Necessary Skills in PR
By Jasmine Chen, Account Supervisor
Another graduation season is coming, and the public relations soon-to-be graduates from the College of Communications can’t wait to start their career life in the communications field. If this sounds like you, check out these necessary skills to succeed in PR:
Writing
Writing is the first and the most crucial brick of your entire edifice of public relations. No matter what PR materials you are creating— social media posts, pitches, news releases, fact sheets, and company blogs— writing is an important skill to have. According to Professor Dowding at BU College of Communication, there is only one way to produce perfect writing—practice. In order to enhance, and even maintain your skill level, you need to practice every day, every month, and every year. Equally as important as writing to a communicator, is reading. Being a voracious reader will help you enhance your writing from a reader’s perspective. It is important to make sure your audience accurately understands the information you convey through your writing. Earning your reader’s trust is a crucial aspect of writing, which requires error-free writing. Professionals are encouraged to use reference books as tools, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law and The Elements of Style.
Social Media
Most people agree that social media is one of the biggest factors affecting our daily life, especially in the PR field. Unlike traditional media, social media is free and fast. That means, if you are a PR professional working for your company, you have much less control over the negative content against your company, and much less time to react and respond.
On the other hand, social media is a strong tool to help manage your brand reputation and to have conversations with your audience by controlling what’s on your social pages through paid posts, engagement with an audience, messaging, visual identity, and formatting.
For tips and tricks on managing multiple clients’ social media, please check out Erika Grossi’s blog post here.
Media Relations
Media relations is the practice of directing and controlling media-related functions with strategies, including building media lists, pitching, managing relations with journalists, and holding media events. Professor Grasso from BU College of Communication said: “As a PR person, your job is to make the journalist’s job easier.” By sending a timely, concise, and unique pitch to a target journalist, a PR professional must be able to maintain the newsworthiness of the organization he/she is working for. On the other hand, journalists need PR professionals to find more stories, but it is quite discouraging and frustrating to them if PR people try to obstruct their job by not telling the truth. In fact, some journalists suggest that telling the truth is not only helpful to the journalists, but it is also beneficial to the PR professionals and their clients; being truthful with reporters leads to better relationships with them.
Crisis Management
Crisis management is the most competitive skill for a public relations specialist. It requires comprehensive skills, including writing, social media management, media relations, event planning, and public speaking. To successfully manage a crisis, you need to anticipate the crises in advance and prepare for them, starting by having a crisis team and a crisis plan. Whether you work in-house or in an agency, you will likely encounter a crisis. The good news is that it’s possible to minimize the damage of a crisis. While dealing with a crisis, it is important to be accurate and transparent; tell the public what you know and what you don’t.