6 Useful Tips for a Successful Career in PR

If you know a bit about how the field of public relations works, you’ll know that — contrary to popular belief — a job in PR is not all about glitz and glamour, socialising, and organising fancy events and parties. A career in this field requires a lot of discipline, long hours, and excellent problem solving skills.

If you think this line of work might be for you (or if you’ve already started your public relations career), these tips are sure to set you up for success in this exciting field:

1. Stay up-to-date with current events

Trends in public relations can rise (and fall) in the blink of an eye. Keep up-to-date with the latest news, industry trends,and technological developments by following online news sites on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms will alert you the moment anything relevant and newsworthy happens, allowing you to stay on top of things and giving you a head start on implementing changes in your public relations strategy should the occurrence of any new events have a direct influence on your campaigns.

2. Work on your written communication skills

A large part of your responsibilities as a PR professional will be to create content to be used across a variety of platforms to promote the projects that you are working on. In order to create good content, it is important that your communication skills are top notch, and one way of ensuring that this is the case is to constantly improve your writing skills.

To do this, you can start your own blog to experiment with different writing styles, ask a colleague or friend to have a look at your work and make suggestions on where you can improve, or even take a short course focusing on writing for public relations.

3. Keep your personal online profiles clean, up-to-date, and professional

When working in public relations, you are almost guaranteed to meet new people every day. Make it easy for these people to find you via channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter by keeping your personal profile updated with your contact details and any current projects that you are working on.

In today’s social media age, it is also important to remember that what you put on the internet can have a huge effect on the impressions that others get of you —especially when you work in a field such as PR. So be sure to think twice before posting the weekend’s wild party photos on Facebook…

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4. Develop your own coping mechanisms

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, working in PR involves working long hours, which often leads to sleepless nights. The good news is that it’s not that difficult to remove the sleepless nights from the equation by incorporating coping mechanisms into your daily routine.

Step away from your work at a few intervals during the day, take a deep breath, and take note of what you have accomplished so far and what still needs to be done. Get into the habit of setting up weekly schedules for your tasks, with clear due dates and goals that need to be achieved. This way, you can prevent yourself from being surrounded by absolute chaos when it comes to your to-do list, and you can rather tackle each day in a well-organised and structured manner.

5. Don’t punish yourself when you make a mistake

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone recovers from them. Slip-ups are bound to occur, and when they do, it is important that you remind yourself that you’re not the first person to get something wrong. Use it as an opportunity to learn something. Have a discussion with a colleague or mentor and ask for advice on how you can avoid making the same mistake in the future.

6. Be on the lookout for opportunities to learn

The PR industry is always changing, and if you want to succeed in this field, you need to make sure that you are always up-to-date with any new developments and trends. Soak up the knowledge shared by your co-workers, expand your work networks, and never miss an opportunity to broaden your skill set. The more you know, the better you will be able to execute your job!

Want to brush up on your public relations skills? Consider taking a part-time PR course from home with Oxbridge Academy.

Already qualified in this field? Check out the latest public relations jobs on Job Mail.