Public Relations(hips)

From my previous blog "What is PR?" I discussed the idea that Public Relations deals with reputation and maintaining relationships. From my experience of PR there was hardly a minute let alone a second that the phone did not ring or someone popped in. As Public Relations officers are constantly building relationships, what if one was to break. Its always been said that a reputation takes a life time to build and one act of bring it down. How can we keep everyone happy?

Making:

A speck of wisdom that I learnt while on my work placement is that journalists get thousands upon thousands of press releases sent to them everyday. If they were to actually reply or use every one of these press releases, well, the certainly would have square eyes. They would never get away! Especially as many of them will be round robin emails sent to everyone, not especially your target audience.

I learnt that addressing an email to person's name who shall receive it will keep their interest. Even if you've slightly messed up and sent some coverage for a new band to a paper who deal with finances, seeing their own name will make them see you've made an effort. This also means that they are more likely to get back in touch with you and maybe even suggest further contacts.

As a PR officer, you've got to remember that everything you do reflects not only yourself but also the company you are working for, the clients that you have and the public. This means always being well turned out and friendly, even if you're boyfriends just dumped you and your cat is missing.

Breaking:

Always make sure that when you are sending an email, letter, fax - ANYTHING that you double check it for spelling mistakes. A journalist would be very unimpressed at bad grammar or spelling mistakes and think "Idiotic PR officers, no wonder they're not a journalist!"

A mistake that I saw when working on placement which was easily amended, but was very embarrassing for the company at the time was an email to the agents of a singer they were covering saying that a newspaper had loved her. This was definitely not the case! They hadn't read the article properly and actually they were really slating her for her work! The agents thought that the company were being sarcastic and rude! Not good!

I daresay that throughout my career as a PR officer I will make many relationships and perhaps break some as well. The important fact is that each time you make a mistake you clear it up and try and get back on track! Public Relationships aren't the same as human relationships, you cant do it alone and stay single forever, you rely on them.