Certain universal truths exist.
If you’re waiting for a call, the person will not call until you go to the bathroom. When you’re looking diligently for something, you can never find it.
No matter how you break it down, certain things will always be the case. With that in mind, let’s look at the universal truths of PR.
1. Your job is never done.
PR is all about storytelling—from conceptualizing to developing to monitoring and optimizing messages and perceptions. Public relations does not stop once a media placement goes live or a blog post publishes. Savvy industry professionals are always crafting relevant and powerful stories and always forming new connections with whom they can share those stories.
PR-driven content often drives engagement and site traffic long after it has gone live. Given that organizations of all sizes are increasing their focus on branded content, today’s PR pros must demonstrate the enduring results of their content and storytelling efforts. The circle has no end.
2. You must be comfortable with the unknown.
Meticulous planning is the norm for the average PR pro, but crises are never scheduled and brand and client needs can crop up at any time. A significant percentage of PR efforts for any team are reactive.
Given this nature of our work, do everything you can to ensure that your team and clients are as prepared as possible with approved reactive messaging, explanations and further information. In any crisis, preparation can make a huge difference in your end result.
3. First impressions make a difference.
I’m not just talking about physical attraction. This also applies to pitch emails and all other first attempts at outreach. Is your pitch email too long? Does it include grammatical errors (everyone’s worst nightmare)?
Before interacting with anyone for the first time, research them and study your notes so you can bring things up when appropriate. Think of all first professional interactions like a job interview; show you’ve studied up.
4. Relationships matter.
People are your public. Genuine, face-to-face conversations—both formal and informal— make our human relations successful, especially in this digital age. Through these conversations you can learn personal things to maintain those positive relationships, such as a person’s birthday and favorite color. When the time comes to send them a present or a token of your gratitude, personalization makes all the difference.
RELATED: Think like a journalist to get your story covered at our PR Writing Conference.
5. You are more valuable than you will ever get credit for.
Too often PR efforts are unrecognized or misunderstood. Even with improved measurement options that help to prove the worth of your work, the vast majority of people (including clients) might not understand its value.
Don’t let this discourage you. Telling the ongoing story of your brand helps to drive and maintain all aspects of business, which means you’ll get more opportunities to be given credit where credit is due.
As with all universal truths, these are in large part products of perception. Keep your eyes on the prize, and optimize.
Kelly Byrd brings a range of experience in marketing, PR, and social media strategy to her PR Engineering role at AirPR. A version of this article appeared on the AirPR Blog.
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