I’m filling in for Gini this week, and taking you on a stroll down PR memory lane…
Do you remember what it was like when you started your first professional communications job right out of college?
Did you go from feeling totally ready to take on the world to not understanding how those four years of classes didn’t prepare you at all for the day-to-day realities of your job?
I know that’s the case for many of us.
Hence last week’s Big Question: What is one thing you wish you knew about PR when you started your first PR job?
PR is All About the Relationships
We talk about relationship building a lot these days because it’s such an important professional skill.
Sure, if you happen to work for a Fortune 100 brand, you can garner press attention regardless of your relationships.
But most of us have to work hard to build relationships with influencers and journalists long before we pitch them.
And as Sarah Chain notes, that’s not something PR students are learning in their university coursework.
I wish I knew how valuable relationship building truly is for PR professionals. A great ‘media list’ won’t get you far unless you’re actively working to build a relationship with a journalist or influencer and able to demonstrate you understand their beat, focus and needs. I relied on local contacts when I began, but as I learned to expand my network and began more regional and national pitching, I had to learn that a cold contact was rarely enough to place a story. Now I focus more so on first interacting with journalists in their sphere and connecting with them on content and stories they’re producing, rather than rushing to the pitch.— Sarah Chain
Importance of Building Your Personal Brand and Network
A few years ago, I had an intern who absolutely hit it out of the park on the B2B technology social media projects I worked on with her.
When her internship neared its end, I was stunned when one of our executives quickly dismiss the idea of hiring her on full time.
The reason?
Other than me advocating for her, she hadn’t really built a network of advocates within the organization.
Her lack of personal, one-to-one visibility with the executive team took her out of the running for a permanent position.
In retrospect, they saw her lack of networking with them as a sign she wouldn’t be out there building relationships with influencers either.
Build a Network of Your Peers
Similarly, the ability to build a network of your peers—not just journalists—is vital to your success as a PR professional.
The one thing I wish I knew about PR when I started my first PR job would be the importance of building a network, and steps to take to do that. It takes time to build relationships with journalists to become a go-to source and so the earlier you can start that in your career, the better. This begins with identifying journalists, following them on social media and sharing their stories, and then sending them thoughtful pitches.
It’s also important to build a network of other PR pros to help mentor and guide you. When you are starting out, having several people you can learn from and go to for advice and input on career and work-related questions, can help you become a better PR pro. Getting involved in professional organizations and reaching out to people you admire for informational interviews are great ways to start building a network.— Julia Marvin
Do Your Homework
We’re all busy—PR pros and journalists alike.
That’s why it can be tempting to shop a generic pitch around until you get a taker.
But by the time you get to your third or fourth outlet, have you really saved any time? Wouldn’t it have been better to have crafted a pitch that’s tailored to a specific journalist and their publication needs?
Batch and blast pitching simply doesn’t work anymore.
Tailor Your Pitches
Journalists expect you to understand their beat and offer them something that’s tailored to them and their audience.
I wish I knew how critical it is to research and know the reporters/editors you are pitching in advance. Without doing the homework, it is easy to offend editors that are busy and sometimes a bit egotistical. I found that playing to the ego was an effective way to engage and open conversations. I took the approach of being honest about my praise, of course. Since the early days of my career, I continue to research the latest articles written by the reports I’m contacting first.— Kent Lewis
Talk to Your Customers
Doing your homework also includes having first-hand experience with your customers and their problems, as Paula Kiger notes.
If your customer personas are based on third-hand years old information, don’t be surprised when your messaging falls flat.
I think it’s important to recognize early on that you need to somehow capture the experience “real” customers are having vs imposing the message you think they need to hear. This was brought home to me when I was working at Healthy Kids. I was at our PR agency as an observer and as the client, but hearing ACTUAL parents who were struggling with the system and who believed false information they had heard THREE YEARS PRIOR helped me realize all the great graphics and messages in the world were nothing if the PR people (and me) didn’t realize what they thought in the first place.— Paula Kiger
The Next Big Question: Is Thought Leadership Dead?
If you bring up the topic of thought leadership in conversation, someone skewers you pretty quickly for playing buzzword bingo.
Despite the taste aversion to the term, almost every PR program includes a heavy executive thought leadership component.
This brings us to this week’s big question: Is it time to retire the phrase thought leadership? If so, what replaces it?
