Public relations as a profession is for those who are both, street smart and intellectual. In a PR agency, if you were a genius, creative writer, but you were not street smart, then you will stay a junior executive drafting press releases, translating articles, sending emails to media, and welcoming guests at the door of every event your clients do… for a long time. Like wise, in a PR agency, if you were a social butterfly that befriended every journalist in town and could predict a social trend or the public mood before anyone else does, but you hadn't the talent to eloquently draft a piece of literature that makes your client the star of tomorrow, then you would become the CEO's personal assistant.
Public relations is probably the most time consuming, physically challenging, and mentally demanding line of work in the world of trade of information. Without public relations professionals, all products will become as valuable as the benefits they offer. Forget brand equity. Even presidential elections would run on coupons. Only public relations professionals could promote ideas using words, and they alone can attach nonmaterialistic, sentimental value to anything and make the whole world stand behind it or stand against it. Many brands and public figures have risen and fallen because of PR.
I remember the first thing I learned in PR was to befriend media people. I didn't really understand the idea behind the request; I was a nice person by nature. I thought if journalists were good people too, they could see the good man in me and we could hit it on right away. With time I realized the value of media for PR.
Media is the magic carpet that PR rides on to stun the public and make miracles. If the carpet likes you, you can fly hi. If it doesn't, you're not leaving the ground no matter what.
It is crucial for a PR professional to befriend journalists and media representatives, to establish friendly business relations that could pay back on a rainy day, or on all days of the year for that matter; want your news to show on the first page? Want your piece to come before the competition's piece? Did your client forget to invite an important editor in chief to that brunch? No sweat; good media relations could solve all that and more. Just like a magic carpet, media people could save your day no matter what volcano erupted under your feet; your client's stocks are crashing? Your client's CEO has been indicted of hiding information from the board? Your client's product is being made by a company enslaving two hundred thousand orphans in South East Asia? … if you are part of a good PR machine, media will sing to your rescue.
With all that said, one might think that PR is a profession of no principles. On the contrary, PR has ethics and values that are rarely found in other lines of business. To maintain relationships with the same yet numerous stakeholders for a long period of your career life, requires a trained and controlled will to treat everyone you know with respect and humility, and a well polished colleaguality between you and everyone on that boat you're sailing on; colleagues, clients, and media. Your word must be a word, and extending a favor to anyone who needs it must become your second nature. In PR, hiding the truth or cheating could help to overcome a hiccup, but should never be used as a strategy on the long run. What is far more professional and effective is to treat a problem head on, with the help of media, by downsizing the negative results and announcing steps and decisions taken to deal with the problem and perhaps prevent the likes of it from occurring in the future. It is far more professional and effective for your client to show his stakeholders remorse and ask for forgiveness than to deny wrongdoing like hiding a corpse under a rug. PR, more than any other profession, requires continuous education. A successful PR professional is the one that reads everything his eyes could see, and searches for information no matter where it may be found, not limited to career advancement or to business growth, but to personal development in every field in life there is. That is the only way you could compete in the world of PR and to be ready to help and promote any client that could choose to work with you. That is why PR is a profession for the intellectual.
For those of you willing to venture into public relations, you need to be ready to stay up long and tiresome after hours working on the details of your client's event. You need to eat your anger and frustration as you multi task, delegate, get jobs from above, and manage to maintain professional form and sanity. You should be ready to be blamed for that small, small, insignificant mistake you have done no matter how perfect an assignment you had finished, and you should take the blame with humility and whisper to yourself that you will try never to make a mistake ever again. And that's all in the office, while outside the office you must be the wizard that everyone loves hanging around or spending time with, especially your clients and journalists, when? On your weekends and on your personal leaves. You will share your personal time with your client and media people, and try to be the best friend that ever existed. You need to know everything about cuisines and places to eat, vacation spots and entertainment for all ages, latest trends in clothing and home furniture, gadgets and innovations, health tips and home remedies, poetry, literature, art and anything in the cultural agenda of the city you live in.
This might seem a lot. But if you could do it with grace and keep the humble, normal looks of a regular professional who wears a neat suit and shows up to work every morning, on time, then you are no longer common or regular; you are as close as we could get to being perfect.
