A Semester in Review

It’s hard to believe that this semester is almost over. In the midst of tests, papers, meetings and the general hub bub of life, time just sped by. This will be my final blog assignment for my advanced communications class, but definitely not my last experience with blogging. What I have taken away from this class has been an invaluable experience and skill set that I am so thankful for, because I have something that I will be able to contribute to future employers. So this last assignment is a review of what we have taken away from this class, and the PR tips that we find to be the most valuable. So here are my top five for best practices in PR:

1.Communication: So this sounds like a give-in based on the type of class this is, but its importance can’t be looked over. Having good communication skills can only improve your media relations. How you communicate to the press, the public, your client all reflect your professionalism.

Communicating well is more than just being able to write concisely and in AP style (which is essential), its about speech communication as well and having good relations with the media and the public. Email, phone calls, handwritten thank you cards, every little bit helps and you never know what small contribution will put you above the rest.

The Communication Tool Kit, written by R. Hershey, for non-profits lists collaboration as an essential element in public relations. This tip isn’t solely focused on non-profits, it can be very useful in corporate communications as well. Building relationships with other organizations with similar goals will help to make a project more successful in terms of funding and creative ideas.

Executive Vice President for the Shelton Group, Stacey Gaswirth, had some valuable advice on being able to communicate on the global market. Many corporate clients work on the global market and if you understand how to communicate on a global scale, you will be a valuable asset to that organization.

2.Research: READ! Our professor could never over-emphasis the importance of reading as much as you can. We had a speaker at our Legends Speak program first semester and I got the opportunity to hear from the PR legend himself Harold Burson and his advice was to read, everyday. Read everything from newspapers, to books, to educational magazines.

Research is more than just perusing books and articles, its about educating yourself. Over the past few months I have really come to appreciate the use of good resources and resource skills. Not only for this class, but for all my other classes this semester. I now know how to navigate the web (which can be a huge and overwhelming task) as well as other electronic sources. Research is critical when working with a client. You may have to conduct a survey (surveymonkey is a great place to do a survey for a good price, http://www.surveymonkey.com/) for your client to find information about a particular target audience or demographic.

Research will help for you to get to know your client, your subject and your audience better. Knowing how to conduct a qualitative or quantitative study on a communication topic and the difference between the two can be a highly valued skill set. A great book on this subject is by Rubin, Rubin and Piele (2005) called Communciation research: Strategies and sources. It is a great place to start when learning the basics.

3.Technology: it’s not just the wave of the future anymore, it’s now. Technology is a crucial part of communications today and for PR professionals it is a packaged deal. You cannot be successful in the business anymore without having a working knowledge of technology, because your competition will and that will be were the clients go. A great place to start with technology is of course weblogs.

Blogs range in size, content, graphics. I’ve spent an entire semester researching and reading countless blogs, and they never go in circles, every blog with a link takes you in a completely new direction toward, yes that’s right, more blogs. I attempted to undertake the task of finding out how many blogs are on the internet, but that number is nowhere to be found and with good reason. Blogs emerge every day, they are countless, but if you want to find a blog on something, then its out there. From business blogs such as Derrich (http://www.derrich.com/ ) or a PR blog like Jeff Jarvis’s at http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2007/04/jeff_jarvis_has.html. Even the government has blogs that you can utilize like, http://www.govfeed.com/blogs . If you are looking for a blog, but feel your don’t know where to start try http://www.blogtopsites.com/, it’s a good jumping off point.

A blog can literally be anything you want it to be and that is an amazing tool when approaching PR. We have the world at our fingertips every time we sit in front of a computer. There is an unlimited amount of knowledge to be gained and shared many people just don’t realize it. You can only improve the more you learn about technology because whether or not you know what a vlog is or a podcast, or even if you still type using your index fingers (in the fashion of my father) if you do not utilize the web in this business you and your client will be left behind. There has been a generational shift and a technological revolution in the field of communications and PR professionals are taking advantage of the world’s reliance on the internet.

By blogging you have the opportunity to be candid and to share information on a whole new level. There is more of an open atmosphere to a blog, a personal element, that is often lacking in press releases or even a live press conference. If there has been one thing that I will take away from this class this semester it is that blogging is the new wave of communication and I am thrilled that I have this new skill set that I can take with me in my future employment.

4.Crisis Management: It goes without saying that things happen in life that are beyond our control, and in the wake of 9-11 crisis communication has become a growing field. Not every crisis is on a mass scale, but a small crisis in a company can lead to bigger problems. All About Public Relations (http://aboutpublicrelations.net/crisis.htm) is a site on public relations and devotes a lot of time giving tips on dealing with a crisis within a company and how to make the most of a bad situation. dealing with a crisis and doing so successfully can be the thin line between saving a client’s reputation and the fall-out of the entire company.

The book Writing PR: A Multimedia Approach, by Carstarphen and Wells, give basic guidelines for successful crisis communication such as: Focusing on the people, explain how the crisis situation is being remedied, and being open to criticism early if the organization is at fault (in other words apologize). The book goes into greater detail on the elements of the message, you can check out the text at http://www.ablongman.com/.

5.My fifth and final tip is simple and that’s to love what you do!
PR doesn’t always get a lot of respect in the field of communications but to do it successfully constitutes a lot of hardwork and dedication, so to really be the best in the business you have to LOVE the business. Someone who hates their work will never show quality or improvement the way someone who is dedicated to it would.