Our Junior Account Executive, Sophie, has just completed her first year working with us and in PR, it’s been a whirl-wind first year for her and an exciting year for us, growing as a company. Here, Sophie tells us all about whether the world of PR has met her expectations and what she’s learned over the past 12 months.
It certainly doesn’t feel like it, but I’ve now been working professionally in PR for a year. I can say that the world of PR has certainly been very different than I originally thought it was going to be.
I remember picking up the course perspective when I was 18 to look at what I could or should study at University. I knew I wanted to write, but I knew that there weren’t any jobs in journalism – sorry journos.
So that’s the moment I looked into PR – embarrassingly that’s the first I’d even heard of the industry too.
Throughout my course, I realised that this job, was nothing like the job depicted by Samantha Jones of Sex and the City, the notorious Malcom Tucker of The Thick of It, and of course, Edina of Ab Fab. The everyday PR professional does not plan parties for celebs, nor do they shout and swear at journalists.
Nor is PR solely about press releases. What I’ve learned over the past year is that the best way for a company to communicate is by joining up all of their communications; online, social media, and through press releases and advertising. If all of these factors are signing by the same hymn sheet then stakeholders will have a clear idea of what your company’s about.
Key things I’ve learnt this year:
- Great Relationships are key; although PR isn’t solely about press releases anymore, great relationships with key journalists are just as important as they’ll ever be.
- Journalists aren’t scary; when you’ve got a genuinely good news story, they’re going to be happy you’ve called
- You can specialise in practically anything you like; PR is such a diverse industry and every day is different. I personally really enjoy writing blogs and case studies for websites.
So, my advice to anyone who’s looking to get into PR at the moment?
- Get as much experience as you can; not just to look good on your CV but to help you realise what area you want to work in too! Even if a six-week placement helps you realise you don’t want to work in an agency that specialises in construction PR, then there’s nothing lost there.
- Spend a day in a newsroom; a week if possible! I spent half a day visiting my local paper and if I learnt nothing else, I learned that journalists are just normal people. Don’t feel scared to ring them for a chat.
- Expect hard work; PR’s not easy but you’ll feel so good when you get that key piece of coverage that you and your client’s been waiting for!
- Have other skills; more and more PR is becoming less about traditional media and more about the whole package. It might be useful for you to polish up your Photoshop skills, take an SEO course, and learn HTML so if you’re required to put together an infographic or to edit a webpage – you can do it!
