So, what do you do?
Everyone who works in public relations knows the moment I’m talking about. You’re at a dinner party, on a date, at a family reunion and someone asks you -- what do you do, exactly?
You know what you do all day at work but for some reason, the second someone asks you freeze. You think of how to explain the hundreds of small tasks you take on each day that lead to big-picture results for clients. All you can come up with is, “I work in PR.”
What comes next is likely one of the following responses:
Oh, so you write ads and stuff?
Do you cover up scandals?
Spin doctor, eh?
No, no, and no.
So how can we condense public relations into an easy to swallow pill for our friends and family?
Let’s start by breaking down what we do on a daily basis. For full disclosure, all of my experience in the field has been in an agency-setting, so this isn’t all-encompassing.
Media Monitoring
One of the first things I do when I start my morning is check to see if any of my clients have received news coverage. I set up Google Alerts with relevant search terms, do a scan of Meltwater (a software built for media monitoring and reporting), and finish with a quick Google search to round it out.
Then I move to my email. I receive daily newsletters from NPR, Chain Store Age, The Pittsburgh Business Times and other publications that are of relevance to my agency or the clients I work with. Sometimes there will be a story that piques my interest -- maybe I can share that with a client and work on creating a media opportunity for them around that subject.
Another way to find media opportunities for clients is through HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and Profnets, both are services that allow journalists to share stories they’re working on and request commentary from knowledgeable sources. If an automotive magazine is seeking feedback on a new industry standard and you’re working with an automotive technology client -- this is something you’ll want to pursue.
Pitching
Once you’ve found that perfect story idea for a client, you need someone to write it and publish it. A pitch is a carefully crafted note sent to journalists that lays out why your client is perfect for this story and why the journalist is the perfect person to write it.
It all starts with researching the right journalist, at the right publication. Then you reach out. And follow-up. And follow-up again. Eventually, you might get an interview. Then just maybe, a story.
Pitching can be a lot of work, but when you see your client get coverage in their target publications it’s all worth it.
Reporting
Once you get all that amazing news coverage, you’ll need to break it down for your client. How many views did the piece get? How many pieces of coverage did we get this quarter? How does that compare to last quarter? What are our competitors doing? How do we measure up?
Getting the coverage is one thing, but making it make sense in the big picture is another thing.
When working in public relations, you do a lot of things. You write a lot of emails. You write byline pieces for company CEOs. You draft press releases on company news, events, new hires. You research awards and events that would help get your client’s name out there. You attend conferences and coordinate interviews. Sometimes you’ll manage social media. Every client has different wants and needs.
The goal is always to get the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
PR vs. Advertising vs. Marketing
Here’s where it gets trickier to understand for most people, the line gets blurry for me sometimes too.
Public relations is essentially what I described above -- media relations. Emphasis on relations, because it’s all about building relationships. Our primary role is serving as a medium between the media and the businesses we work with. Whether that’s in a crisis situation or not. We want to help businesses share their stories. That doesn’t mean that PR never crosses the line into advertising or marketing. For a brand to truly be successful, all three must work together.
Advertising is all about creativity and cash flow. In PR, when we get a story in a publication, 90% of the time, we aren’t paying for it. In advertising, every video, banner, or pop-up has been paid for by the client. Advertising is a call to action. Buy this. Do that. This is something most people inherently understand, as sometimes it seems we see ads more often than we see our families.
Marketing is something usually taken on within a company. While PR pros can choose to work at agencies where they work with multiple clients at once, marketing pros often work in-house at companies and focus on internal communication for revenue purposes, such as product promotion or finding new business.
Again, the lines blur. Sometimes a marketing pro is in charge of the company blog, sometimes the PR team is. Sometimes the PR team is designing and running paid social media campaigns, sometimes an advertising agency is. It depends on the business and what they are trying to accomplish.
Think of public relations, advertising and marketing like the Holy Trinity -- they each have their own strengths but they are strongest together.
When someone tells you they work in PR -- ask them what they do and listen to what they say. We aren’t all in the business of spin.
And PR pros -- next time someone asks you what you do -- take the time to explain. Or you can just send them this link.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
You know what you do all day at work but for some reason, the second someone asks you freeze. You think of how to explain the hundreds of small tasks you take on each day that lead to big-picture results for clients. All you can come up with is, “I work in PR.”
What comes next is likely one of the following responses:
Oh, so you write ads and stuff?
Do you cover up scandals?
Spin doctor, eh?
No, no, and no.
So how can we condense public relations into an easy to swallow pill for our friends and family?
Let’s start by breaking down what we do on a daily basis. For full disclosure, all of my experience in the field has been in an agency-setting, so this isn’t all-encompassing.
Media Monitoring
One of the first things I do when I start my morning is check to see if any of my clients have received news coverage. I set up Google Alerts with relevant search terms, do a scan of Meltwater (a software built for media monitoring and reporting), and finish with a quick Google search to round it out.
Then I move to my email. I receive daily newsletters from NPR, Chain Store Age, The Pittsburgh Business Times and other publications that are of relevance to my agency or the clients I work with. Sometimes there will be a story that piques my interest -- maybe I can share that with a client and work on creating a media opportunity for them around that subject.
Another way to find media opportunities for clients is through HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and Profnets, both are services that allow journalists to share stories they’re working on and request commentary from knowledgeable sources. If an automotive magazine is seeking feedback on a new industry standard and you’re working with an automotive technology client -- this is something you’ll want to pursue.
Pitching
Once you’ve found that perfect story idea for a client, you need someone to write it and publish it. A pitch is a carefully crafted note sent to journalists that lays out why your client is perfect for this story and why the journalist is the perfect person to write it.
It all starts with researching the right journalist, at the right publication. Then you reach out. And follow-up. And follow-up again. Eventually, you might get an interview. Then just maybe, a story.
Pitching can be a lot of work, but when you see your client get coverage in their target publications it’s all worth it.
Reporting
Once you get all that amazing news coverage, you’ll need to break it down for your client. How many views did the piece get? How many pieces of coverage did we get this quarter? How does that compare to last quarter? What are our competitors doing? How do we measure up?
Getting the coverage is one thing, but making it make sense in the big picture is another thing.
When working in public relations, you do a lot of things. You write a lot of emails. You write byline pieces for company CEOs. You draft press releases on company news, events, new hires. You research awards and events that would help get your client’s name out there. You attend conferences and coordinate interviews. Sometimes you’ll manage social media. Every client has different wants and needs.
The goal is always to get the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
PR vs. Advertising vs. Marketing
Here’s where it gets trickier to understand for most people, the line gets blurry for me sometimes too.
Public relations is essentially what I described above -- media relations. Emphasis on relations, because it’s all about building relationships. Our primary role is serving as a medium between the media and the businesses we work with. Whether that’s in a crisis situation or not. We want to help businesses share their stories. That doesn’t mean that PR never crosses the line into advertising or marketing. For a brand to truly be successful, all three must work together.
Advertising is all about creativity and cash flow. In PR, when we get a story in a publication, 90% of the time, we aren’t paying for it. In advertising, every video, banner, or pop-up has been paid for by the client. Advertising is a call to action. Buy this. Do that. This is something most people inherently understand, as sometimes it seems we see ads more often than we see our families.
Marketing is something usually taken on within a company. While PR pros can choose to work at agencies where they work with multiple clients at once, marketing pros often work in-house at companies and focus on internal communication for revenue purposes, such as product promotion or finding new business.
Again, the lines blur. Sometimes a marketing pro is in charge of the company blog, sometimes the PR team is. Sometimes the PR team is designing and running paid social media campaigns, sometimes an advertising agency is. It depends on the business and what they are trying to accomplish.
Think of public relations, advertising and marketing like the Holy Trinity -- they each have their own strengths but they are strongest together.
When someone tells you they work in PR -- ask them what they do and listen to what they say. We aren’t all in the business of spin.
And PR pros -- next time someone asks you what you do -- take the time to explain. Or you can just send them this link.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
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