Three Daily Habits to Help You Get Ahead

Jess Noonan Leave a comment

Between pitching the media and creating continuous content, we have little – if any – time to focus on personal career growth. But, with the industry rapidly evolving, we should make this a priority.

While nurturing your career can take hours on end, and ultimately feel like a job within itself, these three simple habits can help you get ahead – while staying sane – in this ever-changing, competitive PR world.

Rise early to shine on the job

If you’re not a morning person, you’re probably sick of reading about all those powerful entrepreneurs who swear waking up early is the key to success.

Now, I may not be a powerful entrepreneur, but I’m a true believer in this early-morning habit. By waking up an hour earlier, you have ample, uninterrupted time for those little things you often put off when the workday begins.

Exercise? Finish it early, before you have time for excuses. Reading the news? You’ll be more informed and prepared throughout the day. Writing a PRSA blog post? With fewer distractions, morning is the perfect time for writing.

But night owls fear not: If you can accomplish these tasks later in the evening, more power to you. Just make sure you get enough sleep to operate efficiently the next day.

Read, read and read some more

As a PR pro, you probably spend a majority of the day reading already, but the outlets and content likely revolve around your company or clients’ industries. Try thinking of yourself as another client.

You have to be well versed in, well, everything, to demonstrate your depth of knowledge to clients, leadership and peers. Here are a few suggestions to start:

  • Illustrate your industry expertise by reading sites like PR Daily, Spin Sucks, and PRSay.
  • Read local news to be aware of your city’s issues and happenings. It will help you lead informed conversations at networking events, happy hours and daily encounters. And, if you’re pitching locally, you’ll quickly learn reporters’ beats.
  • Be aware of national and international news for pitching trend stories and being an informed citizen in general. Try an app like Cir.ca for a brief overview of important worldwide news.

Prepare and prioritize your next day’s to-do list

Before you leave work in the evening, prepare your to-do list for the following day. It will make your mornings more efficient and ensure you don’t lose track of any projects overnight.

We all have our own to-do list processes, so find what works best for you. In my case, I use the app 2Do to input every single deliverable with deadline as it’s assigned so I don’t miss anything.

Every evening, I reference the app and handwrite my to-dos on a sticky note. Then, I highlight three major projects for the day so I know where to start as soon as work begins.

Are you ready to get ahead? Take the next few weeks to adopt these habits and evaluate which fit your lifestyle so you can develop a personalized, daily routine to expedite career success.

What habits help you build your personal brand? Please add your suggestions in the comments section below.

Stephanie Vermillion headshotStephanie Vermillion is a senior account executive at Wordsworth Communications, a public relations agency in Cincinnati. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn and Twitter (@SMVermillion).

Book Review: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

Jess Noonan Leave a comment

This post is part of The Edge monthly series of book reviews on books relevant to new PR professionals.

As young communicators, we can learn a valuable lesson from John C. Maxwell: communicating isn’t the same as connecting.

The famed leadership expert, and author of over 70 books, uses this publication to teach us the difference.

“Connecting is the ability to identify with people and relate to them in a way that increases your influence with them,” says Maxwell.

As PR/communications professionals, connecting is an important aspect of our job, but are we being as effective as we can be? That’s what Maxwell challenges us to examine with Everyone Communicates, Few Connect.

These lessons are critical for professionals across all industries. Writing, speaking, presenting, pitching, and selling are critical skills in any job, regardless of industry or field.

Your head will spin from the number of times you read the word “connect” – mine did – but when you begin to grasp the importance of making connections not just for yourself, but for the sake of your customers/clients, you will thank Maxwell for driving the point home. Improving the customer experience should always be priority number one.

Where this book provides exceptional value – particularly for young professionals – isn’t in practical advice or knowledge, but in the confidence readers can gain from the material. Confidence can be a fragile thing, especially for young professionals. But it can also help young pros excel beyond their entry-level expectations.

The book is also a ‘must read’ for the challenge it presents to its readers to audit their own communications processes. In this regard, you can take as much from this book as your attitude and openness allow.

As a resource, the text also aggregates some of the best principles from respected communication and leadership experts and philosophers. Maxwell also shares his Five Principles and Five Practices, which include:

  • Finding common ground
  • Keeping your communications simple
  • Capturing people’s interest
  • Inspiring people
  • Staying authentic in all your relationships

Maxwell posted chapters of Everyone Communicates on his website, and used the commenter feedback to add anecdotes, quotes and advice – each commenter was rewarded with their photo on the inside cover of the book. This helps to make material relatable to every level of professional.

Maxwell may rely a little too heavily on his on triumphs as examples within the book, but the positive attributes of Everyone Communicates can be helpful as you begin mapping a path to leadership positions within your company.

HeadshotRobert Martin is a Corporate Relations Intern at Allstate and the 2014 Co-Editor of the PRSA New Professionals Newsletter. He resides in Farmington Hills, MI.

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. 

Notes from the Road: 3 Things I Learned on Path to a Career in PR

Jess Noonan 1 Comment

Beginning a career in public relations can be quite a daunting prospect. There is no point-by-point roadmap to direct you on the way to professional success, and you will encounter plenty of obstacles along the way. I found myself in the hectic world of the “entry-level” after graduating college in May 2013; and now as I prepare for the next step in my career, I can think of a few pieces of advice that I have picked up along the way:

1) Be open to whatever comes your way, and be ready for some hard work.

When I graduated with a BA in history and started exploring public relations as a potential career path I was totally overwhelmed. I had done one PR internship in college, but I quickly found out, that I was not ready to become a high-powered account executive on day one. The difficult reality for me was that I needed to get more experience, and that meant internships, and unpaid internships at that.

I realized I knew a lot of people in health care, and I managed to find an internship with my alma mater’s children’s hospital. To support myself financially, I worked nights as a technician in the hospital’s pharmacy while I interned during the day. Those long days and nights at the hospital were not exactly what I would call fun, but I managed to learn a ton from my bosses, who held me to a very high standard and dramatically improved my writing.

2) Join your professional community.

One of the best things my boss at the children’s hospital did for me was encouraged me to join PRSA and be active in the profession. At a PRSA sponsored lunch, I sat at the same table as the social media department one of my town’s leading PR agencies, and after an interesting conversation about social media I asked for an informational interview. That interview eventually led to another internship, this time focused on social media. I was given an entire account to manage, and I discovered a real passion for the work. By the time my agency internship had finished I was able to once again turn to my local chapter of the PRSA to find my current internship with Carestream Health, which will allow me to keeping building my skills while I study for my MBA.

3) Use This Time to Find Your Passion.

Finding your passion may sound like corny advice, but it really is what the early stages of your career are for. Take on any challenge or opportunity you can find. Public Relations is an unbelievably diverse profession and you will find plenty of things you love to do, and plenty of things you don’t. In my case I found a real passion for all things social media, and I found some great mentors who fostered that passion. You may very well have some false starts, some things you just can’t get excited about, but don’t let those experiences derail your future career.

If you are really serious about a career in public relations, if you are willing to put in the hard work up front, and you can find the right team of people to support you then you have a great shot at becoming a real success in one of the most dynamic and engaging career fields there is. Public Relations is all about telling a story, so get out there and share yours with the world.

Sean Delehanty headshotSean Delehanty is currently an MBA candidate at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, Class of 2016; as well as a digital marketing intern with Carestream Health. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 2013, and has worked as a public relations intern at the Golisano Children’s Hospital and Dixon Schwabl Advertising. Sean is a Rochester, NY native and a proud member of the Rochester chapter of the PRSA.  

How to Design Your Office to Support Your PR Activities

Lauren Gray Leave a comment

Spending a vast amount of money on PR campaigns can make good sense if by doing so you are able to establish and maintain a desirable public image that helps to attract new customers and to retain old ones. However, it is not an activity that should be carried out in isolation, but rather something that should form part of an overall marketing strategy, including the interior design of your corporate headquarters.

Image Credit: Legozilla, license (click for source)

Many business owners may feel that office design has very little to do with their public relations campaigns but if you want to make sure that your target audience does not perceive your PR activities to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors, it is a good idea to reinforce the image you are trying to project with something tangible such as the colour scheme and layout of your head office.

Visitors to your headquarters cannot help but be influenced by what they see and their perception of your organisation is very likely to be coloured by the décor of your offices. The following design tips should help to ensure that this is a positive and not a negative.

Corporate colours – if you have made a big effort to get potential customers to associate your company with a particular logo, you should seriously consider using the colours that appear in that logo when deciding on colour schemes for your office interiors.

In particular, an impressive reception area painted in your corporate colours is sure to make a good impression on visitors and leave them in no doubt that yours is an organisation that stands behind its advertising slogans 100%.

An appropriate layout – if you spend a great deal of money in an effort to convince people that yours is a forward thinking company where corporate hierarchies have been swept aside in favour of a more inclusive working environment that is conducive to innovation and the rapid evolution of new products, you need to back this up with your office layout.

If visitors to your headquarters are met with closed doors and lifts to executive floors that can only be accessed with a special proximity card, which only the chosen few are issued with, there is a very good chance that they are going to start to question everything that your marketing campaigns have tried to establish as fact. Do not confuse your customers by sending mixed messages about what your company stands for and how it likes to operate.

Relevant themes – if your organisation is making a big push to sell its products to environmentally aware consumers who are genuinely concerned about the effect that their activities have on the natural world, this is something that can be carried through to the interior design of your offices. Instead of having panoramic windows that frame impressive views of the local countryside or cityscape, consider going for a more sustainable design with less glass, which will be cheaper to heat in the winter and to keep cool in the summer.

Many organisations make the mistake of trying to dazzle their visitors with the magnificence of their corporate headquarters when in reality all they are doing is demonstrating their lack of consideration for what really matters in life.

As you can see, the way that you choose to decorate your offices and how they are laid out could have a big effect on how your customers and members of the public in general perceive your business.

Always remember that actions speak louder than words so what your company does is just as important as what is says.

Author: Juliet Martin is writing for Saracen Office, one of the leading Commercial office Refurbishment Experts within the UK.