Common mistakes new PR pros make
You never stop learning in the public relations industry. You can always be a better writer, listener and practitioner. The reason why you are in the position you are today is not just because of YOU. At some point you received help or advice from someone else, whether it was a professor, colleague or mentor.
I asked three members of Phoenix PRSA’s new pros group, who each have at least two years of professional experience to answer a question that can provide valuable insight to new pros or college students.
What’s the most common mistake you made as a new PR pro or you see newer pros make??
Katy Kelewae: This is a balancing act. New pros need to find a happy medium between thinking they know everything and questioning their skills too much (thinking they don’t know enough). It is OK to make a few mistakes, just remember what you did, why you did it and then change your thinking the next time you are in that situation. At the same time, while I’m sure there are plenty of very smart new pros out there who did very well on their capstone projects, they need to remember that the “real world” is different and they need time to learn (again).
Christina Salgado: One of the most common mistakes that I’ve been guilty of, and see many new PR pros doing, is in the area of pitching and coming up with story angles. All too often, I see a lot of press releases and pitches that sell the company, not a story. You walk a fine line between putting out a story for a reporter, and a selling a brochure for the company on paper. It’s important to remember that you’re writing just as much for the media as you are for your company, and it can’t be too heavily saturated with selling points for your business.
Another mistake I see new pros make is not giving reporters enough information for their story. In order to optimize the chances for news outlets to pick up your story, you have to be able to serve everything for them on a silver platter. This includes a heavily detailed story and photos and ALWAYS offer to put the reporter in touch with the subject of the story for an interview.
Last, it’s important to abide by editorial deadlines! Know the deadlines of every magazine and newspaper. Keep a monthly calendar handy, so you know what magazine and newspaper issues are coming up, and how your client can fit within those stories.
Efia Moore: My mistake was I didn’t take advantage of all of my resources. I encourage new pros to volunteer, create, and take on new projects and to interview people they admire. Set three month goals, ask a lot of questions and find out what your company is willing to invest into you. Network with other PR pros. To have someone in the industry to go to that understands your challenges is priceless.
All three fellow pros bring up great points. I was interviewed recently about this topic and gave the same answer along time lines as Katy, don’t pretend to know everything. Christina makes a great point too, remember to pitch a story, not sell the company. Finally, Effie hits it head on when saying it’s important to take advantage of your resources.
Feel free to chime in – what’s the most common mistake you made as a new PR pro or you see other newer pros make?
What do Mexican food restaurants and communicators have in common?
Two of my hobbies are eating and practicing public relations. The other day I was at one of the many Mexican food restaurants in Arizona. I noticed everything on the menu was made with tortilla, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, chicken, steak and pico de gallo.
Most of those items are thrown together to make tacos, tostados, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas or chimichangas. It made me realize Mexican food consists of the same ingredients, just presented in different ways depending on what you order.
As communicators, we do the same exact thing as Mexican food restaurants….
We combine words to create sentences. We use those sentences to create press releases, media advisories, columns, blogs, pitches, tip sheets, editorials, web articles and more.
We have the same basic ingredients for most of the writing we do, but we present it in different ways depending on who our audience is. Depending on what the client or the journalist wants, we tweak the way we present our sentences for their interest. For example, you know there have been times when you have used your marketing materials in your press releases and your web stories.
It’s ok to repurpose, you’re giving the customer what they want.
*Blogger’s note: I can’t believe I actually posted this.
An introduction to higher education PR
I work in higher education PR. I don’t go to grad school for PR as some of my friends think I do.
I have been working in higher education PR for nearly two years and I still get questions from outsiders about what I do. Since some people don’t understand, I thought I would provide an overview of what a higher Ed PR practitioner does. Please remember, this is a general overview and everyone’s position is different. So here’s a run down:
· Media Relations: Higher education institutions often provide faculty expert sources for the media. Students have newsworthy initiatives going on. How does your institution compare with the latest trends? Whether it’s fulfilling a request or pitching. Media relations can be a large part of a pros job. Developing relationships with higher Ed reporters is key.
· Monitoring: Monitor articles that were published and monitor the breaking news. Monitoring breaking news falls under media relations, one thing leads to another. As a PR pro you need to be in front of the news so you can leverage your professor or school’s expertise and provide sources for the media. Have multiple experts available that can talk about different angles on the same topic, why not create a media tip sheet?
· Crisis Communication: Swine Flu? Death on campus? Shooting? The PR pro should play a large part of your institutions emergency response management team. You hope none of the above ever happens, but you must be prepared.
· Media Training: Sure your professor can speak academic, but can they (or you) translate their work and apply it to current events?
· Internal and external writing: Obviously writing is a part of a PR pros job. Press releases, internal newsletters, magazines, editorials, HR communications, web articles, rankings communications and byline articles are samples of the type of writing. You may also have to write fundraising letters and grants depending on your position.
· Social Media: You may be asked to create and maintain a strategic social media plan for your institution.
Depending on the institution and budget, you may have marketing or event responsibilities as well. Every day brings on a new task. Higher Ed PR is rewarding. We don’t put out fluff or spam (most of us don’t). We help promote thought leadership. And that is one of my favorite things about higher Ed PR.
I barely grazed the surface with this post. Want to know more about higher Ed PR pro? Leave me a comment, e-mail me or Tweet me.
People actually read my tweets
In the past several months I attended a few networking events from the Public Relations Society of America. I enjoy talking about PR and networking, so why not do both at the same time? At each of the events I attended, I met familiar faces that follow me on Twitter.
Those familiar faces asked me questions about things I previously tweeted. The fact that they waited till they met me tells me they read my tweets, just don’t engage. Even though people may not always respond, my followers do read my tweets.
Good news: Just because people don’t respond to you, doesn’t mean they ignore you.
Best practices of Twitter tell us to be transparent. Not just during times of crisis, but in your personal tweets too. Don’t lie or mislead on Twitter. You never know when you will meet one of your followers in person.
PR pros mess up, President jokes as a result
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fQ5ksnWI2I[/youtube]
I wrote about it before. In my opinion, not giving President Obama an honorary degree was a blunder. Obama’s graduation speech was great. Listen at the 27 second mark of the video. Obama makes a joke – the question – is this a direct joke about not receiving an honorary degree or about ASU winning a game in the basketball tournament?
Be careful of your blunders, the President might even take shots at them.
Branding myself better
This past week I switched my Twitter handle from @ArizonaBrian to @BrianCamen. When I first signed up for Twitter in May 2008 I wasn’t worried about branding myself. I was just experimenting. Now 900+ followers later, I decided to make the change.
Articles on picking a Twitter handle suggest using a variation of your real name. Hopefully my followers will recognize me from my avatar and our engagement level won’t decrease.
Feel free to connect with me on Twitter @BrianCamen.
What not to do if you’re a PR student
I Google myself, don’t you?
Last week I came across a search result that was disturbing. The search came back with a result that said a web page was an interview with me, Brian Camen. Once I clicked on the web page, it wasn’t me. It was an interview with someone by the name of Logan Herb.
At least that’s what it said it was…
I started reading the interview and Logan Herb sounded exactly like me. He does PR for a business school, originally from New Jersey and had the same internships as me while in college!
As you can tell, it was supposed to be an interview with me. It turns out a public relations student created a fake interview with me for a class assignment. The student posted the assignment to his/her blog (which the blog itself seems to be a class assignment as well). The student originally posted my name on the interview, but changed it. He/she did not realize Google catches everything.
The student created questions and make fake answers based on the about me page on my blog, my PRopenmic.com profile and my twitter account. There were also responses to questions in this fake interview that I would never give, such as PR pros should be responsive and witty on a daily basis. Witty, really? Even better, the student has me compliment him/her during the interview.
Students: There are tons of PR pros that are willing to help you by providing advice and informational interviews. You can find pros in the social media world or on any media relations page on a company Web site. Don’t be afraid to approach them and ask for advice when needed.
What this student did was extremely unethical. Using my name in false pretense is disturbing. I’m here to help, please don’t take advantage of my services.
*I decided not to publish the student’s name or blog for the protection of his/her future in our industry.
PR Webinars: Helpful or harmful?
I receive weekly e-mails about upcoming webinars that are supposed to teach me the newest and best practices in the industry. I’m usually busy (work, work, work) and cannot attend, but in the past year I participated in a handful.
I attended a really good webinar a month or two ago that featured TopRank’s CEO Lee Odden. This was the only memorable one.
I find most of the webinars I attend are more harmful than helpful. These webinars usually feature two presenters and one of those two presenters is always trying to secretly sell their services to the attendees. This is exactly what I don’t want to hear.
What are your thoughts on webinars? Are they helpful or harmful to you?
Minor vs. major mistakes in Public Relations
It’s never ok to make a mistake in PR. For the purpose of this post, well and reality – let’s say there are minor mistakes and major mistakes. A minor mistake may be an accidental typo. Not a biggie (depending on where the typo is), we all make them once in a while. Hopefully the person on the receiving end of the mistake will understand. Minor mistakes are usually accidental.
How about a major mistake?
A major PR mistake is a self or team generated PR mistake that does more harm for your company/product than good. Often major mistakes are because of a poor choice of words. A recent example of this is Arizona State announcing they are not awarding President Obama with an honorary degree next month when he speaks at graduation. The media and blogosphere have been all over this – not a surprise. Major mistakes often create major awareness of the situation. In ASU’s situation, the mistake was how their team fielded responses as well as not giving the honorary degree.
What about this situation?
Last week a White House press aid made an e-mail snafu. The aid sent out a draft of President Obama’s schedule with comments from other press staffers on it. I’m sure that e-mail went out to a few hundred reporters. Oops.
The bottom line is typos and blunders are going to happen. No one is immune to mistakes. Double check your work and bounce your thoughts off others. Review old case studies. Learn from the mistakes you do make, so they won’t happen again. If you’re not sure of something, ask questions.
Your expert “in a down economy”
I’m sure you know by now the world’s economy is in the front of everyone’s minds and on A1 daily (if you still read the newspaper). The economy is everywhere in the news. PR pros are asking themselves, “How does my expert make a difference in a down economy?”
PR pros are finding ways to relate their expert or product they represent to the down economy you would never believe. Try doing a Google Search for “Down Economy.” You’ll find the most random results. Every topic in the world is being related to the down economy:
- In down economy, searches for big vehicles go up
- Down economy boosts military – The Boston Globe
- Search Engine Optimization in a Down Economy - Search Engine Watch …
- Geothermal Power Heats Up in a Down Economy
There is even a picture of an almost naked woman as the first image result. As you can see, everything these days can relate to the down economy.
What is the wackiest story you have seen related to the economy?
