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PRSA New Professionals Brown Bag: Get Your Dream Career

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

In our November New Professionals Section tweetchat, we discovered that many of our new professionals are eagerly searching for up-to-date relevant information on getting a job. Should you include social networks and a QR code on your resume? How can you bump up your interview strategy? We’re fortunate to have our very own part of PRSA dedicated to answering all of our questions – the PRSA Jobcenter.

In our upcoming Brown Bag, Richard Spector of PRSA Jobcenter, will share with us all of the basics, but also all of the new and creative ways to enhance your resume with QR codes and social media. Then, once you catch an employer’s attention with your resume, he’ll discuss how to “wow” them with your interview skills. In addition to interviews and resumes, he will review the job seeking tools PRSA has to offer.

Regardless of what stage of your career you’re in, this is always valuable information to have!

This New Pros Brown Bag will be held on Thursday, Jan. 17 from 12 to 1 p.m. EST. Remember, it’s free for New Pros members! Register here.

Richard Spector, manager of client services and sales support at PRSA, has been working with PRSA Jobcenter for five years. Spector guides public relations professionals of all levels in their job search, resume writing, networking and interview follow-up skills.

Intro to Crisis Communications

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Almost 17 years ago, I started my career in public relations after a five-year stint as a trade journalist.  Since I have a social butterfly/people-person personality, I thought PR was all about mingling with the celebrities, traveling and promoting great news journalists were sure to write about.  After I took off my rose-colored glasses, I realized PR wasn’t always peaches and cream and often involved using skill sets like crisis communications to protect my company’s image and brand.

I started my career in technology PR and quickly discovered strategic crisis communications were must-have skills to survive in one of the most stressful jobs in the professional landscape. Why do you ask?  At most of the companies I worked for in the telecommunications segment in the 1990s, acquisitions, restructurings, layoffs and management upheavals were commonplace. Therefore, it was essential for me to develop crisis communications skills early on in my career to prepare my company for the worst.  Thinking on my feet, developing strategic counseling and planning skills were drilled into my DNA as a PR professional early on.

Fast forward to the last few years. What’s been the big trend in PR?  Whether you are a new PR or veteran PR professional, no one can forget the crises that have affected big companies like Chick-fil-A, BP, News Corp., Penn State, Netflix and HP. The common theme in many of these crises is that the PR and marketing teams didn’t develop solid communications plans to react to the media quickly enough and preserve their brand’s image.  Whether your company is in the technology, healthcare or travel and tourism field, you always need to be prepared for potential situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in management and other volatile situations on which your stakeholders — and the media that serves them — often focus.

Crisis communications is at the heart of my current job today.  My company provides essential information that helps customers across all industries and government predict, assess and manage risk. We provide products and services that address evolving client needs in the risk sector, while upholding the highest standards of security and privacy.  To that end, upholding my company’s standards of compliance in a highly-regulated industry is a natural extension of why crisis communications is so important.

For me, every day is different.  I have to stay on top of what’s happening with my company in the media landscape by reading and studying trends, including privacy and security changes, regulatory and compliance issues, to name a few.  In addition, I avidly monitor the news and potential crises through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  In a highly-regulated business like mine, it’s essential to respond appropriately to media inquiries as well.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job is helping our spokespeople and marketing teams develop strategic messages that help protect, preserve and raise our brand in key markets like financial services, government and insurance – ultimately so we can influence the key influencers – the media and analyst community.

Therefore, developing an issues or crisis communications playbook is the way our small communications team prepares for a potential crisis that could involve a technology issue, an executive appointment, a natural disaster or on-site employee issue.  This is our guide or instruction book for communicating quickly and decisivively to our key publics, including the media, the industry analysts, partners and customers, charities and investors.

Change continues to be the only constant in my job.  However, here are five for new professionals looking to add crisis communications skills into their careers:

  1. Take courses on crisis communications through PRSA and other outlets like PR News.  The only way to effectively learn how to become an effect crisis communications pro is by learning from the experts who have years of experience managing them the right way.
  2. Ask your key spokespeople what the five biggest risks would be to your organization’s business.  Asking the hard questions and preparing the answers to potential risks your organization faces, will help you prepare your talking points, Q&As and issues management playbook in the event a crisis happens.
  3. Study what has happened with some of the biggest PR crises over the last few years and learn from their mistakes.  Mistakes are bound to happen in the PR profession because communications aren’t always effectively managed or rolled out. But you can magnify those mistakes by a magnitude of 10 when a crisis is mishandled. So you can learn from what other companies or organizations have done to repair or resurrect their images and brands in the wake of disasters that will help you in the long run.
  4. Put your crisis communications skills into practice.  Start small by simulating a crisis communications drill.  Once your crisis playbook is developed, set up a war room and temporary phone lines and prepare your spokespeople to be trained to take questions from the media.  Practice makes perfect and drills help to make sure you are properly prepared if a true disaster happens.

Crisis communications is far and away one of the most difficult PR skill sets to master, but you need to learn to be prepared in case your company has to deal with a crisis.

 

Stephen LoudermilkStephen Loudermilk is global media and analyst relations director at LexisNexis, where he heads communications for the company’s Business Services and Screening practices.  In his spare time, he is actively involved in PRSA, where he serves as chairman of the Technology Section and treasurer of the PRSA Southeast District.

PRSA New Professionals Week: New Pros Tweetchat Recap via Storify

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Today, the New Professionals Section hosted a tweetchat to celebrate the second annual New Professionals Week. We discussed resumes, portfolios, LinkedIn and more. In case you missed it, see below for a recap via Storify! Thanks to our programming chairs, Elizabeth Rhoads Greenaway and Brendan Hughes, for hosting.

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.

Three Tips for Breaking into Your PR Career by Richard Spector

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

As the PRSA Jobcenter manager, I frequently present to groups of graduating seniors on tips for entering the public relations workforce. Most recently, I had the opportunity to speak at West Virginia University’s INTEGRATE Conference, and I found myself searching for the right career advice to give them. What can I say to a graduating class that’s going to be facing a tough economy? I found three tips that could give them an edge in this competitive job market:

Stay optimistic and determined. It’s never easy hearing the word “no”, especially after interviewing for a job you thought fit you perfectly. What’s more bewildering is not even getting an interview. Sometimes you’ll know the reason, but other times you won’t. Take that rejection and let it make you that much more determined to get the job. The passion you will have as a new professional is your strongest ally. Employers will see and recognize it. If this was your dream job, stay in touch with the employer even if they didn’t hire you. Career experts say that 25 percent of employers that initially turn down a candidate will eventually end up hiring them.

If you keep your skill sets strong and continue to form relationships, you’ll always have opportunities. If you want to get connected with a particular company, try volunteering, which may not put money in the bank, but gets you in their door.

Do what you love while you are job hunting. You can’t look for a job 24/7 — although you should be looking most of the time. However, everyone needs a break from the exhaustion of rejection. Rest and recharge with activities you enjoy doing. Take a break from tweaking your resume. You’ll view it with a fresh eye and spot things you never would have seen before.

Most of all, remember that there are some things you can control and other things you can’t. The economy will always go in cycles. If times are tough now, have faith that it will get better.

Prepare for your interview to the point of exhaustion. In the past, doing some research on a company’s website and being somewhat acquainted with the company was enough. Now, you have to be better and more prepared than the next person. Consider these resources when researching a company and how your own skills fit in:

  • Annual report —What is the company’s mission and tagline? How does this fit in with your career goals and qualifications?
  • Strategic plan — How can you help the employer achieve the goals in their strategic plan? What skills and tactics could you bring to the table? Are there new goals you can identify and help them reach?
  • Social media plan — How can you integrate all the different social media venues to help the company grow and succeed? A friend of mine was competing with several others for the same job. How did he stand above the rest? He put together a presentation of the different types of social media he would use to give the company a great social, digital and media presence.
  • Funding companies— How can you use social media such as LinkedIn, Google+ and others to develop and cultivate new leads for the company?
  • Company awards — What standards of excellence do you aspire to reach? Has the company won awards for their website or writing? Are there new skills you need to obtain to help them maintain these standards?
  • Company challenges — Where does the company fall short and how can you help them? Is their branding weak? Does their communications plan need updating?
  • Current employees on Facebook, LinkedIn — Who are the names and faces of the company employees? What do you know about the people that will be interviewing you? Doing your research on current employees helps you identify the corporate culture. You may even learn whether this job truly is a dream job or whether there’s not as much as a fit as you thought. Doing this groundwork will also create some wonderful networking opportunities down the road.

Change with the field. Sooner or later you’re going to have to update your skills. Who thought that Pinterest and Klout would be as important in the social media world as they have become? If you are a public relations expert, you may be asked to create a marketing plan. If you’re a strategic communications consultant, you may be asked to create new webpages for the company’s website that will increase traffic, coincide with their branding and be keyword optimized and content relevant. Peter Weddle, employment and workplace author and columnist, calls this “career fitness“. You always need to keep your skills in good shape. The PRSA Jobcenter has abundant resources for building and exercising your career.

If I could give new professionals the best lesson, it’s to always keep that youthful exuberance. Each time I present at a university, I’m always impressed by the graduating students’ enthusiasm. Enter a field because it’s something you love. Don’t go into a field because you think you’ll make money. Having a passion for your career ranks as high as having a passion for living. Hold onto that.

Richard Spector is the manager of client services at Public Relations Society of America.