5 Transferable PR Skills You (Probably) Already Have

kcook 1 Comment

In college, I read a quote that remains with me to this day: “You already have everything you need to get everything you want in life.” This mantra is especially relevant to new PR professionals. Whether you’re new to the workforce in general or facing a career switch, you likely have the foundational skills to become successful in a public relations career. Keep in mind that public relations professionals come from a variety of undergraduate majors and career backgrounds. Broad disciplines like English, marketing, communications and business equip prospective public relations pros with a strong repertoire of transferable skills to earn a place in the field.

The five transferable skills you can leverage to land your first public relations job or continue building your career are as follows:

1. Writing

Versatile writing ability is invaluable as a new pro. Whether you need to craft a press release or pitch your client’s latest and greatest product, writing ranks at the top of public relations must-have aptitudes. If you can write well, you can own the world.

2. Relationship-Building

Success in this industry relies on networking and cultivating long-term relationships with an array of constituencies: members of the media, clients, prospects, colleagues, partner agencies, other internal teams and referral sources. You never know who’s listening, and you never know who can help you find your next lead. If you’re hot on the job search trail, attend PRSA Chapter events to meet and greet local pros. Be authentic. More importantly, be a good listener. When networking, don’t try to get as many business cards as possible. Focus on the quality of interactions rather than the quantity. Do your best to take mental notes about people you meet and jot them down in your phone after you leave the event. If you had one or two meaningful conversations, re-introduce yourself on LinkedIn. Personalize the interaction with a reminder about who you are and where you met. You never know where those connections may lead.

3. News Junkie Status

Attention to current events and news media is imperative in public relations. If you already follow relevant trends and stories in your industry, you’re ahead of the curve. Use your “news junkie status” to demonstrate your knowledge as you build relationships. Keep track of stories that pertain to your job, to the job you want or to your clients. Knowing what’s hot in your industry will help people remember you and even earn you recognition as the in-house current events guru.

4. Sales & Negotiation

You may not realize it, but you use negotiation skills on a daily basis. You bargain or compromise with your partner, roommate, friends and family about where to go to dinner, how to delegate household chores or ways to get what you want. Maybe you worked in customer service at some point. These experiences involve sales and negotiating, which are valuable in any field but especially in public relations. In order to build relationships, win clients and pitch the media, you must sell a brand story. At every turn in public relations, you will negotiate to get what you want. Take advantage of easy opportunities to sell your ideas during your daily routine. Even better, get your hands on The Negotiation Phrasebook by Angelique Pinet to really round out those skills.

5. Project Management

Think back to times when you collaborated on a team project. In order to succeed, you demonstrated follow-through, organization and attention to detail. You balanced several tasks simultaneously and took your project over the finish line by a certain date. In the same way, success in public relations hinges on the ability to create and implement strategy and often, to do so on short notice. Experience collaborating on teams and executing tasks independently will serve you well as a new pro.

What other transferable skills should new PR pros highlight during their job search? If you’re already churning it out in a full-time position, which skills did you use to get a foot in the door?

 

 Jamie M. Curtis is a writer and publicist. In 2013, she launched WHITE HORIZON PR, a boutique agency focused on public relations and content strategy for emerging brands. Currently, she is building a portfolio of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle clients across the U.S. WHITE HORIZON PR serves many clients virtually and has locations in Beverly Hills, CA and Columbus, OH.

If You Don’t Tell Your Organization’s Story, Someone Else Will

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Typewriter with Once Upon a TimeIn an age when practically everyone carries the latest model of a mobile device, when breaking news is always a glance away and one company’s misstep can spread like wildfire across the country in a matter of only minutes, it is essential that organizations can effectively communicate their stories, before someone else does for them.

Find Real Stories

The foundation of telling your organization’s story well is to start with finding a story: a real story. Every organization has a story to tell. Even the smallest or seemingly mundane organization has some unique attribute hidden in its history, conception, product, obstacles or successes. As public relations professionals, our job is to unearth these stories and nuances that set organizations apart.

Often best captured by simple anecdotes that reflect organizational values, character and image, your story needs to emulate who you are and what sets you apart. If these stories do not automatically surface, it’s up to you to discover what those differentiations are and effectively communicate them to your audience through authentic communication.

It is important to note, that while a particular instance or fact may seem like an excellent beginning to your brand’s story, even the most interesting tale can stop you in your tracks if it is not consistent with your brand message or values. If you cannot directly link your story to your brand, the message will quickly become diluted and serve as a detriment because of inconsistencies and confusion about who you are and your values. If your story lacks brand consistency or clarity, it’s time to revisit the purpose of finding your story.

The most successful brand stories are not fabricated or over exaggerations of the truth. They are authentic, true and a direct reflection of what the brand values.

Use Real People

Perhaps the simplest way to find a good story that emanates your company’s core character is to find real people who have real stories to tell. Be authentic while creating and refining characters in your story whom your audience will champion. These stories could come from any of your stakeholders, including people from within your organization, one of your clients or even someone in your community. A plethora of compelling content is not necessary in order to communicate your story well. A few unique anecdotes can be more than enough to convey everything about your brand and company culture.

Once you have the story that captures the essence of who you are, what comes next? The mistake many organizations make is convoluting the clarity of their story by hiring an actor or appointing a spokesperson to tell it for them. Consider the purpose of why you originally chose to discover and tell your story; this solution produces the opposite effect.

Did your retired co-founder inherit the shop location of your now nationally recognized bakery chain from a famous pastry artist? Bring her back in for an interview. Make her and what her story means for your organization the focus of your next campaign.

People connect to real stories that evoke authentic emotion. The more willing you are to humanize your stories, the more you can relate to your audience and your audience can relate to you.

Be Authentic

Bottom line: there is trust in transparency.

In this day and age, nothing is hidden. No bad business decision, unethical practice or poor treatment of customers can be concealed. It is only a matter of time before the truth is revealed, and when it is, who would you rather have controlling the conversation: you, the public or even your competition? An honest apology or explanation of the truth can earn the respect of your audience and has the potential to deter ruthless scrutiny, even if that scrutiny is unfounded.

When crafting your story, be as open and honest with your audience as you can be, because openness is equal to trust. Actively disclosing information to your constituents about your company and its products or services is perhaps the most powerful means of establishing and building trust with your audience. Don’t forget to ask yourself the hard questions and answer them before others have the opportunity to answer them for you.

In the end, the key element to telling your organization’s story well is simple: the truth. The most powerful and meaningful brand stories are derived from honesty and openness. When you tell your story by using authenticity and real people to tell those stories, you will establish more than just trust with your stakeholders—you will create passionate brand advocates who believe in your brand and its mission.

 

Kristen SyndramKristen Syndram is a public relations graduate from Illinois State University and a public relations and communications professional in the central Illinois area. She has gained professional communications experience by working with both Fortune 50 companies as well as boutique agencies and specializes in public relations, media relations and social media. Connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. 

September Twitter Chat Highlights: Modern PR Ethics

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Twitter Chat Highlights: Modern PR EthicsWe’d like to thank everyone who participated in the September #NPPRSA Twitter chat as part of PRSA’s Ethics Month.

Specifically, we’d like to thank special guest for the month, PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards [BEPS].  Join us again on October 10 at 9 p.m. EST for the next #NPPRSA Twitter chat.

Review highlights of the chat below.

What did you learn from the September chat? How do you make sure your brand is remaining ethical despite the addition of paid placements in social and digital media? How do you confront situations where ethical values may be at risk?

Lauren RosenbaumLauren Rosenbaum is the public relations director at BrickPixel, a web design and marketing consultancy. She is the co-founder of Soversity, a public relations and digital marketing company. Rosenbaum is also one of the volunteer coordinators for PRSA Houston Chapter’s PR Day 2013. You can connect with her on Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Eight Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Internship

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Once again internships are prominent in the news. Just last week, we learned from an article in the Atlantic that barely one-third of the U.S. Senate pay their interns. The White House also was recently chided about not paying interns.  Even the foundation of the COO of Facebook has finally and reluctantly relented and has announced that the foundation will begin paying interns.

I have written before about the internship on behalf of the Public Relations Society of America and have not changed my opinion one iota. Internships are legitimate work and should be compensated. PRSA is so adamant about the issue that it published an advisory nearly three years ago for its 30,000 members about internships. As noted in a past post  on internships, PRSA believes it is ethically improper to employ anyone who adds real value to a public relations agency or department without compensating them for their work – whether that compensation is monetary or in the form of educational credits. If billable work is being performed by an intern, he or she deserves some form of legal compensation.

There was a time many years ago when internships were employed by organizations to give back to society by offering summer employment to students in disciplines related to their academic studies. Later, the internship evolved to a way for organizations to solve interim staffing issues. On the candidate side, the internship was a way to get practical, real-world experience in the field that would supplement academic training. Somewhere along the way, internships started to be viewed as a volunteer function and organizations treated them as such.

Let’s be clear though what constitutes volunteerism. Helping a charitable organization tend to the needs of the underserved is volunteerism. Assisting an organization to sell books or some other product or service is not.

As young professionals, your goal is to secure a full-time professional position in public relations. Here are several metrics for evaluating the efficacy of internships after you have graduated.

  1. Is the internship a paid position? And is it well above minimum wage? This is a critical question for which the answer is simple. If it is not paid, steer clear.
  2. Is the compensation reasonable for the role? You should expect no less than $25 per hour, particularly if the job involves content creation, including writing releases, case studies, blogs, speeches, tweets, Facebook posts and yes, even questions for Quora or content for Pinterest.
  3. Is the internship/job a 40-hours-a-week gig and/or are you expected to put in inordinate time that is not compensated? Most jobs are reasonably 40 hours a week or at max 50 hours. Investigate if there is the opportunity for paid overtime or compensatory time.
  4. What is the probability that the internship will lead to a full-time position? Assuming you excel in the job, will the employer agree to put it in writing ahead of time? As Ronald Reagan once said, “trust but verify.” If a permanent position is not in the cards, make certain other conditions are sufficiently compelling to make the internship worth your time and labor.
  5. Is the organization a leader in its category, whether a non-profit, corporation, institution or agency? Your credibility, integrity and personal brand are all built on your associations. Make certain that the organization is a thought leader or at least “reputation safe.”
  6. Will the internship help to appreciably increase your skills, broaden your understanding of the field and augment your network and sphere of influence? These are all vital characteristics that should be inherent in your investment in the internship. If they don’t contribute, think hard and long before you accept.
  7. Can you use the content you create as part of your portfolio? Will you be able to take credit publicly for your intellectual labor and resulting product? It is wise to have some evidence that you can use to validate your accomplishments.
  8. Will your employer give you time for other pursuits, including volunteer work, professional affiliations and networking? Don’t be chained to your desk. Make sure there is adequate freedom to network, volunteer and attend to other professional endeavors.

If you decide to go the internship route while you job hunt, exercise caution in doing internships that do not help fulfill your career goals and strategy. What other red flags have you seen associated with internships? Have your internship experiences proved valuable in your professional growth?

 

Gerard CorbettGerard F. Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA, is 2013 immediate past chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America; chair and CEO of Redphlag LLC, a Silicon Valley Strategic Communications Firm; and the PR Job Coach.  He can be reached at gerard.corbett@redphlag.com. 

PRSA Workshop Recap: Putting More Power & Precision in Your PR Writing

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I recently attended my first in-person PRSA workshop, titled “Putting More Power and Precision in your PR Writing.”

Attending the workshop were about 30 young and mid-career PR professionals with a sprinkling of more experienced pros seeking a refresher on writing basics (and one of the best views in Washington at HagerSharp, just blocks from the White House).

A few common writing challenges emerged from the workshop:

1)     Switching gears among multiple functions: Many of us struggle with creating a distinct tone and style when writing for different document types and audiences (e.g. news releases, social media content, pitches, technical reports, etc.). We also have to work to maintain the right balance of time spent on background research, cultivating leads, engaging with experts on the content we’ll be publicizing and then the actual writing process.

2)     Writing tight copy: We all know that readers prefer crisp copy, but how do we get to concise without erring towards choppy? For creative types, it can be a painful exercise to cut out jargon, flowery language and complex sentence structures – but for the reader’s benefit, it is absolutely essential to distill your communications to their clearest, simplest form.

3)     Letting go of personal preferences and ego when writing for others: Writing feels very personal and it can be tough to accept edits, or worse, to adopt a style that doesn’t feel our own. We need to keep in mind that it’s paramount to capture the voice of the organization or brand we are representing, and we must adapt our personal style accordingly.

4)     Working under external constraints: Many of us feel challenged to produce quality PR products when faced with limited control over corporate fonts, formats and colors, let alone the inclusion of dry legalese or too-long boiler plate language. Likewise, it’s tough to do our best writing in a workplace that doesn’t place a premium on quiet time and privacy for creative effort, time at the end of production to proof, or flexibility to write at the best time of day for you. Where possible, take the initiative to talk to your manager about creating the best possible environment that will ultimately result in optimal PR writing for the organization.

The highlight of the workshop came from the packet of 30 real-world writing samples provided, as each participant was asked to share a work product with the group. It is impossible to underestimate how much you can learn from having your PR work critiqued by a group of peers and likewise from participating in critiquing their own work.

The biggest value for my money came from the contacts I made who are doing similar work at related organizations. Though we didn’t resolve all of these challenges, knowing that I have a new peer group that shares my day-to-day reality gives me more confidence and determination to continue perfecting my writing.

Anne Berlin does advocacy communications and research and science policy blogging for the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is a member of the PRSA National Capital Chapter and an aspiring Toastmaster.