LinkedIn: Your Secret Weapon

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In my experience, LinkedIn is widely misunderstood and underutilized by public relations professionals. Most of us are familiar with this social platform as a job-seeking tool but fail to see it as the industry knowledge and networking resource that it is.

LinkedIn helps connect the young PR professional (or any PR professional, for that matter) with four critical audiences:

Media

If all you know about your key media contacts is the information on your media list, it’s time to dig deeper. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn from an editor or producer’s LinkedIn profile. Not only can it shed light into that contact’s work background, but you might also discover common ground – a shared alma mater, for instance – that will help you forge a more meaningful connection.

Once you discover that connection, LinkedIn makes it simple to reach out to the contact and maintain a relationship through shared articles and status updates. LinkedIn is a prime way to keep tabs on which outlets and beats your fast-moving media targets cover.

Industry Experts

Using LinkedIn, you can grow your network and build a “dream team” of mentors. Seek out interesting people who are successful in your industry or work in areas that intrigue you. With a simple LinkedIn message, you can introduce yourself and invite them to coffee – and it’s much easier than randomly searching for industry veterans on Google and trying to track down their email addresses.

LinkedIn groups also afford you the opportunity to glean industry knowledge, strengthen connections and begin to establish yourself as a thought leader. For additional insights, you can subscribe to the brilliant feeds of influencers like Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington.

Prospective Clients

If you work in an agency, you know that new business is the lifeblood of your company. Use LinkedIn to pinpoint in-house practitioners who work in specific industries or companies that interest you. For example, if you’re fascinated by the food and beverage sector, research professionals in your city who work in food or beverage companies. Invite them to lunch to pick their brains, share experiences and solidify relationships. You never know when one of these contacts might casually mention that their brand is looking for new PR representation, which could reap major rewards for you and your career.

Potential Employers

Of course, LinkedIn is a must if you’re looking for a job – entry-level or otherwise. The site is crawling with recruiters and job postings. Make sure your profile is flawless and accurately portrays your personal brand and proactively reach out to employers that interest you.

If used correctly, LinkedIn can help you make more connections offline, land a job and do that job more successfully.

What other ways are you using LinkedIn? Share your own tips for maximizing your presence on LinkedIn!

 

Keri Cook is an assistant account executive with Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ consumer marketing practice in New York. She graduated from Liberty University with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies 

Join Us April 23 for the PRSA Jobcenter Virtual Career Fair

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As a member of NewPros, you are exclusively invited to attend the upcoming Public Relations Society of America Jobcenter Virtual Career Fair, April 23 at 1–4 p.m. EDT, for you to gain direct access to employers with nationwide openings who are looking to hire new and aspiring talent.

We have decided to host this Virtual Career Fair as it provides to you a much-needed opportunity to directly connect with employers looking to hire in the field of public relations and communications. Because the event is held online, you will not need to commit to a full day of travel. You’ll also be able to consider employers who are hiring in many geographic locations, giving you the option to begin your career with the most possibilities in place.

Whether you are looking for an opportunity to start that career with an agency, corporate communications, media relations, or health care communications organization, we suggest that you do not wait to register to carve your niche in any of these fields.

Please register for the event at https://www.brazenconnect.com/event/prsa_april_23 and direct any questions torichard.spector@prsa.org or call (212) 460-1406.

April Twitter Chat Highlights: SEO and Digital PR

Heather Sliwinski 3 Comments

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the April #NPPRSA Twitter chat.

Specifically, we’d like to thank our special guest for the month Carrie Morgan, author of the upcoming book, “Digital Haystack: Essential Digital PR Tactics to Get Found Online.”

Join us again on May 9 at 9 p.m. EST for the next #NPPRSA Twitter chat.

Review highlights of the chat below. What did you learn from the April chat? What strategies do you believe are vital to digital PR success? How do you optimize your content for search?

 

Amy BishopAmy Bishop is the digital marketing manager for Cru Global, a faith-based nonprofit. Bishop helps align Cru’s global marketing, branding and digital strategies with new technology systems. She is the social media chair for the PRSA New Professionals Section. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Career Limbo: Transitioning from Entry-level to Mid-level Positions

Heather Sliwinski 1 Comment

Breaking out of the entry-level barrier to mid-level positions is not easy. Many times, it means getting past the catch-22 of needing the experience to get the experience, but there are avenues to make the journey easier:

  1. Always exceed your employer’s expectations: This work ethic will get you noticed and shows you to be a team player. Sometimes learning a new skill simply means volunteering for it. You may have to work a little bit later – but if you want to become a social media expert, for example, the best way is to enthusiastically take on the new work responsibility.
  2. Volunteer pro-bono with other organizations, local charities and religious affiliations: If you are not getting the type of experience in your full-time job that you need to move on to the next level, try local affiliations or industry associations and chapters for experience. They will appreciate the free assistance, and it’s a wonderful stretch to try your hand at new tactics.
  3. Network with purpose: Nowadays, it’s not enough to hand out business cards and think you made a bonafide contact. Learn about the individuals that work at the organization you are aspiring to join. Visit their LinkedIn profiles and Facebook pages. What are their likes? Did you go to the same school? Are they traveling to an area with which you are very familiar? Can you make some restaurant recommendations or suggest vacation spots? When you meet someone – state your vision. Who are you? What is it that you want to do? What was the biggest problem you solved in the workplace?
  4. Perfect your personal branding: Your personal brand is something you should be working on upon graduation. Positioning yourself as an expert is all about your blog content and your contribution to the industry. If it’s too early in your career to develop your own content, work with Google Reader, have the content come to you and then share it with others. Learn about the relevant content sites out there and get involved in Twitter chats. These outlets will help grow your reputation as a thought leader. Also, consider writing some short dos and don’ts about your field of expertise. It may sound strange, but “don’ts” always pull more clicks. People are always most afraid of making major mistakes.
  5. Research, research, research: Getting to the next level means knowing exactly what the position entails. Learn about the keywords used and all the qualifications. Be sure you can back this up with tried-and-true experience. Nothing aggravates a potential employer more than someone that lists keywords on their resume but doesn’t have the actual practical experience to go with it. Choose about 25 key companies for whom you’d like to work and research them on Vault.com and GlassDoor.com. Become acquainted not only with the company’s business, but also their corporate culture.
  6. Know how to make that salary and position jump: You may now be at the stage where you are qualified to do a job that pays $20,000 more but still getting paid $20,000 less. How do you address the salary question? Always remember to come from a positive place. You never want to say that your company was holding you back or that they don’t pay well. Whether you like your current job or not, never back-bite. You are heartbroken to leave your current company, but this opportunity is a dream job, and you feel you can make a real contribution.
  7. When asked about salary – you have a few options: You can always turn it back to the employer, asking what they’d consider based on your qualifications. However, that may lead to a game of salary Ping-Pong. The next option is to give the potential employer a very wide salary range. The range can be as wide as $10,000 or $15,000. The next option of course is to let them know that it was key at the time to gain the skills you needed to excel in your field. Now that you have those skills and the practical experience putting them to use, you are ready to earn the salary that more closely matches your skill set.

Most of all, have faith that you will get to that next level. Remember that 20 percent of job rejections eventually result in a job offer – so don’t give up.

 

Richard Spector is the manager of client services for PRSA Jobcenter.

Powering Partnerships through Local Leadership as a New Professional

kcook 1 Comment

Public relations professionals, marketers and communicators cannot go it alone. PR is the hottest category in the fast-changing communications world.  The U.S. Department of Labor expects it to be the fastest-growing profession in America in the next 10 years.

Collaboration, partnership and teamwork serve as a force multiplier that can lead real change in our industry, and new professionals are helping to lead this change. New professionals are also driving a shift in how PR as a profession thinks about diversity.

By getting involved with PRSA Chapters, new professionals can facilitate this change. We encourage new professionals to identify opportunities to serve on their Chapters’ executive boards or serve on various committees within their local area. Being in a leadership role within the Chapter truly provides new professionals a wonderful opportunity to develop professionally and leverage skills and expertise outside of the workplace.

As active members of the PRSA New York Chapter serving on both the Executive Board and Marketing Committee, we became actively involved in assisting PRSA-NY to implement programs that support PRSA’s commitment to diversity as well as attract diverse professionals to the Chapter.

On Tuesday, April 2, PRSA-NY New Professionals Committee hosted the 2013 PR Career Forum with the NYU PRSSA Chapter with a grant from the PRSA Foundation and support from the Council of Public Relations Firms. The mission of the PR Career Forum was to attract top talent to the PR profession and help introduce, develop and prepare students and young professionals for a career in PR.

PRSA NY has hosted this event for the past several years; however, for the 2013 Career Forum, the Chapter placed a special emphasis on attracting diverse talent in support of its 2013 Diversity Initiative. As a result of this new emphasis, this unified mission  resulted in attracting 150 diverse students from different ethnicities, genders, ages, backgrounds and university settings to the Career Forum to hear about and plan their next steps toward a career in PR.

The PRSA-NY New Professionals Committee also leveraged partnerships with local PRSSA Chapters for the Forum, including strengthening the relationship with the host Chapter at NYU. Additionally, some of the top PR agencies in New York that exhibited at the Forum commented on how impressed they were with the quality of students who attended the event.

As a new professional, establishing and leveraging strategic partnerships is an invaluable skill to develop. By doing this at a local Chapter level, PRSA New Professionals can own these skills to make a valuable contribution at work and influence change within the PR industry as a whole.

 

Brandi Boatner is the Digital Experience Manager for IBM’s Global Technology Services in New York City. In this newly created role, her responsibilities include working to develop and drive the implementation of a C-level facing digital experience and engagement model to enhance the way IBM engages with CXOs in the digital world (including Websites, blogs, social media sites and mobile devices). Boatner is also the former national president of PRSSA from 2008-2009 while attending graduate school at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, Hawaii. She holds several leadership positions within in PRSA on both the local and national level serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the PRSA Foundation and PRSA New York Chapter as Secretary; the Co-Mentoring Chair for the PRSA New Professionals section; the Chair for the PRSA Diversity Committee; a member of the PRSA Membership Committee; and the New Professionals Chair for the PRSA-NY Chapter in Manhattan. Outside of PRSA, Boatner is an advisory council member for the LAGRANT Foundation, an organization that supports minority students in marketing, advertising and public relations.

 

Jessica Noonan currently works within Burson-Marsteller’s Corporate practice in the New York office, providing strategic communication support to numerous key clients. Her active aspiration to become a PR professional led to her role as the 2012  national vice president of professional development for the Public Relations Student Society of America. She is now a member of the Public Relations Society of America where she is Membership Co-Chair on the New Professionals committee and serves on the PRSA-NY Marketing committee. Jessica serves as the President of the board for the newly developed non-profit the LittleBigFund. Jessica  holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communication and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, specializing in marketing from American University.