Intro to Series… Agency PR by Adrienne Bailey

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As you can imagine, agency life is exceptionally eventful, fast paced, and extremely rewarding.  Unlike other areas of public relations, you are constantly working with numerous clients in a wide array of industries. A typical work week can vary depending on deadline, events, client projects, and journalists’ needs—no two weeks are ever the same. Often, you may be working on several accounts at a time; each requiring just as much attention as the others. Being able to effectively allocate enough time to each account is essential to meeting client’s needs and exceeding expectations.

Due to the fast paced atmosphere, it is imperative to think quickly on your feet. The flair to provide swift and meticulous responses and work at the drop of a hat comes from a true understanding of the evolving industry and your client’s business. As agency people, we are constantly researching, keeping with the news and latest trends, and bringing new, unique ideas to the table. The work environment is extremely conducive to learning and collaboration—and while there may be a laid back feel, people are constantly working hard to stay ahead of the game.

What kinds of things would you expect to do working for a PR agency?

While general tasks may vary based on the client, agency work in PR does involve a great deal of pitching, writing, planning, creating, and collaboration! Agency pros are regularly educating the media and the public on a wide variety of topics by effectively sharing stories in a compelling manner. My work involves consistently developing newsworthy and unique angles to pitch to the media, educating clients on social media and Web 2.0, landing placements in targeted platforms to ensure the message is reaching the right people, and much more. Taking the time to do thorough research and personalize your correspondences with editors and journalists is vital to developing great relationships. In my experience, I have come to recognize and develop several skills needed for success in an agency: persistency, organization, urgency, commitment and the ability to multi-task are just a few.

What kinds of challenges could you face working for a PR agency?

Regardless of your industry, challenges are something we face each and every day. A few challenges in the agency work include:

  • Keeping up with not only the public relations industry, but the industries of our clients
  • Work and life balance is a bit tricky- especially with the amount of professional development needed at any level
  • Pressure to bring cutting-edge ideas to our clients on a consistent basis
  • Staying atop the evolution of technology and ensuring integration when necessary
  • Being able to deliver metrics and accurate measurement of our efforts
  • Helping clients and potential new business prospects understand our industry’s work and value
  • Multi-tasking between current accounts and potential new business

What kinds of courses would be beneficial to someone working for a PR agency?

Outside of the general courses in PR and Journalism, courses in

  • marketing,
  • business,
  • economy
  • public speaking
  • various cultures and second languages

—
Adrienne Bailey, Account Executive at Y&L PR- a division of Young and Laramore, 2009 Butler University graduate.

professional development webinar…Build a Thriving Online Brand for Yourself (June 16, 2010)

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Just a mere few years ago, a resume was one of the only things a recruiter had access to in order to gain insight into an applicants background, experience and overall personal brand. Well those days are over.

Now a quick Google search can reveal your online footprint – the blog you write, comments you’ve left, your Facebook profile, tweets, pictures you’re tagged in, events you’ve attended, and the lists goes on. It is now more important then ever to be as strategic with you online presence as you are with your resume. Everyone should be asking themselves, “Have I positioned myself well online?”

To help us determine how, when and where to join online conversations, while maintaining our professional credibility, we’ve invited fellow New Pro member Lauren Fernandez to share her secrets to becoming an online influencer during the New Pros webinar “Build a Thriving Online Brand for Yourself,” Wednesday, June 16, 2010 from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. EST.

Lauren Fernandez is an account executive at Moroch | PR, and specializes in social and traditional media relations strategy, working exclusively with the energy sector. In the past, she has worked extensively on behalf of clients across a variety of industries, including health care, motion pictures, technology and higher education. Lauren’s public relations and social media blog “LAF” was awarded “Best Up-and-Coming Blog” at the 2009 PR Reader’s Choice Blog Awards. She is a co-creator and moderator of the popular #u30pro, an ongoing Twitter conversation focusing on professional insight and bridging the generation gap. Connect with Lauren (@CubanaLAF) on Twitter.

For the cost of this event, PRSA members will receive a free New Professionals Section membership (a $20 value). This membership will expire at the time of your PRSA National membership renewal.

For more information or to register, click here.

Summer Book Club… Get Ready! Discussion Begins the First Friday of June

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Remember summer reading? Like it or not, extracurricular reading ensures that you stay on top of your game, and as New Pros, anything we can do to keep ourselves more knowledgeable than expected will only benefit us.

Enter the New Pros of PRSA Summer Book Club!

We invite you to join us and our members as we read and discuss 3 books this summer.

Here’s how it will work: From June through August, everyone interested is invited to read the month’s book selection. On the first two Fridays of each month, we will post interviews with authors, discussion questions, and other things to the blog. You can participate by reading and commenting or simply following along.

Start your reading engines

Here are the books we plan to include in this summer’s Book Club: (Remember, the discussion will take place on the first and second Fridays in June; so make sure you have a copy of the June selection and start reading before then!)

Vote for the August book by May 31

You can help us choose which book we should read in August. Vote on our Facebook Page by May 31. Here are your options:

career advice… Real People Think This is OK When Job Hunting, but It’s Not by Janet Krenn

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I’ve been completely astounded by the way that people act in networking and job-hunting situations; and I start to wonder, how could any rational person think that this is OK?

The only way I can explain it? These crazy interactions must be the unhappy result of someone misapplying generic advice. Here are real stories of bad networking behavior that I have witnessed along with the four bits of generic networking and job hunting advice that I want to bring to your attention. By all means, apply these pieces of advice, but please do so with a healthy amount of restraint!

Generic Advice #1: Don’t be afraid to take a risk.
How much “risk” should you as a job hunter take? Risk can indicate that you are a leader or that you are confident. But if the risk turns out to be a disaster, you may come off as arrogant or reckless.

Bad Application: Taking a risk without considering whether the risk will give you the desired outcome.
Once I was at a trade show with our CEO. A newly minted graduate and now intern planted himself in our exhibit space. While the CEO was off talking with someone else, the recent grad indicated to me that he thought our company was interesting and inquired whether we were hiring. We weren’t right now, I told him, but if he’d like to drop off a resume, we’d hold onto it. He walked away, but when he came back, he didn’t have a resume–He had redesigned the company logo and started pitching his unsolicited redesign to the CEO.

Generic Advice #2: Don’t be afraid of networking! Get your name out there. Show your face.
When I lament to my boyfriend that my bike needs some work, but I didn’t know where to take it. He says in reply, “Oh, if only there was some international network of information that you could use to find this out!”  There is no excuse for walking into any prospective partner, employer, or client’s office as if you were conducting a “cold call”.

Bad Application: Contacting an individual about whom you know nothing.
The other day, a job hunter walks into my office and asks, “Do you know who the expert is in XYZ?” and then “What can you tell me about him?” This gent wanted to establish a partnership with someone at my company, and assumed that just because I had a desk on campus that I was going to have answers for him. When I told him I didn’t know who he should talk to, he asked that I look into it and email him. Which brings me to #3…

Generic Advice #3: Ask for help.
Finding a job is work. You can probably look to your close friends and colleagues to help you drum up business or interviews. Be careful whom you ask for help.

Bad Application: Asking others to carry you.
When you ask for assistance from someone who doesn’t know you better, you run the risk of looking unambitious or lazy, and once you’ve made that impression, you have a slim chance that that connected individual will want to recommend you for an interview.


Generic Advice #4: Contact the hiring manager before you submit your resume. Ask questions during your interview.
The questions you ask a hiring manager could make you appear thoughtful and intelligent. The caveat is: In order to appear thoughtful and intelligent, your questions need to be thoughtful and intelligent. Walking into a networking situation or a job interview, you should already know why you want to be there.

Bad Application: Asking a company to tell you how you could benefit from this position.
Don’t contact a hiring manager and ask her to justify why you should want the job. This seems obvious, right? I’m only bringing it up, because I’ve seen it happen more than once. If you don’t know why you should want the job, don’t waste anyone’s time. Don’t apply, and don’t bother the hiring manager. You never know when that hiring manager will be posting a job you are interested in, and you don’t want to have that first negative interaction hanging over your head.

—
JANET KRENN has never been a hiring manager, and even so, she’s seen some job hunters doing some wacky things. She is also the 2010 Chair of the New Professionals of PRSA. You can contact her at janetqs(a)gmail.com or @janetkrenn.

social media… Dear Facebook, Please Grant Me (and other Page admins) These 5 Functions by Janet Krenn

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To celebrate PRSA New Pros’ new Facebook URL (www.facebook.com/PRSANewPros), I thought I’d revisit the popular topic of managing a Facebook Page for public relations and business.

Previously, I wrote a post called Facebook Group v. Facebook Fan Page–Never build a group page. I got emails from all over the world (no kidding) from folks trying to launch their own Facebook Fan Page for their businesses. Most of these folks were wondering, Have I experienced other problems they were finding? If not, how did I solve them?

Although I’ve been pretty good at answering readers’ emails, I thought, I might as well hammer out a new post (1) to let you know you’re not not alone; these functions really do not exist, and you don’t have to waste your time hunting down an answer–I’ve already wasted enough time for the both of us–(2) in hopes that some Facebook functionality genie will see this article and grant us these five functions.

1. Page admins should have the option to comment as an individual.

I think everyone who has emailed me has asked if I figured out how to comment as Janet on the Fan Pages for which I’m also an admin. Sadly, when admins comment on their wall, they can only do so as a representative of the group. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to comment as Janet on the New Pros Facebook Fan Page, but didn’t because I didn’t want my sometimes snarky attitude to be under the New Pros veil. Facebook, if your listening, make some option so that Admins can comment on the wall as individuals or as the group.

2. Admins should be allowed to edit a wall post for a period of time after its submitted.

The same is true for personal pages, but I’ll tell ya, there’s nothing worse than setting up the link, choosing the thumbnail, typing some copy and then finding you wrote “ther” instead of “the”. LinkedIN has a good model. That platform allows the poster to edit for 15 minutes after hitting submit. Facebook, I know you’re for kids and not for brands, but brands love you! Show the brands a little love and make it a little easier for us to correct typos or bad links without trashing the whole post.

3. Don’t make me choose! Let admins post more than one html bit (photos, links, videos) at the same time.

Facebook, why not? Most of the time, it really doesn’t matter, but consider this: Sometimes you want to link to a page, and the page doesn’t have any good image. So instead of a visually interesting wall post with my Page’s avatar and an interesting little image, my links don’t emit no interesting visual cue. Why can’t I upload a photo from my own computer AND include a link in one wall post?

4. Simplify the event forms.

If you’ve ever tried to schedule an event on your Facebook Fan Page, you know that you have to click through 3 times before you can publish. And each time you click, you have to put in more information. Okay, so this isn’t a functionality issue. It’s just an ease issue. Facebook, please streamline your event forms! Start by eliminating those pesky drop-down menus that do not correctly categorize my event, but you insist that I use.

5. Have updates to the discussion tab appear on the Fan Page wall.

I have no idea why you haven’t included this function. Discussions are like forums, and everyone expects that the front page of a forum will alert with the newest threads and the newest comments. I would love to use the discussions tab, but I’m not going to bother members with an email every time a discussion gets updated. And let’s be honest, without those updates appearing on the wall, I’ll forget about it anyway.

—
JANET KRENN administers two Facebook Fan Pages and wonders whether Facebook will ever update some of its functions to make life as a PR and marketer a littler easier. (She is also your 2010 New Pros of PRSA Chair, and the past, 2009, Communication Chair. Follow her on Twitter @JanetKrenn or contact her janetqs(a)gmail.com)