Back to PR School: Experts to Follow for Continuing Your Education

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Career expert Peter Weddle advises job seekers to always work on their career fitness. We expect it of ourselves and so do our employers. Just because new professionals are no longer in school, doesn’t mean you can’t take some time this fall to go back to PR school and learn more about the burgeoning industry to which we belong.  

To be a successful public relations practitioner you need to know everything from social media, search engine optimization, reputation management, marketing and more. But how can you be all things to all people?

The Internet is a never-ending resource for newsletters and blogs to help you (and to help build Klout scores!). Many industry experts will place their presentations on Slideshare. The following are my favorite newsletters and experts to follow: 

  • Lee Odden (TopRank Online Marketing) – SEO is not just about finding the keywords that yield the most traffic. SEO is about using relevant content to attract your specific audience. Temper this in with social media and its rapidly changing venue and you need expert advice to stay ahead of the curve and to keep impressing the boss. TopRank Online Marketing produces an e-newsletter chock full of guidance and success stories written by Odden. When your employer asks you to write web content or an SEO-optimized press release, Odden is the man you want to follow on Twitter. Subscribe to TopRank’s e-newsletter, and your knowledge will soar.
  • Deirdre Breakenridge – If you haven’t been asked already, it’s only a matter of time before your employer expects you to write a social media plan. You will need to know how to set goals and use the best tactics (measurable ones) to best help you meet those goals. Following Breakenridge on Twitter and seeing what she’s pinning on Pinterest is a great start. When you are on a job interview, you want to show your potential boss you can hit the ground running. You may even consider doing a mini social media plan for the interview. You will stand above the crowd.
  • Peter Weddle and Weddle’s E-newsletter – To survive in the workforce today, being qualified is not enough. You need to be what Weddle calls a “career activist”. A recruiter, HR consultant and business CEO turned author and commentator, weddle knows what it takes to keep growing in the field. His favorite term is “work strong”. Subscribe to his e-newsletter and you’ll not only learn as a job seeker, you’ll gain knowledge from an employer perspective as well. One of his many books, Recognizing Richard Rabbit will change how you think about your current and future career.
  • Recruiting Trends – My dear friend and expert recruiter Sandy Charet of Charet & Associates always mentions the very difficult job recruiters have. They not only have to review resumes sent their way, but also need to constantly comb through LinkedIn to find the best “passive job seekers”. They are completely overworked and need to process a voluminous number of job orders within superhuman deadlines. A recent study showed that recruiters decide within six seconds whether a resume winds up in the “yes” or “no” pile. Therefore, it’s key to understand where recruiters are coming from. If you understand the pressure they are under, it will change how you approach them when following up after they have sent you on a job interview.
  • FINS Newsletter – While the advice may not be tailored directly to public relations, there’s a multitude of career and resume advice on this Dow Jones career and employment website. Their topics have universal appeal regardless of your career specialty. It is one of the best places to read about writing your career story, the 25 toughest companies for interviews and facing feedback from your employer.
  • Mashable – If you are just beginning in your career, you want to know who the heavy hitters are in making news and headlines. Mashable not only covers major technology trendsetters, it will help you show potential employers that you’re fully up-to-date understanding the challenges in the business world.

While the list of resources is always growing, consider following these experts:

  • Eric Schwartzman – With Schwartzman, you learn about social media from A to Z. His knowledge will take you from the beginning of setting up your Twitter account to blogging and expertly tagging your digital content.
  • Dawn Edmiston – Recruiters not only want to know about your resume – they will research your professional online presence. Dawn is an expert resource. The most critical resource you have is your own branding. Dawn will help you take ownership of this.
  • Sandy Charet – We all know how important LinkedIn is to recruiters. You want to present the most professional and complete profile possible. Charet knows all the ins and outs of working with LinkedIn. 
  • Brian Solis – His conversation prism will graphically show you all the facets to social media. When setting up a social media plan, you need to know which tactics will work the best. However, how many of us really know all the forms of social media out there? Solis gives the best starting point by displaying all or at least most of the available forms.
  • Andrea Nierenberg –Networking is key to your career survival, but how do you approach someone? What do you do if you’re an introvert? How do I really use the “give to get” principle? Nierenberg’s thoughts and insights will help you network with results.

We also hope that you will read the 70+ articles on PRSA Jobcenter. Having a full range of job advice and resources will ensure a very long and very happy career.

 

Richard Spector is the manager of client services at PRSA.

Professional Development Brown Bag: “Strategists are Made, Not Born: How to Grow into a Strategist, not a Tactician” with Roger Friedensen, APR

Heather Sliwinski 3 Comments

PR = positive relationships.

At some point in our educational or professional career, we’ve all heard it, and it’s true. In my young professional career, each of my positions has involved some sort of relationship building. So what?

Becoming a master of relationship building should be at the top of your priority list. Grow into a counselor, not a tactician. Building a successful career isn’t just about tactical skills. It’s about becoming a counselor who can build trusting relationships, gain the confidence of management quickly and reliably and provide the high-level counsel executives want – and for which they’ll pay top dollar.

Industry veterans will share tips and techniques they’ve used to develop dozens of high-performing strategic counselors. You will:

  • Learn proven ways to develop as a strategic counselor.
  • Acquire insights that characterize the best strategists.
  • Learn how top counselors set themselves apart.

This New Professionals Section Brown Bag will be held on Monday, Sept. 10 from 1 to 2 p.m. EST. Remember, it’s free for PRSSA and New Pros Section members! Register here.

Roger Friedensen, APR, president and CEO of Forge Communications in Raleigh, N.C., will host a conversation on becoming a top-tier strategist. For more than 25 years, Friedensen has built an impressive career in public relations, crisis communications, brand management and strategic communications consulting.

 

Elizabeth RhoadsElizabeth Rhoads Greenaway serves the PRSA New Professionals Section Executive Committee as programming director and chair-elect.

Intro to Employee Communications PR

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A growing specialty in the world of public relations is employee communication. Positions with this area as the primary focus are found most often in large organizations, where the employee base is large and diverse. More importantly, these positions exist when leadership fully understands how employee engagement correlates with an organization’s success or failure. In a sense, employees are the organization, so it is hard to imagine a more critical stakeholder group.

Describing a day in the life of an employee communications specialist doesn’t sound difficult until you sit down and start to write. Why? Because every day is so different from the next. Let me begin by telling you, briefly, about our organization.

DuPont Pioneer is in the production agriculture industry—specifically, crop seed genetics. Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, where the business began in 1926, Pioneer now has more than 12,500 full-time employees working in more than 90 countries around the world. Acquired by DuPont in 1999, Pioneer is part of a science company that is more than 200 years old and focused on using science to help solve global challenges related to food, energy and protection.

Since joining Pioneer five years ago, I have enjoyed being part of a very exciting and rapidly growing business. One of the biggest “plusses” had been the value placed on employee communication by our president.

I lead a terrific team of four professionals, each of whom has a full plate of specific responsibilities related to our global employee audience.

So what is my typical day like?

Because each day is so different, I am going to take some liberty with my assignment and tell you instead what a typical week includes. And since it is Friday morning, I am simply going to look back at the week that is now coming to a close. Keep in mind that my role involves more managerial duties than others on the team. (Read: Lots of meetings!)

Monday: 

  • Global teleconference to review the Pioneer Communications planning calendar
  • Met with Pioneer intranet manager to review process to secure outsourced help with online publishing
  • Consulting appointment with Web Services staff to set up Team Site for Global DuPont Public Affairs task team that I am leading
  • Attended Lunch-and-Learn meeting to hear two renowned journalists/authors discuss looming global crisis: hunger
  • Attended final presentation by our summer intern
  • Met with two staff members to develop draft presentation for meeting next week with executive sponsors of the next-generation intranet steering team
  • Attended evening event related to work

Tuesday:

  • Met with Communications Leadership Team to discuss planning process and budgets for 2013
  • Web meeting with DuPont colleagues about intranet platform capabilities
  • Slogged through overflowing email inbox
  • Proofed documents as requested
  • Followed up on PRSA Employee Communications Section responsibilities; also on local PRSA Chapter responsibilities.

Wednesday:

  • Participated in web conference with DuPont colleagues to view demo of intranet site set up on SharePoint 2010 platform by another DuPont businesses
  • Summarized highlights of web conference and sent follow-up memo to appropriate Information Management staff at Pioneer
  • Met with new manager for employee online communities about metrics and dashboard options
  • Met with staff members to refine draft presentation for meeting next week with sponsors of the next-generation intranet steering team

Thursday:

  • Early meeting with next-generation intranet steering team
  • Left that meeting early to get to the first of two half-day training sessions with senior leaders, led by David Grossman of The Grossman Group (focus was internal communication of Pioneer strategy)
  • Talked with David over lunch about other work he is doing with Pioneer
  • Second training session with senior leaders

Friday:

  • Three goals today: write this blog post, follow up with members of task team I am leading for DuPont, and get out of the office in time to go to the Iowa State Fair. One down, two to go.

Young professionals who want to work in employee communications should:

  1. Polish their writing and presentation skills. You must be strong in both of these core skills.
  2. Get very familiar with intranet best practices, which are evolving even as I write this post.
  3. Take some business classes, and develop a basic understanding of today’s global economy. This knowledge will help you understand and converse more intelligently with your senior leaders, whose support is critical to your success.

 

Chris JensenChristine Jensen, APR, MBA, is the employee communications manager of DuPont Pioneer. Prior experience includes a position as an adjunct lecturer in public relations at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and public relations/marketing management positions for a private college and several healthcare organizations, including Mayo Clinic, where she managed internal communication. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in Iowa and her Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. Jensen served for three years as a board member of the PRSA Charlotte Chapter and currently serves as accreditation chair for the PRSA Central Iowa Chapter and the chair of the PRSA Employee Communications Section. She was a charter member of the executive committee of the Section and chaired its first national conference in Chicago in 1996. The thoughts expressed in this blog post are entirely her own and do not reflect those of her employer.

The Messenger Matters: How to Start Positive Epidemics

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

“Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do,” says Malcolm Gladwell, author of our first Summer Book Club selection “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference“. If we think of trends and changes in society as epidemics, like the flu, we can better understand why some ideas spread and how to start positive epidemics of our own. Each trend has one moment, where one small change can—be the Tipping Point.

“The Tipping Point” offers three rules of epidemics–the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context, which all can be helpful when applied to PR. The rule that stuck out to me the most was the Law of the Few.

The Law of the Few

The Law of the Few suggests that a small group of people, if they are the right people, can start an epidemic. Gladwell cites three different types of the “right” people who are capable of starting and epidemic–Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.

  • Connectors are those who seem to know everyone and have their feet in many circles. Perhaps they are the president of PRSA or your seasoned PR mentor.
  • Mavens are vaults of information and want to advise others. Mavens are trusted sources of information because they sincerely want to help, and people listen to them for it, such as keynote speakers at educational conferences. As a blogger, I also would like to consider myself a Maven.
  • Salesmen are the persuaders, when others are unconvinced. For an epidemic to start, people need to be persuaded to do something.

What This Law Means for PR

Connectors have the power of numbers, Mavens have the power of credibility and Salesmen have the power of persuasion. They each own different strengths, but each have the ability to spark an epidemic.

Now, whether the epidemic we are trying to spread is a viral video on YouTube, a product or service or a public campaign, Gladwell’s law shows that to whom we communicate is crucial to spreading the word. Instead of trying to share our message with anyone and everyone, or “spray and pray“, we should target those who have the influence to start an epidemic.

We can reach out to social media for Connectors who have a large number of followers in many different areas of interest. We can reach out to bloggers for Mavens, who are experts in their industry and have the trust of their readers. We can reach out to influential people through partnerships, maybe those who are public figures or have some amount of celebrity, who can change opinions and move people with little effort.

Spamming everyone with a press release that doesn’t get covered won’t start an epidemic. Telling one trusted blogger who writes a post read by thousands, who always follow their advice–that can spread your message like wildfire.

Before you send your next release or pitch to a list of generic reporters, think about with whom you are communicating. Are they a Connector? Maven? Salesman? Can they be the Tipping Point of your epidemic?

 

Other discussion questions:

1. How can the Law of the Few help us in our careers? Should we be more deliberate in choosing to whom we are marketing ourselves?

2. Gladwell published his book in 2000. How do you think his rules would have changed with the introduction of social media? Do social networks make everyone a Connector? Are the lines of who has influence blurrier?

3. Have you identified any Tipping Points in your own PR campaigns? What do you credit for your successful initiatives?

Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page and vote for our next Summer Book Club selection. Thanks for participating!

 

Heather SliwinskiHeather Sliwinski is an account executive at KemperLesnik, a Chicago-based public relations agency, providing media relations and social media services to a variety of B2B clients. She has held positions in marketing and event planning for corporations, nonprofits and higher education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications with an emphasis in strategic communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sliwinski is the blog co-chair for the PRSA New Professionals Section. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Five Lessons for Integrating Social Media in PR

Heather Sliwinski 1 Comment

I remember being a junior in college and setting up a blog for a class assignment. At the time, blogging was still a new form of communication for our industry (wow, that makes me sound old!), and I remember wondering when I was going to use it. Little did I know, blogging and using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would become part of my everyday job.

As public relations professionals, we strive to find the best medium for distributing our key messages to target audiences. We are challenged with making our messages succinct, timely and transparent. And with social media, our job really is no different. Social media is just another tool in our kit that doesn’t necessarily replace traditional media but instead complements it. In fact, when done correctly, social media is treated as a channel rather than a tactic.

I’ve learned five lessons in my career about social media’s role in our profession:

  •  Don’t set out looking for a job in ‘social media public relations.’ I think every practitioner should have a working knowledge of the platforms that exist and how they can potentially apply to client strategies. It’s part of our job to know all the communication tools out there regardless of whether your title has social media in it or not. Yes, I leave Twitter and Facebook open all day. That doesn’t mean I’m on it every minute, but it needs to be easily accessible to make sure nothing is missed. For me, it’s just like having my email open. Plus, you never know when a reporter is going to post that they are looking for a source. Trust me, it will happen!
  • Social media is constantly evolving. Whether it’s a new photo sharing site or changes to the way brand managers get Facebook Insights, there always seems to be something new to learn. Don’t ever grow overconfident in your social media skills.
  • Try new things. When I hear of a new site, I usually try to use it on a personal level before trying to incorporate it into any campaigns. This step would be the research part of the RPIE process. You wouldn’t start a campaign without research, and you wouldn’t jump into social media for a brand without doing that research. Using it personally will give you great insight into how a user will be viewing and interacting with your brand.
  • Listen, listen, listen and then listen some more. If you don’t listen, then you really shouldn’t have a presence on these sites. People want to interact with your brand, and they want to be heard. It takes time to build the relationships, but it’s worth it in the end. After all, the goal for using this channel should be dialogue and engagement.      How can you accomplish that without listening?
  • Be careful what you say. Given the real-time nature, it’s easy to want to respond quickly. However, it’s  important to think through your response and even have someone do a quick review of it before posting. Once it’s out there, you can’t take it back.

How are you using social media in your postition? What other things should new professionals know about social media’s role in our profession?

 

Christina MortonChristina Morton is an account executive at Fry Hammond Barr, a national advertising, public relations and interactive marketing agency that’s been connecting people and brands for more than 50 years. Fry Hammond Barr has offices in Orlando and Tampa.