By Blossom Deji-Folutile (Nigeria)
Senior Consultant, BlackHouse Media (BHM)
If you ask a non-PR professional to explain what their understanding of PR is, you would be shocked by their response. Some people think PR is publicity, others think PR is advertising, while most think PR is about distributing a company’s press releases. As a young PR professional trying to find footing in the world of Public Relations, it may often feel like you’re in a whirlwind of activities trying to find your footing. At least, that was my experience when I began my PR journey almost four years ago as a wide-eyed intern. Four years later, I can argue that I have been able to somewhat understand the art of Public Relations and have also highlighted key important areas to master in order to succeed in this field. For each point, I will share how I have been able to navigate these key areas and what I hope to continue to master going forward.
Client Relationship
I intentionally didn’t title this as ‘Client Management’ because when you think about it, clients don’t really want to be managed. Having an actual healthy relationship with a client is key when you work in this kind of field. I have realised that understanding your client’s expectations and working closely with them to achieve set goals, goes a long way in the overall success of campaigns executed.
Honesty is also extremely important because, in this line of work, it is highly important to build trust.
There have been instances when a client would ask for something that was not ready, and instead of trying to ‘manage’ the client by telling them that the document was ready, I chose to be honest and this surprisingly helped in reducing anxiety and ensuring that quality work was delivered.
Media and Influencer Relationship
As pivotal as these sets of people are to Public Relations, they are often overlooked. Throughout my career, I have had to interact with journalists across business, technology, brands and entertainment beats. Public Relations is storytelling, and the media helps us to tell our stories. The major successes we recorded on the team on numerous campaigns were because our media partners continued to support us and helped tell our stories.
Team Relationship
I don’t know who made the quote that a team is only as strong as its weakest link but this saying could not be more accurate. When you actually understand this, you’ll feel the need to ensure that every member of the team you’re working with is committed to doing great work. I have learned that everyone has their strengths and areas that need improvement, and the hack is to play to people’s strengths while actively seeking ways to help each other improve in areas that require improvement. I hope to continue to build stronger relationships with my colleagues, where we can share knowledge and grow together.
Storytelling
There is always more than one way to tell a story, and I think an important part of the work that we do is finding out the right angles to tell your brand’s story. One thing I am absolutely grateful for is the storytelling culture of the Consultancy where I work, which is BlackHouse Media (BHM). I have colleagues in other agencies who attend events and send out a press release from the event and call it a day. At BHM however, for every story worth telling, you’re required to find the business, brand, lifestyle and entertainment angles suited to it. I must not forget to mention the variety of social media content we put out for campaigns, ranging from threads to slidegrams, quizzes and the likes. Working like this helps you develop that nose for news that every media person is supposed to have, so you don’t go to an event to tick boxes and sit pretty; rather, you actively look for the right stories to tell, people to interview, pictures to take and any other thing that will aid your storytelling.
Reporting
As one of our clients would say, the work that we do is show and tell. And how better to do this than by presenting data?
Despite the fact that reporting can be quite cumbersome, I enjoy doing them. They give you a brief moment to reflect on the work done, note your successes and discover areas for improvement.
In 2021, I attended about three seminars on how to create effective PR reports because in the world of Public Relations, getting results for clients doesn’t matter if they don’t know about them. Reporting is the single most important part of a PR campaign because it shows the value of your work.