PRSA New Pros

Intro to Agency PR

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

Upon graduation from college almost five years ago, I noticed a common trend among entry-level job descriptions for which I was applying: public relations agency experience was preferred and sometimes even required. I had held a number of jobs and internships in the industry throughout my college career, but none were with an agency. I didn’t understand why working at an agency was put on a pedestal, but I knew that getting that experience would be an important step in my career.

After working in marketing for a couple of years, I decided to make the switch to agency PR. I found that agency life posed its own unique challenges, and new professionals should learn to expect a few commonalities among agencies when attaining the gold standard of PR experience.

Learn to juggle

The ability to multitask is not only crucial, but it is at the crux of your job. While some larger agencies may have individuals working on just one client account, many agencies will have a team dedicated to a handful of clients. These clients may all be in the same industry, such as consumer products or health care, or they may run the gamut of industries. New professionals in agencies will have to quickly learn their clients’ businesses, products and services inside and out. You must become an expert in each of these industries so you can communicate effectively and in an educated way.

One of the biggest differences between agency and corporate communications is how you prioritize. At an agency, you can’t prioritize one client over another. They all need equal attention, and if your five clients each have a last-minute project at 5 p.m. on a Friday, the work needs to get done for all five clients. At a corporation, you may have the flexibility to prioritize one project over another—not so at an agency. Be prepared for long hours, but great client relationships and invaluable experience as a result.

Learn to accept every opportunity

I now realize why agency experience is preferred by many employers, having lived agency life. New professionals will gain experience in almost every PR task—building media lists, media monitoring, pitching reporters, drafting press releases, managing social media accounts and creating PR plans. Nothing is off limits for an entry-level PR professional.

Take advantage of this opportunity. While it might seem overwhelming at first to try to master everything an agency has to offer, doing is the best way of learning. When I first started, I would volunteer to tag along on a Saturday morning to a radio station to observe a client interview or come up with pitch ideas from breaking news. In a year and a half, there aren’t many skills I haven’t attempted to master. Not only do you build your skill set, but you become the go-to person on the team when questions arise—no longer just a worker bee, but an invaluable member of the team.

Learn to speak up

When I first started at my agency, I was apprehensive to speak up. Not only did I feel like the new kid in a room of PR experts, but I wasn’t sure how the hierarchy would play out in an agency. I learned that not only was sharing ideas encouraged, it was expected! Don’t expect to be making copies forever. Agencies want to see their staff grow into strategic thinkers and creative minds. Senior leaders like new professionals who take initiative and share their ideas, whether it’s for a client project or proposing a more efficient way to get the work done.

It’s also extremely important to keep your career goals in mind. Don’t keep it a secret if there is a specific project on which you want to work. Not only does asking for specific projects show passion, but it allows you to share your unique interests and skills. Just because you are a new professional doesn’t mean you have nothing to bring to the table. Since my prior position was in marketing, I had experience in redesigning websites. When one of our clients was looking to redesign their website, I jumped at the chance to not only use my past experience, but also lead a project I really enjoyed. I now have two company website redesigns under my belt and a happy client.

Maybe you are a passionate Pinner and can launch a client Pinterest page, or maybe you love to write and a press release needs to be prepared. Don’t be shy in asking for what you want!

 

While switching to an agency was overwhelming at first, the experience has had so much to offer. If you take advantage of the wealth of opportunities agencies offer, you can build an amazing foundation for the rest of your PR career. What other advice would you give new pros heading for agency life? What was the biggest lesson you learned?

 

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. Previously, she 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 and chair-elect for the PRSA New Professionals Section. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

 

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.

Self-Branding: Creating Your Professional Identity

Zaneta Chuniq Inpower Leave a comment

Defining yourself as a public relations professional will be one of the most important tasks you will begin while starting your career. As we’ve evolved into the age of digital and social media, these networks have forced enabled individuals to create their own personal brands by creating the opportunity for us to share specific content to audiences that ultimately shape who we are, or striving to be.

With so many social networks, it may be difficult to decide which networks to use and if you should have a separate identity on each one. The best rule of thumb is to be consistent. Don’t be conservative on Facebook and rowdy on Twitter. Ask yourself, are you a Beyonce or Rihanna when it comes to social media expression? Personally, I share random thoughts and happenings via Twitter, yet I am always posting about business, news, PR and other professional, mature interests that let my followers remember what I am truly about.

Here are 7 things PR Pros should consider when branding themselves:

  • Connect LinkedIN to Facebook or Twitter. Let people see that you are a professional with an opinion and expertise in your said field of study or work. This helps build a rapport with your personal friends who may not have previously been aware of your business savvy.
  • Remove all undergrad party pictures or set them to private. What happens in college stays in college (so it should). Keep it classy with the pictures you have uploaded and the ones you share. Once something is on Facebook online, it’s there forever.
  • Take a professional headshot for your LinkedIN page. Potential employers, colleagues and networking connections will take you more seriously when your picture is formal.
  • Not sure what you want your “brand” to say? Think of 5 of your best qualities or skills and use them as foundations for content and engagement. Build from your original skill set as you gain more experience.
  • Work in your field! This should be a no brainer; however you can’t be an entertainment PR guru if you don’t have any experience with record labels, management teams, venues, artists or music in general. If you’re looking for a career in any area, start with an internship, get a mentor in that area, start making mock news releases to build your writing skills and dive in.
  • Have strong, meaningful business card. Sure you can send someone your contact file on your iPhone or Blackberry, but business cards are still imperative. Enlist a graphic designer to design a custom card with your contact info, social media links and professional headline.
  • Dress for the job you want to have in the future. Invest in a nice suit, shoe(s) and accessories. Always have this on-hand for impromptu appearances at business events.

Talk back:

  1. What are some other things new PR pros can do to build a solid brand?
  2. How have you used the digital atmosphere to build your professional identity?

Zaneta Chuniq Inpower is owner and president of Chuniq PR, an independent media and marketing management firm. Additionally, she is the digital communications coordinator for Douglas J Aveda Institutes and Salons, editor  for Supreme Design Publishing and social media manager for COIN Handlers Management. Her personal interests include reading, international travel and culture and community revitalization. Inpower received her B.A. in advertising from Michigan State University. Zaneta Chuniq Inpower is a member of the Central Michigan PRSA chapter and is the PRSA New Professionals Section Executive Committee Blog Co-Chair.

 

Summer Book Club-June: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Heather Sliwinski 4 Comments

In just a few days, the calendar will say summer is officially upon us, and returning this year to the PRSA New Professionals blog is our popular Summer Book Club. We polled our social media followers, and our members selected our June book. At the end of the month, we will be discussing “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell.

As PR professionals, our ultimate goal is to spread word about our clients, companies or causes, and Gladwell discusses how ideas and trends can catch and spread like wildfire. We hope you join us, read along and take part in the discussion in a few weeks!

Amazon.com review of “The Tipping Point”:

“The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life,” writes Malcolm Gladwell, “is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.” Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell’s The Tipping Pointhas quite a few interesting twists on the subject…Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the “stickiness” of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell’s closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that “tipping point,” like “future shock” or “chaos theory,” will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows–or at least knows by name. –Ron Hogan

Professional Devleopment Brown Bag: “What PR Bosses Wish Their New PR Pros Would Do But Won’t Tell Them” with Michael Smart

Heather Sliwinski 2 Comments

All of us have different relationships with our bosses. Many new professionals hear from their bosses more than they’d like, while others may not hear from them enough. Some can walk into their boss’s office anytime to ask a question, while others need to get on their schedule and prepare a little bit to speak with their boss. Regardless of where your relationship with your boss falls, one thing is true – your boss is not telling you everything he/she appreciates or wishes you wouldn’t do at work.

Our next New Professionals Section Brown Bag features someone who has not only worked with countless PR executives, but has also mentored several successful young pros (who have gone on to Edelman, Waggener Edstrom, Fleishman-Hilliard and Harvard Business School). In working with these PR executives, Michael Smart has often heard them rant and rave about their young employees. Now he’s here to share it with us – the good and the bad – in our upcoming Brown Bag, “What PR Bosses Wish Their New PR Pros Would Do But Won’t Tell Them.”

Don’t miss it! Join us Monday, June 11 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT. Register here.

Michael SmartMichael Smart teaches PR professionals a smarter way to get PR results. He’s regularly the highest-rated speaker at the industry’s largest conferences, including the PRSA International Conference last year. He has trained more than 4,000 communicators from Frankfurt to Bangkok how to land top-tier media coverage. Smart also coaches communications execs at companies ranging from Fortune 200 firms, such as Aflac and GlaxoSmithKline, to mid-sized companies and PR agencies. Follow him on Twitter.

The Brown Bag is only available to New Professional Section members.