An article on Yahoo! Finance discussed a report that named "Public Relations Executive" as the second most stressful job in America. It feel right behind "Commercial Airline Pilot" and right above "Senior Corporate Executive". The author of the original report cited his main reason as: "Public relations executives are "completely at the mercy of their clients and buyers." I really don't buy it.
A PR job can certainly be stressful, but just as much as any other job. I believe PR jobs are only stressful if your no confident in your ability to connect with people. The success rate for PR professionals are similar to bating averages in baseball: It's a given that you're going to fail more times then succeed when pitching stories and you can succeed less then three out of 10 times and still be great at what you do.
It's how you handle your successes along with your failures internally that will decided how stressful your PR job will be. And that can be said for every job.
Showing posts with label Careers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Careers. Show all posts
The Misconceptions of the PR
If you’re a Public
Relations professional that has ever worked for a private business or
organization, you’ve most likely run into the problem of co-workers having no
idea what public relations really is.
It can come from an executive or an entry-level employee and it mostly like contained
the phrase: “Can’t the PR department just
do that?”
The art of public relations has been around since the beginning of time – the ancient Greeks and Romans were masterfully skilled at it. But the industry has been given a glamorous (please forgive me) spin in the past 10-to-20 years with TV shows and movies showing public relations professionals sipping martinis with music stars in limos. On his website, Jackson Wightman put together a list of 21 things PR is not and I agree with almost all his points.
My favorite not-to-dos on his list are No. 5 and 6: (Never) Ever guaranteed to generate coverage and (PR is never) Ever 100% controllable.
Just having a story or brand to pitch isn’t enough anymore, even for the best practitioners. It has to be interesting to people who have no attachment to the product. Often, CEO’s/Presidents/Executives think that everyone loves their product and story and have no reason not to and if journalists don’t pick it up, then it’s the PR departments fault. Well, it actually can just be the brand is boring in it’s current state and/or form.
As for No. 6, unless something unethical is going on between the public relations team and the media, chances are a bad story won’t just go away. A good PR professional can share the company’s standpoint and try to show the journalist their side of the equation. But once a journalist decides to run with a story, chances are it will be published. Only in rare instances can a PR pro make a deal to sweep one story under the carpet because they can offer up a bigger story in return in the not-to-distant future.
I would also add a No. 22 to the list: Easy.
Public Relations is not something that anyone can just start doing. I went to college specifically for a degree in public relations. In the last 10-to-15 years, more and more universities are offering specific degrees in public relations as opposed to a blanket degree in mass media and journalism for those who want to go into the industry. A marketing degree might help, but you would still be missing a lot. A degree in finance or pre-law? No thank you. Just because you watched the Sex and the City series or the movie Thank You For Smoking doesn’t make you an expert in public relations.
Public Relations is a lot of things. A lot of good things. But for some reason, as an industry, public relations professionals haven't pitched what their work really is effectively to the outside world. Misconceptions will only continue until we do.
The art of public relations has been around since the beginning of time – the ancient Greeks and Romans were masterfully skilled at it. But the industry has been given a glamorous (please forgive me) spin in the past 10-to-20 years with TV shows and movies showing public relations professionals sipping martinis with music stars in limos. On his website, Jackson Wightman put together a list of 21 things PR is not and I agree with almost all his points.
My favorite not-to-dos on his list are No. 5 and 6: (Never) Ever guaranteed to generate coverage and (PR is never) Ever 100% controllable.
Just having a story or brand to pitch isn’t enough anymore, even for the best practitioners. It has to be interesting to people who have no attachment to the product. Often, CEO’s/Presidents/Executives think that everyone loves their product and story and have no reason not to and if journalists don’t pick it up, then it’s the PR departments fault. Well, it actually can just be the brand is boring in it’s current state and/or form.
As for No. 6, unless something unethical is going on between the public relations team and the media, chances are a bad story won’t just go away. A good PR professional can share the company’s standpoint and try to show the journalist their side of the equation. But once a journalist decides to run with a story, chances are it will be published. Only in rare instances can a PR pro make a deal to sweep one story under the carpet because they can offer up a bigger story in return in the not-to-distant future.
I would also add a No. 22 to the list: Easy.
Public Relations is not something that anyone can just start doing. I went to college specifically for a degree in public relations. In the last 10-to-15 years, more and more universities are offering specific degrees in public relations as opposed to a blanket degree in mass media and journalism for those who want to go into the industry. A marketing degree might help, but you would still be missing a lot. A degree in finance or pre-law? No thank you. Just because you watched the Sex and the City series or the movie Thank You For Smoking doesn’t make you an expert in public relations.
Public Relations is a lot of things. A lot of good things. But for some reason, as an industry, public relations professionals haven't pitched what their work really is effectively to the outside world. Misconceptions will only continue until we do.
Tags:
Careers,
Education,
Link,
Public Relations
LINK: Social Media - Hot New Career
While this Yahoo! article has elements that scream it's as much an advertisement as it is an actually article, it does profile six "breakout" careers. No. 1 on their list is "Social Media Strategist".
I do tend to agree that this field is becoming more popular, the author's description is pretty bad:
If you want a career in social media, it's best to start from the bottom and work your way up. As in any career field, experience is often the best education. Without the knowledge and experience that education brings, jumping into a more advanced career is exceedingly difficult.
I do tend to agree that this field is becoming more popular, the author's description is pretty bad:
" Do you love Twitter? Why not get paid to tweet? Seriously! Social media strategists figure out optimal ways to get messages out to the masses using the latest community tools online. This involves blogging, tweeting, and using sites like Foursquare and Facebook to find and communicate with customers. "What is the description missing? Just the small fact that "loving" Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare is simply not enough to qualify someone for this type of job. Being passionate about a career is very important, but experience is key. Whether it be in Public Relations or Marketing, the social media industry is becoming too complex to jump into without out experience in reaching out to customers/consumers/the public in more traditional terms.
If you want a career in social media, it's best to start from the bottom and work your way up. As in any career field, experience is often the best education. Without the knowledge and experience that education brings, jumping into a more advanced career is exceedingly difficult.
Tags:
Careers,
Marketing,
Public Relations,
Social Media
New Communications Careers
The last decade has seen an increase in communications-related careers and many of them are off-shoots, a combination of and/or hybrids of other more traditional jobs.Monster.com listed five new communications industry jobs that didn't exist 10 years ago:
1. Bloggers research and write blog content for news websites, public and private corporations, government offices, and many other organizations with blogs.The bottom line, if you're going to college to major in PR, Journalism or Mass Media, make sure you take classes in the other areas. Better yet, aim for a duel major in PR and Journalism.
2. Content managers develop strategies for creating, updating, and organizing Web content, typically with the goal of attracting new visitors.
3. Online political campaign managers develop and manage strategies for using Internet and social technologies to help politicians get elected.
4. Video journalists design and produce online videos that document information, news, and events.
Why? New communications careers require education and experience in multiple fields. Saddle up and learn all that you can.
Tags:
Bad PR,
Careers,
Education,
Journalism,
Social Media
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