High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype

A Hat Tip To Spur Discussion

 A while back, Paul Roberts, a PR practitioner and all around good Twitterer (@paulrobertspar), asked an open-ended question, “Which delivers more value, PR agencies or in-house PR departments?" in a blog he wrote here.  In the interest of full disclosure I can’t vouch for Paul outside Twitter, but based on his profile I feel like we’d have more than a few things in common aside from PR and social media, including (bad) golf.  I would have thought the question he asked would spur a great deal of discussion. 
 
Surprisingly, crickets began to chirp. 
 
It’s funny because I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of great PR people over the years; great internal folks, great agency folks and great independent folks, and have spent the better part of seven years talking through this debate with a few of my favorite storage PR people. 
 
The reason many may not jump right into the discussion is they may mistakenly think there’s only one right answer to the question.  Agency or internal.  However, what has made my seven year long discussion so lively with one storage PR practitioner in particular is he often jokes with me, “I wish I only did PR.”  He often mentions how his focus is applied across multiple disciplines, including: comms, marketing, customer relations, social media relations, employee relations, and media and analyst relations. In any given day, he may wear many of those "hats," some of which could be considered classic public relations.  
 
Many times, especially with small-to-emerging companies, PR professionals wear more than just one hat -- traditional PR is only one of them. That speaks more to the evolving role of PR and those of us who love doing it more than anything else.  Wearing many hats is not new to agency PR practitioners, as it’s required attire in much of the work we do.  The only difference is it’s often done for more than one company. What I see more than anything is it’s never going to be an either/or answer. There is value in each role (agency and internal) and, ultimately, success usually comes when both are collaborating, working together and executing as a closely, integrated team. And, in the digital age we work in, transparency and authenticity extends between roles as well. 
 
So, I’d suggest revisiting the debate in the interest of spurring discussion, which hat is most important?

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to do a corporate blog

 

Many of us at LP&P were talking about the recent blog post by the team at JetBlue.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  It's here for reference.   

Mostly because it’s a good approach at saying no comment but in a tactful and appropriate way.  What struck many of us was the way the comments were being used as a way to connect to the community but also have best practices discussed in such an appropriate manner.  It may not always be easy to do in all industries but it serves as a reminder on how sometimes you don’t have to say much in a blog to make an impact.

So, nice job JetBlue.  It's nice to see PR handled so well (especially through social media).

Even Don Draper Needs Coaching

Like everyone who is hooked on Mad Men, I eagerly awaited the season opener this past Sunday.  As someone who has done PR for a living for many years, I was curious about the name of the season opener, "Public Relations."  

As with everything related to this terrific AMC original series set in the 50s and now 60s world of advertising, public relations had multiple meanings in this episode.  Copywriter Peggy Olson teamed up with account services lead Pete Campbell to stage what they called a PR stunt -- hiring two actresses to fake a fight over the last ham in a market before Thanksgiving.  The goal -- to give their client, who produces the hams, a revenue boost through publicity before the national holiday -- was seemingly achieved and the client increased their ad spend with the agency.  

The actresses took the fight a little too literally, however, and one pressed charges against the other. Peggy had to go hat-in-hand (well, really, on head -- this is the early 60s and women still wore them) to her angry boss, creative director Don Draper to get the bail money to have the actress released and to get both to stay mum about Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's (SCDP) part in the widely covered ham stunt.

It was funny to hear Peggy describe her idea for the stunt, saying that they couldn't claim credit for it or get paid for it, as it was public relations, but it could get their client the attention they needed to feel that the SCDP ads were working and should be continued and possibly expanded.  Even today, PR and advertising have an uneasy relationship with advertising people and advertising-focused marketing people often believing that advertising builds brands and PR only supports this effort.  

As PR has shifted over the decades since the Mad Men era, PR agencies have risen and thrived, mostly separately from ad agencies, but sometimes as separate but equal divisions.  And with the massive shift to the internet and the blogosphere rather than print publications or broadcast vehicles to reach customers, PR is in a much stronger position in the new digital age of our profession. 

From PR Stunt to Media Training Lesson

The more prominent PR piece of the episode had our anti-hero Draper, a celebrated ad man of his day who has just launched a Glo-Coat television ad that has everyone buzzing, in the uncomfortable position of being interviewed by Advertising Age.  The end of the episode shows him again across the table from another interviewer, this time from the Wall Street Journal.

How does Don Draper do in this foray into using public relations to help his fledgling ad agency continue the buzz of his ad campaign and leverage his notoriety as a great ad man?  In the first interview, he is his usual mysterious recalcitrant self and gives the reporter nothing to work with.  He breaks one of the first rules of interviews -- don't irritate the interviewer -- and pays the price with an unflattering portrait of him that does not serve the new agency well and even causes a lucrative client to leave the firm.  

After he is chastised for failing at this part of his job -- promoting the agency's success -- he agrees to take another bite of the PR apple and really goes for it, this time spinning the tale of a cocky confident ad talent who led the exodus from his former stodgy ownership to this hot new ad firm that is going to go places.  We don't know the results of that interview yet, but it was definitely more revealing than the first one and the ending music encourages the viewer to cheer him on.

If Only Joanie Handled the Preparation

But what should SCDP have done with both of these PR "opportunities" for their most important asset, Don Draper?  Certainly not send him out without any preparation, which clearly is what they did.  Could these otherwise intelligent people who have known this man for years not have predicted the mess he would make with the first interview?  Did no one find out from the reporter what his angle was and help Don prepare?  He seemed to be caught completely flat-footed and surprised by the fact that this was a personal profile.  

And even with the second interview, which his senior partner, Bert Cooper, set up through a friend at the WSJ to do damage control for the first interview, Don was left to his own devices to decide to take a completely different tack and make things up about a second floor they don't have and who knows what else.  Again, no one sat him down and ran through what the reporter was looking for and what types of questions Don may receive.  And, even more important, no one talked with him about what would be the best outcome from this interview for SCDP.

This is not to say Don Draper would have been an easy subject to coach before an interview.  Having prepared hundreds of top executives over the years for media interviews, I can absolutely testify that some of them were not far from the Draper style of, "I don't need coaching for this."  

If SCDP was my company or my client, I would have recommended they work through Joan Harris, the office and traffic manager for the agency.  If Joan had done her usual job of managing everything, she would have had the possible questions and some recommended answers for Don in advance of each interview.  She would have used just the right amount of humor and persuasiveness to give him some pointers that would have made the first interview less disastrous and helped him think through the second one so he was bombastic without making mistakes. Come to think of it, Joan would be a great executive coach in general. 

We will see next week whether the second interview, which was on the edge by the glimpse of what we saw, results in positive coverage or causes Don to slip up when fact checkers at the WSJ discover there is no second floor at SCDP.

What are your predictions for what the outcome will be?

5 Ways for PR Interns to Get Hired Quickly

It’s not easy to get an internship these days.  And once you nail down the position, it isn’t always easy being an intern.  I know this both from personal experience (albeit from a long time ago) and also from recent experiences of my children who are in college or graduating into a tough economic period in which even unpaid internships are competitive and difficult to attain.  

My colleague Don Jennings, pointed out this recent blog post: Are Internships Worth it for budding PR Pros?, which talks about perception versus reality of internships and offers some questions interns should ask before they pursue a particular position. 

We circulated the blog post among our PR team, and some current and past interns (who did their stints here or elsewhere) weighed in on what they believe makes PR internships worthwhile:

They can help you network into a permanent position. 

Our agency stringently screens interns and we have been very fortunate to find many great permanent employees over the years in the intern ranks.  Some other agencies or organizations can’t offer you a permanent position, but they can help you find your next position.

One of our current interns, Casey Cardinal, networked aggressively, sending out hundreds of resumes, to find internships during her college years, including an internship last summer for a former LP&Per who helped recommend her for her current position.  “Although I feel as though I ‘lucked out’ in landing where I am today, I know that without my ambition to succeed, I wouldn’t have been able to turn these opportunities into experiences.”

Boston-based associate account representative Casey Ford offered that "what stood out in Mickie Kennedy's blog post the most was the third question to ask an employer: 'Who came before me?'  As a prospective employee, it is important to see evidence of growth within the company.  I always relate it to baseball:  The best organizations are usually the ones who see the value in developing their farm system."

They can help you determine what you want to do and where your strengths lie.

I know my daughter did an internship very close to her college major that helped her confirm that it really wasn’t what she wanted to pursue long term.  She then did a PR internship in a small agency with a mentoring culture that gave her great experience and showed her that communications and marketing was a possible direction. The communication skills she gained in that unpaid internship also helped her greatly in the permanent position she landed.

One of our LP&P Boston interns, Abigail Atwood, is finding that her PR internship is “more beneficial and educational” than the ones some of her friends are completing at accounting and financial firms.  “A PR internship offers the opportunity to be a more active member of the staff because there are basic/introductory tasks and projects for which many people already possess the skill, but may just need direction and mentoring to accomplish."

They can help you learn the lingo

Boston-based account representative Brittany McLaughlin said her "past PR internships were certainly worthwhile, allowing me to 'learn the lingo' of PR before jumping in head first, which I think is key in this industry.  What's a byline? What do you mean by business vs. trade press?  What's an editorial calendar?  Those of us who have been at it for a while take these terms for granted, but coming from someone who studied marketing in college and hadn't heard any of these terms prior . . . it's a big deal.” 

You can learn from the best and the brightest

Celebrating her eighth year as an LP&Per, account manager Jolene Bonina said, “Even today, as I interview intern candidates for positions at LP&P, I am the first to call out my own experiences as a ‘homegrown’ LP&Per who has worked my way into a long-term career because I truly believe a PR internship is the best way ‘in the door’ at a PR agency and as an entry-level position, because you quickly learn the nuts & bolts of a PR position, you get the hands-on experience you need, and you learn from the best and the brightest around you.”

Austin-based Account Representative Dustin Blackwell agrees: “My internship allowed me to basically be mentored by people who had been in my shoes before and helped me realize the ins and outs and everything in between. The guidance you get as an intern is far more beneficial than just jumping straight into a role, especially with no previous experience beyond schooling. In school, they teach you how to write press releases, manage a campaign and effectively learn the higher functionality of public relations. An internship lets you hit the ground running, have the backup you need in skilled, professional coworkers, and by the time you’re ready for a promotion, you’re able to grasp what real PR is and how to do it skillfully.”

5 Ways for Interns to Get Hired Quickly

Make sure they have a plan to give you meaningful work and training

Danielle Bentz, another Boston intern, found that she just was not being used by the glamorous ad agency that hired her and “going to work became torture.”  Danielle advises other intern candidates to avoid at all costs internships where there is no planned training or tracking of each person's activities.  "The most important questions you can ask are 'how much interaction will I have on the accounts?' and 'what responsibilities does an intern receive here?'  Smart companies use their interns."

Show Commitment, regardless of the task at hand

Casey Ford disagreed on the blog post's insistence that interns should ask potential employees what they will be doing during the internship.  "To me, it's not what you do; it's how well you do it that really matters.  If it is a small task, blow them away with your execution.  If it's a large project, show them you are ready to take on anything.  By turning your nose up at getting a cup of coffee, you are showing a lack of commitment to the company.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  Good work will always be rewarded."

Don’t overlook the smaller agencies

Amber Terry, an associate account representative from our Austin office said her first internship at a 5-person PR agency was a great experience because "I got to work hands-on with the principal -- a guy with 30+ years in the industry.  He gave me a lot of responsibility, which was scary at first.  Within my first few weeks, I was writing press releases and case studies.  Given my experience, starting out small better prepares you for the next big step, which for me was beginning my career at LP&P."

Be assertive, ask questions and network

Austin Associate Account Representative Sam Brune said that the several internships she completed in the past gave her a good foothold in PR and helped her assemble the following list of questions that a fledgling PR person should use regularly in order to be successful wherever they land:

"'What else can I be doing?' -- The easiest way to impress your manager or boss is to ask for assignments.  They are busy and they need help, even if it might take a little explaining.

'Is this what you mean?' -- Don't be afraid to ask questions.  It's a lot easier (and less costly) to spend the time correcting something halfway through than starting over or having a task transitioned away from you.

'Can we keep in touch?' -- The time at your internships is only part of the relationship/experience. The contact you keep with your colleagues is equally as important."

I think Dustin Blackwell summed it up well for his LP&P colleagues regarding the true value of the right PR internship: “PR is stressful, hectic and can overshadow your idea of a perfect business relationship between agency and client, but that same internship can teach you how to succeed, not only as an individual, but as a team player, coworker and eventual mentor to someone who now stands in the same intern shoes that you once filled.”

On embargoes and exclusives in the current media/PR game

Scott Kirsner posted some interesting thoughts on how the game has changed regarding the timing of offering news to the media.  His major point is that he wants it first, especially if it is about big developments or happenings that fit into his Innovation Economy section and column -- often he wants the news before the executives and PR team may feel fully ready to talk about it, but that's when he views it as most relevant for his readers.  He doesn't want warmed-over news that's been covered by other outlets and now is being "placed" with the Boston Globe.  

He may use his Twitter feed to point to it, but he's not going to cover it until there is some new juicy angle he finds newsworthy.  

Last, he is not interested in embargoed announcements, as his time is better spent developing unique coverage than getting the jump on something everyone else will cover.  Interestingly, he's pitching the value of coming to him first with the most relevant news for his coverage angle, pointing to the reach of Boston.com and its propensity for getting picked up in other outlets.

Kirsner asks for comments and I'm going to submit one, linking to this blog post.  He wants to know from us PR types whether we're seeing the way of the world changing as well.  He wants to hear from the entrepreneurs he writes for whether they agree with his strategy. 

Many of my PR brethren already have weighed in on his blog.  I have to say I agree with his concern about embargoes, as it is difficult to ask a journalist paid to uncover news to wait, as if at the starting line of a foot race, to cover the news.  We use these rarely and usually recommend against them.  

I also get that he wants fresh news and doesn't want sloppy seconds.  That makes sense.  I am liking the fact that he's pushing the value of coverage on Boston.com, as I like to believe there is a healthy push-pull between companies trying to get Kirsner and other Globe reporters' attention and the latter vying to get their news first.

The change we see

The biggest change we've seen over the past few years regarding timing of announcements is that news is so immediate due to Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other social media channels, that it's harder and harder to stage an important announcement for maximum impact and to protect public companies from selective disclosure.  A great deal of planning and forethought -- suggested by Kirsner and certainly implemented already by any strategy communications person worth his or her salt -- goes into the biggest announcements we are helping our clients and companies execute.  

I think the key decision regarding who to go to first, however, often comes down to relationship, trust and perceived value.  Our executive spokespeople want to feel comfortable and confident in the journalists or bloggers they talk with first about something that is critical to their companies.  It helps tremendously if they have met the writer before at a conference or a one-on-one meeting not intended to generate coverage. 

A big problem is that, as Kirsner notes, many journalists will not take those meetings with executives unless there is news attached, so that essential relationship building with the actual company executives is tough to achieve.  The PR contacts lean on their own relationships and knowledge of the reporters to reassure their clients that this will be a productive meeting and an appropriate bet to take with their news, but it isn't the same.  And then it's certainly the PR team's job to analyze the value of giving news to one vehicle versus another, using the types of data Kirsner provided about Boston.com.  At the end of the day, it's all about creating value for the company and using the spokesperson's time well for maximum ROI.

My primary comment on this Scott's latest viewpoint, which I've also posted there,"I hear you, Scott, and I agree that times have changed and your needs have changed.  But at the same time, journalists need to consider taking a few more meetings with good potential spokespeople if they truly want to be first in line when news breaks."

Using the upside/downside meter

Maybe General Stanley McChrystal had Dr. Hook's song about wanting to be "on the cover of Rolling Stone" on his iPod, explaining his mystifying decision to allow a Rolling Stone reporter to follow him and his team around for a month in the midst of the war in Afghanistan. I'm filing the amazingly free access to the general and his team's derisive comments about the president and other administration figures under "What Were They Thinking?"  I was frankly stunned about the detailed information about upcoming battle plans and wondered what ever happened to national security.  I honestly think my father's letters from WWII to my Mom were more heavily censored than this article was.  The General was embarrassed and forced to apologize to President Obama before being called to the White House woodshed this afternoon.  In his John Wayne moment today in the White House Rose Garden, the President  announced the acceptance of the General's resignation and the appointment of replacement General David Petraeus.

The key statements, from my perspective, from the President, were:

"The conduct represented in the article does not meet the stand for a commanding general."
"Troops must obey a strict code of conduct, including commanders."
"I welcome debate among my team, but I won't tolerate division."

The whole incident is a great reminder that, contrary to that old adage, all publicity is not necessarily good publicity.  We firmly believe in evaluating the upside and downside of media opportunities, especially when the news aspect of the interview is charged or tricky, and certainly when the interview involves national publications or broadcast media.  Many years ago a CEO of a start-up we represented was offered the chance to have a well-known business journalist follow the CEO around for the first six months leading the company.  Knowing how candid and flip that CEO could be and not being able to clearly map out that the upside of the access would absolutely outweigh potential downside, we recommended turning down the opportunity.  Hindsight showed it was absolutely the right call.

Just as reality TV stars forget about the cameras after a while or alter their behavior and play to them, any high-level spokesperson or team who has a good journalist essentially living with them for a long period of time is at risk of making critical mistakes.  General McChrystal, whom President Obama praised as a soldier and a leader, is paying the price for not planning this particular skirmish more strategically.

Mark Zuckerberg Gives A Master Class on Bad Interview Technique

I could not attend the All Things Digital conference this year, but I've been monitoring the tweets and coverage from attendees and have watched the videos of speakers I am sorry I missed.  

One tweet today from A-list blogger and author Shel Israel definitely caught my attention: "Open letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Step Down".  It included a link to part of the Zuckerberg on-stage interview with D co-hosts, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.  The clip includes Zuckerberg's literal meltdown during the interview -- what All Thing's Digital's John Paczkowski said could be his "Nixon" moment.  Sweat pouring down his face, he was coaxed by Swisher to remove his heavy hoodie which revealed a bright blue lining decorated with Facebook's mission statement.  (Swisher had fun saying it looked like secret code, something like the Illuminati.  I saw some later coverage that likened the symbols to the Dharma Initiative from "Lost.")

 

(Image credit AllThingsD.com)

Having watched -- and blogged about -- other Zuckerberg interviews over the past few years, I wasn't surprised at the coverage that went so far as to say he didn't do his company any favors and has reignited fury about privacy issues that had just been tamped down with newly released controls.

Zuckerberg is a one-person master class in how not to do a good interview.

I have a slide I use in executive communications coaching entitled "What Turns Press Off?"  Zuckerberg mismanaged most of these:

1. Bland interviews with unsupported statements (Check)
2. Jargon (I didn't hear any acronyms, but I might have dozed off and missed them)
3. Rambling or run-on presentations (Every answer was rambling; Check)
4. Arrogance (Check)
5. Not knowing their writing, publication or site (Since it was clear the WSJ sponsor of D8 would most want to tell its readers how Facebook was going to respond to the privacy concerns of its users, Zuckerberg's inability or unwillingness to clearly address this issue showed a distinct lack of understanding of his audience or, worse, a complete disdain of them.  Check)

When a high profile interview opportunity like D8 arrives, you only accept it if you're comfortable with the subject matter; you have the right spokesperson handling the interview; and that the person is well prepared for the toughest questions they will have to face.  Based on these measures, Facebook should have declined the opportunity if the interview required Zuckerberg or the CEO insisted on handling it himself.  

"Zuckerberg is a one-person master class in how not to do a good interview."

He clearly wasn't comfortable with the primary questions he'd need to address, based on his flop-sweat on stage.  He is not a good spokesperson for the company, no matter how good he is as their leader in other regards.  He did not get good coaching on how to actually answer the tough questions effectively or he waved off this needed preparation, thinking he knows instinctively how to handle the questions, much like he knows better than his customer base how they should feel about giving up their privacy on Facebook.

If you saw his interview performance how would you rate it?

Time for confessional interviews to be "out"

 What will scandal-ridden celebrities seeking redemption do after June 2011 without the confessional of "The Oprah Winfrey Show"?  I guess there's always "Dr. Phil," but then again, his tough love style might be too much for some of these anguished extroverts.

Watching Sarah Ferguson's first interview with Oprah after she was caught on tape peddling influence with her former husband, Prince Andrew, all I could think of was why she subjected herself to it.  I applied my executive communications scorecard to see how she fared during the interview to see if I was missing something on first viewing that made this interview make sense.

When I searched the interview for anchor points -- the 2-3 things she absolutely wanted to convey during the one-hour meeting -- I landed on the items that stayed with me the most in what was a pretty boring interview, overall:

Looking back at what happened, I don't recognize the person who did this.

I had spiraled down into a deep gutter, with drinking and other indications of self-hatred that brought me to this point.

I am accepting what happened and being truthful about it so I can move on.

Not very compelling anchor points, but great discussion points for a therapy session:

Grade: C

Ferguson had a couple compelling sound-bites, but I don't think these were pre-planned:

After seeing the full video: "I sound completely drunk." and "I feel sorry for her [meaning herself]."

"There aren't many words to describe an act of such gross stupidity."

"I am always truthful."

Those are the ones that stood out for me. 

Grade B+

Her anecdotes/analogies mostly related to trying to explain how she got into this fix through years of trying to be perfect, starting with a childhood where "little Sarah" used food as a friend.  She evoked her father, who died of cancer, who told her "the show must go on" to explain why she agreed to keep her recent Book Fair speaking engagement and to talk publicly with Oprah.  She also evoked her grandmother, her daughters, and a woman from Sierra Leone whom she met during one of her charitable trips.  These were each intended to explain who she really is, as authenticity is important to her.  They were manipulative references, intended to evoke sympathy along with understanding.

Grade: B

Her pace was fine, but her demeanor was fairly deadly, I thought.  She delivered her answers with a stony, pursed lips deliberateness that isn't authentic to the light-hearted bane of the stiff British royal family we in the U.S. have appreciated over the years.  She seemed pained by the entire interview, really.  But overall, her pace was acceptable.  Because the tape was edited, it's hard to determine if she did a good job pausing before answering or answering the question and stopping, rather than becoming baited into revealing too much.

Grade: B

She wasn't what I would call crisply concise.  Instead, she seemed rambling in her attempts to explain herself.  And this is after the Oprah Winfrey's show editing process.

Grade C

She did one "bridge" back to safer topics that I noted, when Oprah asked her what Andrew said and whether he was angry or scolded her.  Her answer was: "So many times I wouldn't be sitting in the chair without his blessing."  The answer doesn't really make sense -- does that mean he approved her going on the Oprah show or does it mean that whatever she does, she clears it with him?  It did enable her to avoid directly answering the question, which is an effective bridge.

Grade: B+ (If the statement she used as a bridge made sense, it would have earned her an A.]

Overall grade: B-

I still cannot fathom what she accomplished through additional going over the same sad ground with Oprah.  Ferguson said many people told her to go away for a year, to sit this problem out and stop talking about it publicly.  I would have advised her to do the same, perhaps to throw herself privately, off camera, into charity work while she made amends.  But Ferguson insists: "That is not me.  I will accept everything I have done and I must go forward." 

When Oprah told her that what she saw in the video was a "spiritually and morally bankrupt person,"  Ferguson replied, "That is genius" to her assessment.  And when Oprah asked her if she had anything else she wanted to say at the end of the interview -- which we always tell the spokespeople we are coaching is the most underused opportunity in every interview, a chance to summarize the major points or bring up something relevant that may have been missed -- she meekly said, "I want to thank you.  That's all."

There are interviews and there is therapy and this one fell into the latter category.  As part of moving on, I would hope Ferguson will get -- and accept -- some good communications counsel regarding the right way to rebuild her image and refuse the next requests for what was a pretty mundane and sad interview with a broken person.

New grads: Thinking about a career in PR? Here are 7 ways to set yourself apart

The graduation season is in full swing, and it's a lively time around Boston with our concentration of great schools, and in Austin, home of University of Texas.  Over that last several months, our talent development team has been actively talking to many soon-to-be grads about career opportunities at LP&P.

While the job market by many accounts will be tough for new graduates, it won't be any worse than last year at this time.  The improving marketplace has allowed us to open up more internships and entry level opportunities this year. 

In my opinion, this is such an exciting time to be in PR because the profession is evolving at the most dynamic pace than any time in my own 17-year career.

7 ways to set yourself apart

So, for those new grads interested in starting their career in the industry (and potentially here!), I'd like to offer up 7 ways to approach looking for that perfect position and get hired quickly.  With the great contribution of our Director of Human Resources, Kristin Kilmain, the list follows.

Use social media. This is an excellent resource to connect with individuals of your target companies but don’t be too casual in your communication. While it is less formal than a resume or emailed cover letter, you are still applying for a professional job so keep your tone professional. 

Know who you're contacting. If you contact multiple individuals within an organization, be thoughtful about who they are and tailor your message to them (e.g., recruiter, CEO, Marketing director) and don’t send multiple messages in close succession – it might come off as too aggressive/borderline annoying.

Apply what you've learned. If you need to get a job to pay the bills while you search for a job in PR (e.g., local retail store) – great, you’re being responsible. While you are there, look for ways you can leverage your PR skills for the employer’s benefit (e.g., help with marketing, social media outreach, outreach to local publications). You’ll provide value to your employer and grow your PR resume in the meantime. Another idea is to volunteer to do pro-bono PR work for an organization – again, you’re building your resume and will be viewed as a “go-getter” and determined PR professional. 

Prepare thoughtful questions.  Thoroughly research the job/organization and prepare a thoughtful statement about why you want to work in PR for the first contact (usually a recruiter or HR person). That person is the gatekeeper to a second communication/interview so whether their outreach comes via email or a phone call –be prepared. If you get invited to interview, bring equally thoughtful questions. 

Example of not thoughtful: So tell me about your clients? 

Example of thoughtful:I really enjoyed reading the case study posted on your website about your work with XYZ Corporation. What type of clients would I likely work with if I’m selected for this position? 

Gain real-world experience. If you are reading this and still in college, get as much professional experience in PR, marketing or journalism that you can before you graduate. Most students have at least one internship under their belt – you need more to stand out. 

Write that personal pitch. When submitting your credentials for consideration, a thoughtful, well-written cover letter is always important to include with your resume. Instead of adding it as an attachment, put it in the text of your email. Recruiters will very often open the resume first, and if the resume doesn’t stand out, they may not open the cover letter and will miss any outstanding details you have included in your cover letter. 

Proof and proof again. Never have typos in any of your written communications. This may sound like a no-brainer but even a missing period does not go un-noticed when communication professionals are reading!

Congratulations to all the new graduates!  Enjoy this time of achievement.  Best of luck in the next stage of your lives and who knows, perhaps we'll cross paths.  There's a great opportunity to do so now in the comments!

For those who knew Joe Fuentes

Many LP&Pers and LP&P clients, alumni and friends had the privilege of working with Joe Fuentes at StorageTek.  Sadly, we lost Joe earlier this year.  His lovely wife Christine Fuentes shared with me over Facebook this beautiful tribute video the Denver PRSA chapter put together for Joe. 

It beautifully describes why we all miss Joe Fuentes.  Thank you, Chris!