5 Tips to Generate Engagement in Your Chapter’s New Pros Committee

July 10, 2016July 14, 2016PRSA New Pros Leave a comment

There are plenty of things you could be doing right now besides reading this blog. Working out, binge watching House of Cards, or going to a happy hour with friends. Those are things new professionals in your local PRSA chapter could also be doing. Wouldn’t you rather have them attend PR events you host?

What can we do to make our events as valuable as possible in our efforts to create positive, professional engagement? Make no mistake, we are the future faces of PR in our communities – it’s important to build relationships with each other now and grow professionally. Engaging our local new pros is a great way to facilitate that. PRSA-NCC, the Washington, D.C. chapter, has a few tips for growing attendance at your new pros events:

1) Secure sponsors. Your members are a valuable audience. We encourage you to take advantage of that. Many companies are eager to strategically partner on events where their audience will be in attendance. We recently hosted our second annual “Headshots and Happy Hour” at Microsoft’s Innovation and Policy Center in D.C. Microsoft sponsored the space, as well as our food and beverage. The space came equipped with touch screens of Bing Maps, interactive displays and the latest Microsoft technology. Also, if you have a photographer in your chapter, approach him or her about taking the headshots at a reduced rate. Headshots are normally very expensive, so this is a great way for new pros to update their LinkedIn profile photos to be more professional. And, they can mingle with some new people at the same time.

2) Host events in the evening. It’s difficult for many new professionals to get away from the office during the day. Our networking happy hours typically run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. That way, people who get off work early won’t have too much time to kill before the event and people who get off a little later know they can still make most of it.

3) Take advantage of your city. We host a Washington Nationals baseball game networking event each year. Tickets are inexpensive and it gives people a chance to mingle in a more informal, relaxed setting. It’s often quite expensive to rent pre-game networking space from the ballpark, so just pick a designated location where your group can meet to network before the game starts.

4) Be strategic about venues. A lot of restaurants are more than willing to be accommodating. They may offer free, designated space for your group to mingle. They often have happy hour prices on drinks and appetizers, and even more inexpensive platter options. For professional development events, ask around in the chapter for whose office might have a space large enough to host your group. Maybe they’d even be willing to sponsor appetizers and beverages so you can keep the registration cost low for members.

5) Offer professional development events for a variety of audiences. Our most popular professional development event focused on personal branding—obviously a topic that appeals to new professionals looking to position themselves for career growth. It’s also appealing to more seasoned PR professionals looking to either hire for their organizations or move on to other positions. Offering topics that bring professionals from many levels together is a great way to facilitate networking among professionals representing different career stages.

Thank you for skipping House of Cards to read this blog. What strategies have worked well for engaging new pros in your chapter? We’d love to hear and share them!

Katelynn Wiggins is co-chair of the PRSA-NCC New Professionals committee and assistant director of staff initiatives at the American Psychological Association.

Kelsey Pospisil is co-chair of the PRSA-NCC New Professionals committee and client engagement & media relations manager at News Generation, Inc.

The Pieces of Your Online Puzzle

July 6, 2016July 10, 2016PRSA New Pros Leave a comment

What results do you find when you Google yourself? Nothing much? While a squeaky clean search result may seem ideal in some industries, it isn’t in Public Relations and most other communication fields.

Having a solid, consistent but authentic personal brand online puts you ahead of the competition professionally. The perception you give online is the ideas and feelings employers, clients, and other professional connections get before meeting you in person.

When building your personal brand, think about what you want to be known for? What are you good at? What sets you apart from others? Think about what your “thing” is and build a brand from it. Great personal branding gives you the chance to show the world you practice what you preach; if you’re good at writing, building networks, or organizing events show that skill online through blog posts, pictures, and video. Your interests, who you follow and what you post on social media, also reflect who you are. Be sure that your profiles are curated to reflect what you are passionate about. Even if you aren’t quite sure what it is you are passionate about, the topics you frequently post on can give you some clues.

As a new professional finding your niche, keep in mind that it is okay to have a fluid brand and have many “things” early in your career. We are multifaceted people, with multiple interests. The beauty of having a personal brand is the ability to not be stuck in one line of work; your personal brand can and should grow and develop with you. If you decide to leave your full-time job and freelance, move from Public Relations and focus on Marketing, or publish a book that has nothing to do with Public Relations, you can do so without being tied to your current industry or profession.

The pieces found on your website, social media accounts, articles written by you and about you are creating the puzzle that is your personal brand–make it a beautiful picture.

Jasmine L. Kent, a member of PRSA-LA, is a fan of all things food and beverage, pop culture, and media. Combining all three passions, Jasmine builds community through engaging online marketing and dynamic events as a communications professional in Los Angeles, CA. Keep up with her on Twitter at @JaVerne_xo or visit LoveJasPR.com.

Book Review: Mastering Micromedia

July 1, 2016July 1, 2016PRSA New Pros Leave a comment

I’ll admit – when I picked up Mastering the New Media Landscape, I was a little skeptical. I’m generally skeptical of any book or article that claims to help its readers master anything. We know that Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule isn’t exactly accurate, but can you really master a skill in 200 pages or less?

The answer is almost unequivocally no, but with a caveat in this case. Mastering the New Media Landscape’s subtitle “Embrace the Micromedia Mindset” is a more accurate description than its actual title. Authors Barbara Cave Hendricks and Rusty Shelton outline the key principles, define the necessary terms (earned, rented and owned media, anyone?), and relate new media ideas to their traditional counterparts.

By setting the book up this way, Hendricks and Shelton give readers the tools needed to build an effective strategy for leveraging every bit of traditional and new media out there to communicate effectively with your audiences.

Mastering isn’t an end-all, be-all guide for mastering the tools at your disposal, but rather a guide to help you craft your own plan for understanding the opportunities available and conquering internet publishing, the heart of what “micromedia” really is.

The information presented is helpful for managing a corporate or organization’s brand or creating a personal brand, new pros or seasoned practitioners. Two of the best chapters – “Earned, Rented and Owned Media” and “Online Brand Audit” – gave the information and steps I found most useful.

After defining what earned, rented and owned media are, the authors explained something I had never thought of: it is most important for you to have information on media you own and for at least one piece of owned media to show up on the first page of search results. I had always thought that it was just most important for items like my LinkedIn profile, blogs I had authored and things like that to show up before any other less professional items, but that’s not entirely the case. Since those things tend to live either on a social media site (LinkedIn) or on someone else’s site (a blog post), I have no control over how they show up or even if they show up. Those pages could be taken down or edited at any point and there would be nothing I could do about it. If I didn’t keep copies or host my work on my own site that I controlled, it could all be lost forever with no warning.

“Online Brand Audit” piggybacked off of that theme and broke down where and what to look for when assessing and managing your brand. Doing a brand audit can seem daunting, just because of the sheer amount of sources and content you might have to sift through. Making sure that you’re properly represented online. Performing a personal brand audit is particularly important for new professionals while job searching. Employers rely on social media and online information just as much as resumes, portfolios and interviews when filling a position.

In addition to these two chapters, Hendricks and Shelton offer a lot of great information on how to make the most of all of the new media tools out there to use. There are plenty of tips and ideas for types of content, statistics on which users are on each of the social media networks and getting the most out of each network, strategy and piece of content. Most chapters also offer a “Stories from the Front” section in which the authors share an Q&A with a professional on the topic covered in the preceding chapter. All in all, this book won’t make you a master of media by the time you finish, but it is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for a guide to conquering today’s media landscape.

Robyn Rudish-Laning is a member of South Carolina’s PRSA chapter and is communications coordinator for the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness. Robyn is also a member of the New Professionals executive committee. She is a graduate of Duquesne University and is currently located in Columbia, SC. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter or read her blog here.

Personal Branding: What is it and Why Should I Care?

June 27, 2016June 27, 2016PRSA New Pros Leave a comment

“Be the real you because everyone else is taken and replicas don’t sell for as much.” – Dan Shawbel

As a PR professional, you’re probably familiar with branding, but have you ever stopped to think about your personal brand? If not, you’re not alone. During the day we’re busy promoting and supporting the brands of the companies and accounts that we represent. Why would we want to think about branding outside of our jobs?

Developing a personal brand is important for every professional, regardless of your job or industry. In today’s ever changing environment it has become more important than ever to embrace the idea of “career management” on an ongoing basis instead of waiting to think about your career until you need a new job.

Managing your career begins with developing and living your personal brand.

What is a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is just that-it’s personal. It encompasses everything that people think and say about you. It’s the sum of everyone’s experiences with you–the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Think about your favorite restaurant or grocery store. You expect a certain level of service every time you go there because they’ve established their brand. The same is true for you. Your personal brand is what people come to expect when they interact with you professionally or personally.

Evaluate Your Brand

Evaluating people’s perceptions of you is the first step in developing your personal brand.

Step 1 – Honestly ask yourself, “What are the five words most often used to describe me?” If you can’t think of anything ask a mentor, coworker, or friend.

Step 2 – Ask yourself, “What are the five ways that I’d like to be remembered?”

Step 3 – Compare the two lists. If what you’re known for doesn’t align with what you want to be known for, then you have some work to do on your personal brand.

People may think about you in ways that don’t initially align with your brand and that’s okay, but don’t stop there. Every company experiences similar problems, but they don’t assume that it’s their customer’s fault. They recognize that while you need to take all negative experiences with a grain of salt, you may be losing a loyal customer if you don’t address it. Take a few minutes to reflect on what part of that interaction you can control and strive to improve your relationship and provide that individual with a positive experience.

Define Your Brand

Now that you’ve evaluated your personal brand it’s time to define your brand. To get started, answer the following questions:

What are your core strengths?
What ONE thing sets you apart from your competition?

Now that you’ve identified the important ingredients for defining your personal brand–how you want to be remembered, your core strengths, and your differentiator – take a few minutes to write your brand essence in the form of a 45-60 second commercial.

I know it sounds cheesy, but writing a personal commercial can be extremely helpful. For example, if you’re looking for a job this commercial can used to answer the question, “Tell me about yourself,” in an interview. If you’re not looking for a job right now this will help you as you meet new people and build better relationships within your network.

Live Your Brand

You’ve evaluated your brand and delicately crafted an eloquent 45-60 second commercial. Now what?

As with any company brands don’t work unless you do. Take every opportunity to represent your brand so people start to believe about you what you believe about yourself.

Here are some areas to help you get started:

Refine Your Online Presence

“Google” Yourself. If you haven’t already search the internet to find out what information about you is available. If you’re looking for a job, remember, recruiters can and will use the internet to screen you. If you find something that doesn’t reflect you in the best light, remove it. It’s not worth the risk.
Get Social. LinkedIn is essentially a “virtual rolodex” of connections. This makes it a great tool to build and reinforce your personal brand. You can represent your brand in your profile and through the information that you publish and post. You can also include elements of your brand in your Twitter bio and other social media accounts.
Demonstrate Your Brand. If you have a blog or online portfolio make sure to represent what’s important to you so the network you build online has the same impression of you as your in-person connections.

Build Real Relationships

There’s no excuse to avoid networking in today’s connected world. Take advantage of the opportunities available to you through professional associations, community groups, and organizations to meet people and begin to build real relationships with real people. Technology has allowed us to connect with people faster than ever before, but it is no substitute for getting to know the real person.

Personal branding is important for every professional. It’s a part of your career whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. It’s not just a buzzword or a new trend. It’s principles are timeless.

Be real and be the best you that you can be. Work hard and demonstrate what’s important to you to the people around you. In the end you’ll be able to look back at how you’re remembered and see that by striving everyday to stay true to your personal brand, you’ve left a legacy.

Ruthann Campbell is a marketing and communications problem solver that specializes in getting the right message to the right people every time. She graduated from Pensacola Christian College with a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations and currently works as Marketing & Communications Coordinator for a non-profit organization in Tallahassee, FL. You can connect with her directly to network or share ideas on LinkedIn or Twitter.

New Pros Chapter Spotlight: PRSA Georgia

June 20, 2016June 27, 2016PRSA New Pros Leave a comment

PRSA Georgia, PRSA’s second largest chapter, has a vibrant, growing Young Pros group. Founded in 2004 by two current PRSA Georgia members, PRSA Georgia’s Young Pros special interest group engages young pros by finding fun ways to get together, learn new things and meet other new PR pros.

Currently, PRSA’s Georgia’s group is comprised of about 20 young pro members, four committee members and two co-chairs, Daley Michael and Sarah Bell. This month, The Edge sat down with Daley and Sarah to learn a little more about what’s going on down in Georgia.

The Edge: What kind of programming you’ve put together for New Pros?

Sarah Bell: We try to mix it up with a variety of topics that appeal to the young professionals in our industry. In the past year, we have hosted events ranging from Being Indispensable – How to Adapt and Succeed in Your Career, Starting Now!, How to Drop the Y from YP: A Panel Discussion with PRSA Georgia’s Veteran YP’s, PR Trivia Night, Crisis Communications 101: What Your Boss Hasn’t Taught You, How to Build Lasting Relationships with the Reporters who Matter, etc.

TE: How does your group fit into the bigger picture of the chapter?

Daley Michael: We try our best to engage new PR pros and recently graduated PRSSA members who move to Atlanta and are looking for a way to get connected in their industry. As the second largest PRSA chapter in the country, we have a vast and experienced network of PR professionals who can help them transition and provide career development opportunities. The YP special interest group tries to create opportunities to help young professionals get plugged into the community and the PRSA Georgia chapter.

SB: We also partner with other special interest groups to host events. These events provide a good opportunity for our YP members to get to know others in the chapter and involved in other areas.

TE: What resources do you provide for New Pros?

DM: At each paid event, we provide a tangible takeaway for attendees to bring home with them. The handout captures key points from the meeting that they can easily reference in the future.

SB:We also offer a couple of free events focused on networking and socializing as a means to connect not only members, but potential members considering joining PRSA.

TE: What are the benefits for your members?

DM: Connectivity, learning opportunities, professional development, sharing key learnings, occasional free food, delightful beverages at select events, good company.

TE: How do you engage and recruit New Pros?

SB: The primary way we recruit new pros is by hosting free networking mixers a couple of times each year. These events typically attract a good number of non-members and oftentimes our members will also bring their colleagues and friends as well. The mixers serve as a great way to build relationships with members and non-members alike and provide many opportunities to get to know one another better.

TE: What advice do you have for New Pros for using PRSA to their best advantage?

DM: Get connected! Don’t be afraid to attend events, even if you don’t know anyone. You never know where your next job might come from and PRSA is a great resource for not only job searching, but also becoming better at what you do.

TE: What is the best way for New Pros to get involved in the PR community?

SB: Join PRSA! Attend conferences, join a committee, submit awards, network with your peers in the PR community.