Graduate's Guide to Preparing for a PR Career

By Dia Dalsky | Posted Apr 27, 2010 | 7 Comment(s) | Filed in: Public Relations

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One year ago, I was a soon-to-be graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. With June quickly approaching, I was presented with two challenges:

1. Find an entry level PR job I liked, with an agency I could grow with.
2. Prepare myself for the actual activities I would need to perform at my job.

Not only would my class be entering into the worst economic recession since the 1980s, but we also needed to adapt to an industry that had evolved more in the past 10 years than it had in the past century.

Most students I graduated with accepted the fact that a majority of skills and training needed for our first job would be learned at our first job. This situation was not unique to my college, but due to the traditionally static structure of academia. By the time new concepts and technologies are accepted, textbooks are rewritten, and courses are updated or completely restructured, the industry and the required skills have already moved forward greatly.

This rapidly increasing disconnect between traditional PR and marketing and today’s industry can mean the world of difference to a collegiate about to enter the job force. So how do you prepare yourself to be a next generation PR pro and bring real value to an agency? (Hint: it isn’t a resume padded with club involvement and an inflated GPA)

After one year of experience at PR 20/20, I can offer five tips and free tools that I believe can be extremely valuable to someone in that same position today.

1. Monitor Industry News

Stay up-to-date on industry news, conversations and the leading influencers of change by reading and subscribing to relevant blogs, news feeds and hot topics. Some good follows include Todd Defren’s PR Squared, Mark Schaefer’s {grow} and Rohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog. Use the following tools to help you organize the blogs you read:

Netvibes

Create a free Netvibes dashboard to monitor and organize the blogs, news and social media sites you follow.

Start by signing up for an account and begin searching for content that interests you, or go directly to a blog or news site and retrieve the RSS feed. Feeds update automatically, which simplifies the process of going to each source separately or receiving multiple email updates. You can then sort the content into categories or groups and log into one, centralized location to receive your daily updates.

Google Reader 

Similar to Netvibes, Google offers members its own online aggregator to streamline the collection of content you monitor with Google Reader. You can organize blogs, news and the people you follow, as well as share link-worthy content with your followers, track trends and create personal notes.

Google Alerts

Another way to receive regular news and industry updates is by setting up Google Alerts to automatically email you hyperlinks for content posted to the web. Alerts are set up by identifying keywords you want to monitor, such as “public relations,” “inbound marketing,” or “entry level pr job,” and setting the frequency of notification, either real-time, daily or weekly. Each email update is broken down into News, Blogs and Web Alerts.

Also create Google Alerts for your own name and the agencies/companies you’re interested in working for. This will help you be conscious of your online brand, and the brands you are seeking employment with.

2. Actively Network 

Create a strong personal brand online by conducting yourself professionally on social networking sites and participating in relevant industry conversations. This will help you find agencies and professionals to connect with. Be sure to make these connections and continue engaging with companies even after you have interviewed.

If you are interested in a particular niche, such as sport marketing or non-profits, you should also look to expand your network for groups relating to these areas.

Twitter

Follow the authors of blogs you read, agencies or companies you want to connect with, and other professionals you know. If you’re not sure who to follow, start by using Twitter Search to look for people talking about topics that interest you. Consider joining discussions such as #prstudchat. 

Make sure your tweets are professional and relevant. Potential employers will likely scan your profile and look into the content you are creating and sharing with your network. Don’t be afraid to share your personality, but understand that professionals are more likely to follow someone sharing link-worthy information than someone detailing menial day-to-day events.

Facebook

Before you start professionally networking, be conscious of your Facebook privacy settings and clean up your profile, photos and wall posts to be presentable. Facebook offers an advantage over Twitter, by providing you with more space to contribute your own comments on articles and resources you want to share with your network. After you have completed these activities, connect with the business pages of companies you are seeking employment with.

LinkedIn

Upload information about your education and professional experience to your LinkedIn profile, which serves as an online resume that can be continuously updated and shared. This is a great link to include in your email signature and printed resume or business cards.

Under profile settings, you can link your Twitter account to into your LinkedIn updates. If all of the information you tweet is relevant to your LinkedIn audience you can select all tweets be updated, however, I would recommend selectively updating, which will ensure the tweets shared on LinkedIn are highly targeted and relevant to professional networking.

LinkedIn applications also offer additional functionality to showcase yourself professionally, such as Blog Link, Events and Reading List by Amazon. Lastly, joining relevant groups can help you make connections with professionals in the industry, or your particular market of interest.

Comment on blogs you follow

To develop a relationship and establish yourself with influencers, you must contribute to the conversation. Whether you have your own blog or not, you can still comment on other bloggers’ posts. Add some additional thoughts, thank them for the valuable resource or inquire about a related topic that wasn’t considered within the post. Bloggers won’t know you are reading their material unless you let them know who you are.

3. Write and Publish Content 

To truly be a leader and active contributor to the industry conversation, you must create original content. There is no limitation to the content you create, but here are a few ideas to get started: 

Blog 

Write about industry news and topics being discussed by other professionals. Link to their content, expand upon their ideas and do some analysis of your own. Look to timely events and news, online tools and resources or the projects and information you are exposed to at your own university. Or, write about a topic you are passionate about, but do it well.

College papers/projects 

When you are given assignments in school, try to select topics that could be of use to you as a writing sample. Consider what types of writing would be useful on an informational interview, and think ahead to build out your portfolio pieces. 

Account activity through an internship or student-run PR/marketing club

Nothing compares to real-life experience. If you’ve had an internship or are involved in your school’s PR or marketing club, be sure to keep track of account responsibilities, activities and projects you work on to share as professional experience. You can use these experiences and samples of work in interviews to refer to a particular situation you have faced and learned from.

4. Educate Yourself

Agencies and corporations that embrace blogging, social media, inbound marketing and online PR tactics are utilizing tools that support, monitor and report the measurement of integrated campaign activities. These are most likely tools you haven’t learned about in school. Become certified in the following programs to be able to contribute to and understand a business’ online marketing activities:

HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University (IMU)

HubSpot offers a free marketing certification through 16 Internet marketing webinars taught by industry leaders, including Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott, Lee Odden and Mack Collier.

IMU Webinars cover topics such as blogging, email marketing, lead nurturing campaigns and landing pages, search engine optimization, social media and website analytics. Learn more about IMU Classes.

Google AdWords

Ever wonder how Google determines which sponsored links appear above your organic search results? Businesses pay for these by launching highly targeted advertising campaigns through Google AdWords. Ads are specifically designed for target keyword searches and linked to website landing pages of a business’ related products/services.

To become qualified as an AdWords advertiser, complete the free education and training at the Google Adwords Learning Center. There are also several certification exams to complete the Individual Qualification process. (Because the exams are paid, you may consider completing the training and waiting to complete certification, in case your new employer is willing to reimburse you for the exam expenses. However, depending on the job you are seeking, this may be a worthwhile investment.) Google AdWords Certification Program.

Google Analytics

Google offers a free analytics program that provides in-depth tracking and analysis of website traffic and marketing activities, including Google AdWords campaigns and their associated landing pages. Analytics education is free and will enable you understand and think critically about analytics metrics.

5. Take Initiative 

If the opportunity isn’t handed to you, find it for yourself. Don’t expect your college and your professors to provide you with everything you need to be successful. Without personal drive, you will miss out on opportunities other people are actively seeking. Here are some recommendations: 

Request informational interviews with agencies or professionals that interest you. 

Learn about their business, what tools they use and how you can best prepare yourself for the job market; this is a great networking opportunity and learning experience. 

Attend industry events in your area. 

Find groups in your area to become involved with. They will provide you with a chance to meet people face-to-face and practice personal communication and networking skills. 

In Cleveland, we have organizations like the Cleveland Social Media Club that hold events for professionals in the area looking to learn and discuss topics related to social networks and how they can be used by businesses.

Welcome to the Real World

Don’t expect your college courses to equip you with all of the experiences and skills you need to land and succeed in your first job. Instead, prepare yourself for the workplace by finding out what your ideal career will expect from graduates and highly qualified job applicants, and make yourself into the ideal candidate.

To learn more about what an agency like PR 20/20 values, read some of our related blog posts:

• In Search of Next Gen PR Pros
• How to Land a Job in PR
• How PR firms Can Rule the Marketing World
• Twitter Strategy: The Incomplete Guide for Beginners
• Selling to the Future (Part 3 of 5): Facebook is life for college students and beyond

Photo: Me and fellow PR major, Jarrell Cunningham

Dia Dalsky is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Dia on Twitter @DiaDalsky.

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