The Plank Center’s Value to Young PR Pros {New Pros Week Series}

Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

Betsy-Plank-QuoteThe namesake of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, Betsy Plank, commonly referred to as the First Lady of Public Relations, dedicated more than 60 years to the industry. As a distinguished leader in PR, Betsy was an advocate for its education and young professionals. Betsy believed, “Public relations people must be eternal students.” She recognized the importance of leadership and mentorship, and envisioned creating an avenue in which PR students, educators and professionals had resources to continue leading and mentoring throughout their careers.

In 2005, The Plank Center was founded at her alma mater, The University of Alabama. Established to help develop and recognize outstanding diverse public relations leaders, role models and mentors, The Plank Center continues to implement Betsy’s ideals to advance ethical public relations in an evolving, global society.

As new public relations professionals, are you recognizing the importance of leadership and mentorship? Betsy believed in the power of leadership and mentorship and you should, too.

Learn to Lead

You may be thinking that you cannot be a leader, because you’re beginning your career in public relations. Guess again. Leaders are needed in our industry at all levels, not just at the top. The Center debuted its first leadership report card, which revealed a “Grand-Canyon-sized gap between leaders’ evaluations of their own performance and those of their employees.” As new PR pros, learning to be an effective leader early in your career can help close this gap.

It’s been said, “Those who become involved with the Center will truly become better leaders.” From interviews with PR legends, material from the best experts in the industry to the latest research, the Center has value for everyone. Here you will find inspiration from the legends such as Betsy Plank, Harold Burson, Ofield Dukes and many more. Their paths to success remind us to keep learning, dreaming and, of course, leading.

Learn to Mentor

Some may say the Center introduced them to the true definition of leadership in public relations. Others, such as Brian Price, assistant account executive for Edelman, mention how the Center has expanded their network and motivated them to continuously find mentorship, and also seek out ways to be a mentor.

Betsy had many quotes, but one in particular truly sums up what mentorship means to our profession, “Mentoring is one of the strongest ways to spell success in public relations.”

And remember, you don’t have to always have an answer to your mentee’s questions. Sometimes, it’s best to be a sounding board and ask thought-provoking questions. At the end of the day, take Betsy’s advice, “You’re never too young—or too old—to mentor others.”

Pay It Forward

Wendi Strong, executive vice president of corporate communications with USAA, said, “No matter how experienced or knowledgeable one is, if you can’t leverage your skills to motivate, inspire and lead others to be superior practitioners then you haven’t fulfilled your duty to our profession.”

Leadership and mentorship go hand-in-hand. Don’t think of it as a challenge, but rather an opportunity to grow professionally and personally. How many times do we talk to someone about our experiences and offer advice to those who are seeking answers? Experience equals knowledge. Whether you see it or you don’t, you’re already incorporating leadership and mentorship into your life by sharing your experiences and advice with others.

We were taught to be strategic, ethical communicators, and it’s our time to start leading and mentoring the future of our profession. It’s important to note that you are making an impact. While it’s not going to happen overnight, sharing your knowledge with others will lead to our industry’s advancement.

The Center, with the help of its board of advisors, has carved out a direction that makes it of “distinctive value to anyone wishing to learn more—or be more—in public relations.” The value of leading, mentoring and paying it forward is there, not only for new professionals, but students, educators and practitioners. Why not start your leadership and mentorship journey today?

J White

Jessika White graduated from The University of Alabama with a master’s degree in sports management as well as a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication and film. She is the communications specialist for The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations. Find her on Twitter or LinkedIn and follow The Plank Center on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

 

How to Make the Most of PRSA New Pros

PRSA New Pros 1 Comment

When I graduated from Michigan State University in 2010, I moved to Chicago to begin my career at Edelman. I was active in PRSSA and had interned with Edelman before starting full time, but once I was there, I had a feeling of ‘what do I do now?’

Nick Lucido, PRSA New Professionals Section Chair

Nick Lucido, PRSA New Professionals Section Chair

That’s when I decided to get active with the PRSA New Professionals Section.

Being involved with the New Pros group, I learned and networked my way through challenging career situations, learned how to advance my career and broadened my knowledge of the profession. While PRSSA is designed to help you start your career, and PRSA is broader in nature, the New Professionals Section is the buffer group designed for those with less than five years of public relations experience. We have more than 1,200 new professionals across the country covering different industry verticals and settings – this means there’s definitely someone out there in the same boat as you.

Questions like – Should I try to negotiate my salary? When is it time for me to move to a new position? How can I advance to the next level? – were all things I learned from programs and other members.  I can promise you that whatever question or doubt you have about your career, there’s someone else out there with advice and experience to share. While we offer a long list of benefits for our members, the most powerful thing we offer is the connection to others.

This virtual support group has ‘traveled’ with me to Brazil, where I’m now stationed at Edelman’s operations in São Paulo. As I proudly lose my New Professional title, I’m proud to have been part of the organization and look forward to continuing my PRSA membership in other areas of the organization.

My piece of retirement advice is to make the most of your membership. If you’ve not yet taken advance of the membership benefits, there’s no better time to test it out than our annual New Professionals Week. Here’s a few ways to get involved:

  • Be sure to tune in to our free webinar on Tuesday, August 25th at 11 a.m. ET – How to Activate an Influencer Network with Converged Media.
  • There are 13 local events happening across the country – check out the full list here to see where the closest event is near you.
  • Follow along to conversations online about the week and network with fellow members across the country: #npprsa
  • Make sure you’re making the most of your membership – follow our content on the blog, participate and ask questions to other members in our Linkedin group and check out our database for past programs.

If you have any questions about your membership, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any other executive committee member. Happy New Pros Week!

Nick Lucido was the 2015 PRSA New Professionals Section Chair.

August 2015 #NPPRSA Twitter Chat Highlights

Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

Twitter Chat Recap SquareWe’d like to thank everyone who participated in the August #NPPRSA Twitter chat, as our digital panel discussed how new professionals can successfully and efficiently take their career to the next level.

We would especially like to thank our all star panel for joining us to kick off PRSA 2015 New Professionals Week:

 

 

  • Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow – Director Corporate Communications at Scripps Networks Interactive
  • Sonja Popp-Stahly, APR, Global Employee Communications, Eli Lilly and Company; PRSA National Board of Directors
  • Mary Beth West, APR – CEO/Founder Mary Beth West Consulting LLC
  • Nick Lucido – Senior Account Supervisor, Global Fellow, Edelman Significa, PRSA New Professionals Section Chair
  • Danny Rubin, Vice President, Rubin Communications Group
  • Plank Center board members
  • Institute for Public Relations

Join us again in September for our next #NPPRSA chat for Ethics month and stay up-to-date with PRSA New Professionals on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Review highlights of the chat below. What did you learn from the August chat? How can you improve your career with these tips?

 

Register for the #NPPRSA Week webinar on 8/25 with @britopian to learn how to activate an influencer network! http://buff.ly/1E6HIEs

 

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Lauren Loxterman is the PRSA New Professionals Social Media Co-Chair and freelance digital public relations specialist. You can connect with her on Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter.

You Can’t Just “Tap” Into Influencers

Stephanie Vermillion 1 Comment

Influencer marketing seems to be the latest buzzword over the last few years and platforms like Klout, Get Little Bird and Traackr have dominated this space when it comes to identifying influencers within specific markets.

At W2O Group, we have proprietary methodology that combines quantitative scoring and human intelligence to identify the top 1% of influencers (in a specific category, topic, geography, language) that actually move the market when they speak.

Before diving into influencers you must first understand the market and how it’s shaped. (Click to Tweet!)

Influencer MarketingWe look at the market through the lens of the 1:9:90 audience framework. We didn’t create this model but we have perfected it over the last 7 years in activating programs and the model has proven to be true regardless of what vertical or industry you work in.

The “1%” drive the market based on their actions – what they write/tweet about or what they say at events and interviews. They are influencers and are seen as subject matter experts for a specific topic.  Our algorithms show that there are never more than 50 people who drive the majority of share of conversation for a brand or a topic in a given country or language.

The “9%” are highly active online. They recommend, share, sign up, download, comment and other actions that let their community of peers know what they think about certain topics. In many respects, this group serves as the “trust filter” for the rest of the market.

The “90%” are the great majority of any market. They lurk and learn. This group is satisfied with using search for discovering new products or consuming the content of their peers. They decide how compelling the 1% and the 9% really are in telling your brand’s story based on their purchase behavior.

In the upcoming PRSA webinar, I will go deep in explaining how we arrive at identifying the 1% of influencers; and then provide very actionable examples of how you can activate those influencers across paid, earned, shared and owned media channels.

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Michael Brito Michael Brito leads social strategy for the W2O Group – an analytics driven marketing and communications firm. He is also an Adjunct Professor at San Jose State University and author of “Your Brand, The Next Media Company”.  You can connect with him directly on Twitter and LinkedIn

Conquering the Awkward Stage at Work: A Young Pro’s Guide

Stephanie Vermillion Leave a comment

Being a young professional is hard sometimes. Between work/life balance and climbing the career ladder, it’s a challenge to navigate this stage of life.

Conquering the Awkward Stage at Work: A Young Pro’s GuideAs a young PR professional, hard work alone is not enough to get you noticed. You must learn to build and leverage relationships, develop leadership skills, and stand out amongst your peers to achieve success in the awkward stage between an entry level position and a managerial role.

Here are a few ways to navigate your career when you’re in the stage between recent graduate and mid-level employee, so you don’t feel like you are in career purgatory:

Raise Your Hand

Build your reputation at work by volunteering for side projects or taking on extra responsibility. You want to show your team and bosses that you are willing to take initiative to help the team stay on track, are reliable and engaged in the company, and committed to the growth of your career.

When working on projects out of your day to day task, you are able to network with colleagues in different departments and learn skills that will benefit you in the long run. Your superiors will take note and soon enough you’ll get the promotion you’re dreaming of.

Attend Conferences

The learning doesn’t stop after college. In addition to reading the news and case studies, attend conferences and webinars. There is a wealth of information out there to help you grow as an employee and it’s even better when you can learn from industry professionals.

Conferences and webinars give you the ability to learn about new industry trends, network with professionals of all levels, and hopefully encourage a new way of thinking about your career. As markets evolve, you have to make sure you stay sharp and ahead of the curve.

Join Professional Groups

There is power in numbers and professional groups are a great way to get ahead. Networking opportunities and mentor/mentee relationships are great reasons for joining professional groups but the biggest perk is being able to serve on a committee.

When you are active in an organization, you see the impact of the different functions that make an organization work.

Pick Up a Side Hustle

All work and no play makes John and Jane dull employees. As much as you invest in your career, invest in your passion.

Your side hustle can be anything from doing PR for a local band in your city or planning events for a non-profit you believe in. Stay well rounded and follow your heart. You don’t have to go through a quarter-life crisis!

Speak Up

Don’t be intimidated in meetings and brainstorming sessions; you were hired for a reason so show the team what you can bring to the table. It is your job as a young professional to give a fresh perspective.

Have the confidence to speak up on opportunities a client can take advantage of, share your viewpoints while developing strategies, and most importantly don’t be afraid to ask questions.

The road to success is not a straight one, but you steer the wheel. Taking initiative and developing leadership skills is key to your success as a young professional. Do you have any suggestions on navigating your career when you’re not quite a recent graduate but not yet a manager?

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Jasmine L. Kent, a member of PRSA-NCC, focuses on building community through dynamic events and engaging online marketing as a freelance integrated communications professional in Washington, DC. Keep up with her on Twitter at @LoveJasPR or visit LoveJasPR.com.