There’s marketing. And then there’s war.
Stay Positive & Let It Begin
Garth E. Beyer
PR
Two Important Notes I Need To Make
I watched Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell get arrested on the UW Madison campus the other day. I’d like to amend my Pen and Journal post and add a video camera!
The second note is a little explanation/realization of why I haven’t been writing so much on PR. It’s definitely not an excuse, although it has a lot to do with excuses.
In the past, after any presentation I’ve watched, any PR guru that I met with, or any dinners I’ve had with PR professionals, I have wrote about the lessons they provided, suggestions, and bits of advice they gave me.
The reason for the recent lack of my writing isn’t because I’ve stopped learning from the universal sphere of PR influencers or that I’m not passionate about sharing with you all that I learn. No. It’s that you can’t keep coming back to my blog to read about what you should be/could be/must be doing if you want to be a PR professional.
As of lately, every PR professional seems to be reiterating all the same pieces of advice, nuggets of knowledge, and lessons they learned. (Of course, they present it in different unique ways, but the gist is still the gist.) PR is something that you can research a bit, but then you have to go out and do it.
Preparing to enter the world of PR is 10% research and educating yourself.
The other 90% is going and entering it.
Enlighten Others
Tips From PR Professionals At Edelman (Chicago)
Don’t be afraid to stalk. (Find out who you can connect with in the agency you wish to join. Be where they are.)
Stay on trends. (This costs time and money, yea, but it’s always worth it.)
Schedule frequent events to be on. (Get used to always be focused, paying attention to detail, connecting, working, there is no off button.)
Learn fiction writing
Learn client speak
Organize everything and get it all done early. (Projects get reviewed constantly, you must always be prepared to divulge your plan and progress.)
Enlighten Others
The Advertisers Mistake
Don’t spend more time updating your commercial than your service.
Advertisers want us to talk about them (the product, the company, the idea), but too often they forget they need to give us something worth talking about.
Enlighten Others
Abercrombie PR Stunt Idea
First thought of Abercrombie: Gag.
Certainly not because the models fail to be divinely sexy. They are. It’s the overpowering aroma, the WWII hazard gas that is ventilated to flow through the entire store and out to those just walking past it.
For a PR stunt, why not simultaneously offer free gas masks to buyers on the same day you hold a huge blow out sale.
The metaphorical, literal, and imaginative genius to this idea would be a PR stunt worth writing about.
Just a suggestion of mine. I’d be happy to write about it if it were to happen. (thegarthbox@gmail.com)
Enlighten Others
Final Words From A PR Veteran
This is my final tribute to John Mose. There were two lines that hit home for me and I hope they will for you, regardless of your possible lack of empirical context.
The question many PR Professionals ask themselves is whether it is better to be a wizard on one specific beat, or talented on all areas. It’s the question between generalization and specialization.
“It’s good to be a generalist. Clients change all the time.”
Of course, he does mean that you need to be a specialist generalist. Yes, PR is tricky like that. Get used to it.
His last tip is a motto I’m not entirely sure of. Recently I’ve felt that I don’t write to explain, I write to explore. It’s this exploration, this story, that sells. I suppose it’s similar to John’s last word.
“You don’t want to explain it, you want to sell it.”
Enlighten Others
10 Lessons About PR You Won’t Learn In School
Last night I was honored to listen to John Mose, Senior Vice-President of Public Relations at Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee, give a presentation to PRSSA Madison Chapter. The next few posts will be highlights of the presentation with my own commentary for an added texture.
1. Writing is important. Really.
You can land a position by presenting writing examples. You can get promoted by writing up proposals. You can get honored by writing the best press releases. You can be respected for writing media pitches. You can have the advantage of knowing what writers want to write about by being one yourself. Writing is everything.
2. Clients care about details.
You can skip the details when you are writing a plan out because you know them. You can skip the details when you pitch to your boss because your boss knows that you know them. You can’t skip the details when you pitch to your client because regardless of any title or background you have, your client won’t care. They want the details.
3. Understand and consume media. Read!
If you’re like me, reading all the articles in a newspaper is hard. The idea of opening a magazine to have my eyes blasted with absurd and uninformative ads repulses me. One word: literature. Other than that, I love reading articles online, but my eyes can only stand looking at the screen for so long. I’ve written about adaptation and this is when you have to get used to consuming all that you can. I’m making progress, you can too/need to.
4. At an agency, you are the product on shelf.
“Companies don’t cut the product that makes money.” – John Mose
5. PR can’t solve everything.
I’m leaving this up for debate. I have yet to meet a PR Professional other than John to say this. PR Specialists – being one myself – live by the adage If there is a will, there is a way.
6. Better to be fast than perfect.
My spin off of this that I have tweeted a few times, and rarely do I ever tweet something twice, is Be first, but be right first.
7. Be ready to sell some aluminum siding.
Similar to the next lesson; you never know what you may have to sell.
8. Know difference between a good-looking horse trough and an ugly one. You have to go out and be, do, or buy some crazy things.
You never know what you may have to do.
9. It’s okay to have non-traditional experience if you can make it interesting.
Took a year off? No problem, make the reason why fascinate me. Spent that last six years working a job that has no respective value? No problem, find and share what value it did hold. Every topic that you believe will work against you on your pursuit of becoming a PR Specialist, find how to make it interesting.
10. Study something else.
It’s time to confess something to you.
Everything you have read so far on this blog has come from experience, self-learning, or books and classes that are not directed at PR. I have to say that any and all future posts will be of the same context.
John advocates that you study something else, something you are passionate about, because the real world is the education center for PR. I couldn’t agree more.
(HT to John Mose)