So you’ve graduated University, taken on relevant work
placements and bossed those round of interviews which now means your heading into the big wide world of PR. I’m not going to sugar coat it, PR really isn’t
for the faint-hearted, and your first job can seem mega scary, especially when
it means actual responsibility rather than just scouring newspapers and making
tea. Having recently endeavored into my first proper PR job where I have the
responsibility of working on multiple accounts, I thought I would share with
you my 10 tips to ready you for those first slightly grueling two weeks – based on my own
experiences
1) Don’t expect results straight away
When I first started my PR job, I
remember waltzing in thinking it would be easy to get coverage. Oh how naive I
was, what you will learn quickly with PR, much like any profession, is that
everyone has to start somewhere, and whilst your boss may have pages and pages
of contacts, chances are its because they have been doing it a lot longer than you, do not fear. I started my job with 0 contacts and pretty much 0
experience, I wasn’t even sure how to approach a journalist, but you soon
learn. The best thing to do is once you’ve got to know the clients you’re
working on, send out some tailored emails to the relevant journalists and
introduce yourselves to them, once you have built up a bit of a relationship,
they will trust you and what your selling in, meaning they may feature your
client, it’s all about building on relationships and gaining the Journalists
trust, once you have that down its smooth sailing.
2) Listen and learn
As a newbie, and having survived my first two months in the Industry, one of the greatest
pieces of advice I can give is to listen to the guidance that is given to you and
learn from it, as it will prove super valuable to you in the long term. I
remember my boss going through pitches, telling me exactly what
to say – but looking back it really helped as I was able to grasp what worked
when pitching to Editors.
3) Ring rounds may be tedious but they are important
Ring rounds may not be the most
thrilling of tasks, you’re literally sat with a phone, a notebook and a long
list of contacts. What fun. But the truth is, whilst it may seem slightly
tedious, getting on the phone and actually speaking to Journalists is invaluable
and lets them know that you are human, and that you are confident to pitch your
ideas down the phone. Some journalists can be a little short at first, but
remember this is down the fact that they are controlled by tight deadlines and
ongoing pressure, it’s not you!
4) Go with your gut
I find with PR it’s not all about
what you know, or what skills you learnt at University, but more about learning to go with your gut and being
bold. Many times I may think a content idea is a pile of crap, only for it to be picked up by multiple journalists. Or perhaps you’re not sure whether to send
that balsy yet to the point email to that high powered editor, but chances are
she will admire your boldness and in turn put you on her radar of PR's to keep
in touch with. Sometimes being brave and learning to just go with it and
believe in your work makes you much more prone to success.
5) Don’t Lie
I can’t stress this point enough.
You know the drill. Somethings gone wrong somewhere and you know deep down it
was you’re doing but are scared of the consequences, so you ignore the problem
only for it to blow up in your face and you are, understandably the bad guy.
If you’ve made a mistake or done something wrong its best to own up to it
straight away, chances are your boss will see that you’re an honest person, and as a
human being him/herself, will understand that we all make mistakes and learn
from them. If you try and cover up your mistakes they will only come back and
bite you on the ass.
6) Bigger is better
It may seem obvious, but I just
wanted to stress the importance of targeting the right Publications and editors.
In my first few weeks as a PR I was reaching out to many magazines and blogs
which are pretty unheard of, I thought I was the bees knees when I got multiple
coverage, only to find out that whilst this was ok, these weren’t the
publications we were looking to reach. So whatever you’re pitching, always aim
for the larger publications as well as the small, as these have a wider
circulation and reach.
7) Kill em with kindness
In PR, chances are you will have
to deal with a very rude editor, most likely a Fashion Editor who likens herself to
Anna Wintour (lol please) and as much as you may want to lay into her and tell
her that she aint all that, this is not the way to win them round. My motto is 'kill em with kindness', or 'fake it till you make it', if you’re a high volatile character,
and find it hard to hold your tongue, then you will need to learn to just put
on an act and be as nice and as helpful as you can until they can’t help but
want to work with you.
8) Get on Social Media
If you want to do well in PR,
then you have to be on social media, notably Twitter. I swear to god 99% of
Journos, editors and bloggers have a twitter account, which A) makes it much
easier to reach them and B) means you can see what they are up to and what they
are working on. Be as social as you can, follow them, interact with them (but don’t
go psycho) and chances are when you next email them they will recognize your profile
from the site and trust you a lot more. Also one great tool to use for finding
stories is using the hashtag #JournoRequest, it’s basically a really useful hashtag
which means us PR's can see what people are working on, and if our clients can
help.
9) Always follow up
When you’re sending out multiple
pitches a day, and receiving many emails in return, it can be really easy to
forget where you are. I’ve had one occasion where I forgot to follow up with a
journalist, and missed the opportunity for my client to be featured on a
national publication. It wasn’t great, but it helped me realise that you must
always make sure you follow up on pitches, as chances are that Journalist didn’t
see your email the first time round as they may have been busy, so ALWAYS
follow up.
10) Be yourself
And my last piece of advice, is
to be yourself! No matter if you are pretty whacky; character is everything. No Journo wants a boring, robotic pitch sent their way. Be human and friendly,
talk to them as if you would your friends, keep the emails informal – add a
kiss at the end if you want! As ultimately you want your pitch to stand out, so
the more it’s like you (and your client) the better.
