did – it probably wouldn’t be a challenging enough job for you in the first place.

Admitting when you need some extra help and guidance shows a level of maturity to your colleagues, and it makes it much more likely that you will deliver exactly what they need from you.

  1. Make suggestions  

Diversity is important in every workplace. Don’t forget that part of what you have going for you as a young professional is that you come from a different background than some of your more senior colleagues. Your different training and unique mix of experiences can sometimes allow you to see opportunities for change that others can’t. You could be the change catalyst needed to improve long-standing policies and processes.

Making suggestions in a very respectful way signals to others that you are thinking critically about the business, and that you care enough about constant improvement to put your own reputation on the line.

  1. Have a side-hustle

Much has been said about the benefits of working on something else other than your typical “day-job” work. In fact, some forward-looking companies even allow employees to use a certain percentage of their time on the job to work on other things important to each individual.

While you may not work at Google or Apple, you should still be using some of your personal time to foster a hobby or develop new skills. That could take the form of blogging, volunteering for your local PRSA chapter or practicing your graphic design skills.

What other tips would you provide for new professionals just starting out in PR?

Iso 50 200sec f4.5 AlienBee 1/32 Speedlight ½ -.3 Jim Mignano is an account coordinator at Text100. He recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from The College at Brockport, SUNY and he is a member of PRSA Rochester. He loves making new friends on Twitter (@J_Mignano).

Four Social Media Challenges for the Young Professional

Lauren Gray 2 Comments

Growing up in the whirlwind of social media, many young professionals find this area as one of their specialties. It’s almost inevitable that in today’s industry you’ll be involved with social at some point in your career. However, even if you rock at social media, there’s hurdles you may face as a young professional when dealing with execs, clients or the business side of the company.

Here’s some of the challenges of working on social media and steps to finding a solution:

What’s the ROI?

Ah, the dreaded return on investment. Social media is a great tool from a PR perspective, but if you can’t prove what it’s doing on the business side, you don’t have much going for you. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness or creating sales leads, you need to be able to provide quantifiable results that prove why your company needs a social presence. If you can show numbers directing customers from social platforms to your website with intent to buy, perfect! However, it’s not always that easy. Think outside the box – showcase conversations that you’ve had or feedback you’ve received that turned a skeptic into a brand believer. You must be ready and able to prove – with results – why social media is necessary.

Every. Single. Post. Must be approved.

This is one of the hardest hoops to jump through. Everyone knows real-time content and engagement can be more meaningful than a month’s worth of pre-scheduled posts, but oftentimes the legal department trumps for social media. Try proposing an in-depth social media strategy that would guide your real-time engagement policies and would have legal’s stamp of approval. This would lay out the topics you can cover, conversations to take part in and outline specific guidelines. I’ve found that partial content calendars work wonders – you still have pre-approved content approved by legal, but you also have the guidelines and permission to create content and engage in real-time. It’s a win-win.

We’d like to just be on Facebook and Twitter.

Sticking to the basics of Facebook and Twitter is the safe, and sometimes, dangerous route. These are both valuable platforms in many cases, but they’re not right for every brand or company. If you’re looking to reach the teenage audience you may not be connecting with them on Facebook, as they’re too busy on Snapchat or Instagram. If you’re proposing the idea of being on a new platform lead by example and showcase other successful brands who’ve executed their strategies. Back up your case with facts on how you’d better be able to reach your audience and why you’re missing out by not having a presence. You can’t be everything to everyone on all platforms, but you should look beyond Facebook and Twitter.

Because you’re a millennial, you’re a pro at social media marketing, right?

Sometimes social media will get thrown to the intern or newbie since higher management isn’t accustom to best practices and don’t have time to devote to the practice. Just because you’re familiar with the various platforms and have put together content calendars before may not mean you’re experienced enough to develop overall strategy – that’s a big chunk of responsibility. Luckily, there’s an abundance of blogs, webinars and workshops that can help you continuously learn and stay up on trends. Take advantage of resources to stay up to speed with the ever-changing world of social.

What social media challenges have you faced as a young professional in the industry?

 

6764ca56d3423d376c8675cca0f7d1f7Ashleigh Mavros is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and works in public relations at Fahlgren Mortine, a fully-integrated agency in Columbus. She is a member of the Central Ohio PRSA Programs Committee. Connect with Ashleigh on Twitter at @ashleighmavros or on LinkedIn.