July, 2009

Are you interested in a public relations career? There are many opportunities to pursue careers in both corporate public relations and with public relations companies. PR is a growing career field, and there are many opportunities in this profession.

Public Relations as a Career

Public relations professionals spend the majority of their time planning, implementing, and evaluating promotional campaigns on behalf of their clients or companies. Public relations jobs typically include one or more of the following: writing, media relations, graphic design, public speaking, event planning, and other similar tasks. Depending on the type of organization with which you are employed, your job may involve any or all of these responsibilities, as well as other duties.

Skills Needed for a Public Relations Career

In order to be considered for a position in public relations, you will need to have strong communication skills. Successful public relations practitioners must be able to be able to write and speak clearly. PR practitioners communicate with their clients, employers, coworkers, the general public, and media representatives on an ongoing basis. Nearly every PR job requires, at a minimum, writing press releases and pitching stories to journalists via email, by telephone, and/or in person.

Many public relations jobs require making guest appearances on television programs, being interviewed on radio shows, and giving speeches or making presentations to groups of all sizes. Others require writing in-depth documents such as speeches, brochures, training manuals, and other publications. Additionally, PR practitioners are often responsible for coaching company executives and clients regarding how to speak to reporters and other media representatives.

In addition to strong communication skills, public relations professionals need to have excellent organizational skills, particularly if their job duties encompass media relations and event planning. PR professionals can be responsible for handling pre-planning, logistics, setup, and promotions for news conferences, grand openings, new product launches, and many other types of events.

Training for a Career In Public Relations

A degree specific to the public relations field is not necessary for a career in public relations, but it can certainly be beneficial. Most companies do require Bachelor’s degrees or a significant amount of related work experience for even entry-level PR positions. Many people choose to move into Public Relations from careers in journalism, publishing, sales and other types of occupations that require strong writing skills.

Many people who are successful in public relations have completed formal education in fields such as: Advertising, Communication Arts, Creative Writing, English, Journalism, Marketing, Mass Communication, Psychology, Public Relations, and similar fields. Regardless of your major, if you college has a student chapter of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) professional organization, it is a good idea to get involved.

A college student who wants to pursue a career in PR will be well-served by completing an internship with a public relations company or in corporate communication in order to get hands-on experience in the field. A combination of classroom training, hands-on internship experience, and recommendations from professionals in the field are very beneficial to anyone seeking employment in the public relations field.

By Mac H McIntosh

Help your potential clients realize how you can help with great marketing; the best public relations events end up giving you a new lead. What's public relations? A wide range of activities can be considered PR, from business marketing to personal luncheons. Outreach in magazine is the most common form of lead-generating PR. The object is to get a mention for your business, service, or staff members to appear in a publication.

Alternatively, one of your management staff can have something published which they write or have ghost written. This sort of press can have a big effect on the number and quality of leads you generate. However, although this kind of PR is cheap compared to advertisements, getting covered in magazines requires sustained effort and a time commitment, in order to nurture relationships with magazine people in your business field. An organized campaign is usually more successful than scattered attempts at getting press. The best campaigns utilize the following elements:

1) A press release

2) A press kit with bios, product photos, and reprinted content

3) Good relationship with the press

4) Features supplied by managers and other staff

5) Media coverage featuring your employees as industry experts

6) Testimonials

Complete the following actions in forming your program:

Research, compile and read the publications. What's the audience? Think about the info that gets published – is it news? Make your contributions appropriate. Talk with the writers and go to the web site. Who's the right person to talk to? Call the editors and ask for submission guidelines and what they like to publish. Try to find the editorial calendar and see what stories they're running month by month. You can usually find this on the last page of the magazine or at the site. Then decide what you'll submit, and what publication month to target your efforts toward. Don't give up – keep at it to gain rapport with editors. It gets better with time. By becoming a source of relevant info, you may supply the publication with information which is vital to their readership, and become an important contributor. Your pitch should explain how it is relevant to the editorial calendar – offer to provide an outline upon request. It can be a good idea to use a ghost writer, as these professionals have experience working for magazines and can form the article to the format of the publication with relative ease. These deadline-driven contractors will take the initiative to get the work in on time, freeing your technical or management employees to work within their fields of expertise.

Be sure your press release provides newsworthy content. It should answer some of the following questions:

1) What's the problem you help solve?

2) What is accomplished?

2) What's the take-home benefit?

4) Is it a product or service?

5) How can it do this?

6) Why will the readers be interested?

7) How much does it cost?

What are the main features?

9) When's it available?

Don't brag about yourself or your company. Steer clear of words like “best,” “revolutionary,” and “unique.” These are overused. Editors prefer testimonials instead. Avoid language that is inaccessible to a lay person. Really, even the writers won't have an expert understanding of your offerings. Keep it simple. Always include contact info in two places on the page, and photos if accepted by the publication. Most prefer digital images. Name these files with relevant terms that one can search on to find them. In short, do the prep work and make it easy for them to run your piece.

PR can help improve Search Engine Optimization efforts as well. For example, wire services are excellent – after sending these out, your release will be discoverable by search engines and news wires. By including links in your online release, you can raise your info in the search engine rankings. A recent survey showed that most journalists use the Internet daily. About 75% of them make searches for press release info. For a free news wire to get you started, try: http://google.com/alerts and create a free subscription.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is described by many as one of America's leading B2B sales and marketing consultants and an expert on public relations .
Source: www.isnare.com