Working In PR & Communications

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Is PR for you?

What makes the perfect PR person? Are you that person? Here’s some tips on the skills and personality you’ll need to succeed in corporate communication.

By Emily Morrison

The Basics

There are some things that will stand you in good stead:

  1. Communication skills are crucial as you’ll be talking to journalists and meeting with many different people important to your company or client.
  2. Excellent verbal and written skills as you will be producing press releases, annual reports, articles and newsletters.
  3. You have to be able to manage your time effectively because you’ll often be multi-tasking.
  4. A knowledge and interest in all the media channels through which you’ll be communicating.
  5. Perhaps most importantly, public relations revolves around what is going on around you and the politics and current affairs of the day, both domestic and international… you cannot begin to even understand what PR is about if you are not on top of current business trends and developments.

CIPR Tips

And here is the list of things the Chartered Institute Of Public Relations reckon a good PR person will be able to do. You wouldn’t necessarily be expected to have all these skills for an entry position – quite a lot of this you would pick up through a graduate training programme or your first job in PR. But it is worth thinking if any of your university or extra curricular work has given you experience in these areas…

  1. Analyse management needs.
  2. Advise management.
  3. Identify causes of problems, analyse future trends and predict their consequences.
  4. Research public opinion, attitudes and expectations and advise on necessary action.
  5. Plan, organise and co-ordinate tasks.
  6. Monitor and follow up.
  7. Set goals and objectives.
  8. Motivate and influence others.
  9. Communicate effectively with individuals and groups in meetings and through presentations.
  10. Write and edit press releases and reports.
  11. Work effectively with journalists.
  12. The ability to pick up the phone and pitch your “story” – the message you are communicating.

Source: www.ipr.org.uk

This article is part of the unicornjobs.com guide to Working In PR & Communications. Click here to go to the guide index.

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