10. Embrace all of the free online resources at your fingertips. From blogs to tweetchats, and everything in between, a great PR education is just a URL away.
9. Speak up during internal team brainstorms. In order to gain a voice in the room when you are with a client, you need to first use the one you have when you are in a room with your colleagues. You never know when you might say something that sparks an idea (and don’t worry, even if you say something that doesn’t lead anywhere, your managers will still love the fact that you were thinking and trying to be helpful).
8. Make sure you have thick skin. You are going experience challenging clients that do nothing but piss you off and yell at you. You may eve have co-workers that you can’t stand dealing with. Although it may be hard to imagine, I can promise that you will learn a ton from these situations.
7. Be a news hound. Do you like to stroll into the office at 930, get a cup of coffee and a muffin, and then catch up with a few friends in the kitchen area before jumping into your work? Stop immediately. Get to work early, do a Google news search to see if there’s any stories your clients can speak to, and get your pitches out the door immediately.
6. Don’t be a media pest. Reporters get a ton of e-mail’s, and occasionally they may not see every single one of them that gets into their inbox, but speaking as a former reporter (and obviously as an extraordinarily gifted blogger) I can tell you firsthand that I read almost every e-mail I get. If I’m interested in your client, I’ll let you know. Don’t follow up with me numerous times just to see if I got your pitch. It’s 2011 and your e-mail did not go into my spam folder. I got it. I read it. I moved forward accordingly.
5. Speak up if you are unhappy with something. Your boss isn’t a mind reader. If you aren’t happy with your accounts or think you deserve greater compensation, arrange a meeting with the appropriate senior people, be prepared to state your case in a professional manner, and get your opinion on record. This may help your current situation, or you may not see any changes right away. But keeping your mouth shut and bottling up your frustrations will get you absolutely nowhere.
4. Be a team player and not a lone wolf. No matter how talented you may be, the quicker you learn that you can’t do everything yourself, the better off you’ll be. There’s a reason why account teams have more than just one person on them.
3. Always ask to try new things. Are you only responsible for putting together media coverage reports or just pitching the media for a specific client? Next time you find that a client has a request that isn’t on your list of responsibilities (maybe a press release or a byline, for example), ask your boss if you can take a stab at it. You will absolutely make mistakes, but your boss will love your enthusiasm and initiative (and you’ll also learn something!).
2. Don’t ever get comfortable at your job. You need to always be challenged and learning from people smarter than you are. If you aren’t getting that education, it may be time to look elsewhere (and believe me, you’ll make new friends quickly at your next stop).
And the number one way to succeed in PR is..
1. Get results. If you get media opportunities for a client, not only do you look good, but so does your manager. If you do great work on a consistent basis and keep filling up your bosses inbox with positive notes, I guarantee you will be moving up the corporate ladder in no time. And make sure to document everything that you do so that come review time you can easily showcase all of your achievements from the past year.
