Five Reasons PR is like Having a Best Friend
By Julia Sylvain
It’s late. You can’t fall asleep because you are engrossed in the conversation you are having with your best friend as they tell you about the latest updates in their life. Constantly communicating back and forth, you reflect and analyze what they tell you and then offer your opinions and feedback. Eventually, as your eyes get heavy, you decide to go to sleep.
In the morning, when asked why you were up late, you briefly mention your best friend, likely emphasizing the amazing qualities that your best friend has. Somehow, you can talk to them for hours and it feels like only minutes have passed. Well, what if I told you that the field of public relations is a lot like this relationship with your best friend? And here are 5 reasons why.
Requires Constant Communication
Just as the above example mentions talking to your best friend for hours on end, public relations professionals must have constant communication with others in the industry, media outlets, and of course their clients. Fortunately, this communication can happen at all hours of the day, especially having so much technology around. Communication in PR provides opportunities for promotion and client awareness/branding, and it allows for clients and professionals to be on the same page as to the direction they want to head in with their services. Not only is this communication essential to the industry, but it is also fun! Being able to interest media to write about, post or broadcast your client is extremely rewarding, and the ability to help steer your client in a way that enhances their career and goals is of great value. Clients may even become good friends with you and your company as you constantly communicate with them!
Offering Support
One of the best parts about having a best friend is knowing they will always support you and provide encouragement. The funny thing is, PR professionals are there to do the same. Part of the responsibility of PR professionals is being able to promote their clients in a way that entices the media to cover them. You can’t do genuine PR without supporting or being able to highlight the good in the people you represent. Without using false hype, public relations involves being able to use evidence to show why your client should be covered and is important. After all, you can’t expect any audience or public to be interested in the person, company or product you represent if you aren’t!
Staying In-the-Loop
We all know it is important to stay in-the-loop or in touch with a variety of things in all facets of life. If your best friend tries telling you about what they saw in the news, but you have no familiarity with the subject, not only is it hard to keep up but it becomes hard to contribute to the conversation. This is the same with PR. You have to have knowledge or familiarity with the industry of your client to do successful PR for them. Breaking it down, the job is relating to the public in order to create, maintain or change opinion. If you don’t know the ins and outs of your world and the world of your client, it becomes impossible to effectively relate to any audience. Staying in-the-loop ensures your clients that you can complete their services effectively.
Mutually-Beneficial
Usually, with your best friend, they may do something for you and you return the favor. Other times, you enjoy spending time with them because you feel that they make you a better person. Regardless, there is a sense of mutual benefit from spending time with this person. This is the same for PR professionals and their clients. It is the professional’s job to help the client reach their goals, and in return the client allows the professionals to better their reputation, potentially finding new clients or having name exposure from their work. Clients and professionals benefit each other’s work enormously.
Can be Tricky
With so many positives to the relationship between best friends, there are still sometimes tricky situations that may come up. You have to figure out how to navigate these situations, and in PR that means always navigating in a truthful and professional way. Even in situations as small as not getting a response to a pitch you’ve sent, you must learn to adapt to the unexpected and prepare ahead to still find the coverage and reach the goal of the client regardless of what arises. A great example of this is planning an event to find out that another company has a very similar event planned for a month prior. Now, the PR job is to highlight what is unique to your own client’s event. This makes creativity and organization very important in the industry. You have to use developed skills to navigate these external factors that may come up, both in PR as in a relationship with a friend.
It’s late. You can’t fall asleep because you are engrossed in the article that was posted about your client, sharing with the public the latest updates in your client’s life. Constantly communicating back and forth with your client, you analyze the press hit and offer suggestions as to how to move forward with the PR plan, until your eyes become heavy and you go to sleep.
In the morning, you continue your work, emphasizing the activities that your client is working on and preparing for events. Somehow, you can work for hours and it feels like only minutes have passed. This is the exciting world of PR.
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About The Author:
Julia Sylvain is a spring 2021 intern with Diana Bassett Public Relations. Graduating in May 2022 from Hofstra University, she majors in public relations and dance and minors in French and integrated media studies. Sylvain is a member of the Honors College and is involved in many clubs and organizations on campus. She thanks DBPR for allowing her to gain firsthand experience and learn so much about the industry.
