In a new series of columns, each week an alum of USC Annenberg will share stories of their time at the school, discuss their career, and offer advice to students.
PR is among those rare industries that leaves many on both sides of the ubiquitous “What do you do for a living?” question stumped. Truly stumped. Though I won’t admit to it myself, I’ve heard many a PR colleague acquiesce after a confusing back-and-forth cocktail party conversation to say, “I work in advertising.”
After more than a dozen years and a degree in PR, here’s my take. PR is two-fold: 1. Strategic guidance on a brand’s positioning, messaging and communications strategies with key target audiences. 2. Solid, smart execution on all of #1 — from messaging frameworks and collateral material to media relations and social media
However you describe it, it digs deeper into brand and business strategy — often with far-reaching implications into sales, public affairs and legal issues — than the glitz and glamour portrayal of PR in TV land. That’s not to say I haven’t snapped photos with countless celebrities and attended thrilling parties and events. That’s just not a typical day-in-the-life … unless of course you choose to be mired in the depths of entertainment PR.
So is PR the right career for you? Here are six clues that pointed me in what has become a thrilling, 12-year adventure:
You’re the puppeteer and not the puppet. You have a critical role in what a brand says about itself and how it communicates with its most important targets — but that role is behind the scenes. You’re the one who wrote the remarks the corporate CEO is sharing on stage at a large conference. You’re also the one who coordinated product placement in a major feature film. You’re the one who made the hit in The New York Times happen. You’re also the one who recommended the crisis response you’re seeing unfold on TV. Your name isn’t associated with any of these efforts, but your hard work — and blood, sweat and tears — is.
You want to be immersed in an industry (or several) but not committed to any one. My colleagues and I in the PR world have been fortunate to get in-depth and intimate glimpses into organizations and industries, from the most nimble of startups to the most behemoth corporate giants. It’s a privileged glance into the inner workings of brands in all sectors. I’ve learned much more than I would have in a more straight-forward career path. I’ve become savvy in the businesses from high-tech SaaS solutions to worldwide laundry care.
You can tap into your left brain as much as you can your right. PR often finds itself on the annual “most stressful jobs” lists. There are a couple critical reasons for this, but needing to tap into both creativity and logic, often simultaneously and on-demand, is certainly one. Should we release this key announcement or hold it? How do we navigate a tricky recall situation? What grassroots ways can we usurp buzz at a major event? And my current favorite: How do we make this video go viral? You need to be able to advise on the serious business as much as you can roll up your sleeves and think big, bold and attention-grabbing. The truth is, brands need us for both.
You are a project master and a task master in equal parts. I am talking real Monica Gellar organization skills. This rings especially true if you sit on the consulting or agency side. You need to manage overall client projects, and individual projects attached to each client, across the portfolio of clients you manage. For me, that’s been up to 10 clients — at once. And you need to be able to do it all seamlessly, without missing a beat.
You like — no, love — to communicate. And you can do it in all shapes and sizes: creative tagline and campaign name ideas, news releases, pitch notes, company collateral, executive remarks, bylined articles, fact sheets. Today, PR professionals can add to that list blogs, social media posts, website copy and more, as the lines between traditional PR, social media and content marketing inevitably blur.
You’re a news junkie. Because you want to be and because you have to be. Bringing a diversity of experience and perspective is invaluable to our clients. Plus, how would you know the right section and editor to pitch in Cosmo? Or, how can you accomplish the famed “newsjacking” approach if you don’t know what’s going on in the world around you?
In PR, the highs are high — landing your first USA Today hit, successfully avoiding a company crisis, single-handedly landing companies major new customers, driving enough website traffic to crash a site — and the lows are tough. I hope you’ll consider joining this great industry. You’ll have plenty of professionals that will help navigate both the highs and the lows, and many a war story to share at the next cocktail party.
