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The three attributes you need to get on in public relations
In the beginning was the word
Public relations practitioners have always been wordsmiths – crafting company news, writing executive speeches, drafting reports and proposals. That’s why there’s such a well-trodden path from journalism into public relations. Always was, perhaps always will be.
And rather than ushering in a new age of transparency that would have rendered corporate storytelling an embarrassing relic from the past, digital media has only increased this demand. There are more channels for communication, yet limited opportunities to earn attention. Your customers aren’t listening; even your employees aren’t paying much attention.
You have to earn their trust to win their attention – and their standards are high. They are willing to pay attention to the latest series on Netflix; they’re interested in the gossip surrounding their favourite football club. But news about the business that supplies them or pays them? Yawn.
Skilled storytellers are more in demand than ever, as long as they can weave their spells across multiple channels and formats, and as long as they can combine the slickness of an advertisement with the authenticity of human-to-human communication. It’s not easy.
Even so, words are no longer the single necessary skill required to advance in a public relations career. Words are just one of three foundational skills.
Two out of three ain’t bad
The problem is that these three skills, while complementary, are not natural bedfellows. I can’t think of a single person who exhibits equal strengths in all three (they’re out there I’m sure, it’s just I can’t think who they are). But I can think of many who are strong in two. That should be your starting point.
Let’s start with words. Good writers are avid readers. Typically they studied English or the humanities, and did less well at Maths. They’re words people, not numbers people. Not many have A levels in Maths and in English.
Yet numbers are the second of the three attributes. Our digital worlds are literally defined by numbers (1s and 0s). Even the most complex works of art can be reduced to a series of numbers. It’s not that coding is necessary for public relations, though rudimentary HTML is useful for updating web pages and diagnosing problems. It’s that we’re surrounded by data – and this data is an inexhaustible source of insight and stories. It’s that sequence (data – insight – story) that makes data the bedrock of storytelling. (We have reviewed two excellent sources on data storytelling here.)
Those in financial public relations have always known this. The financial results of a stock market listed business are audited statements of fact. Yet the results tell many stories and paint a picture when compared with a year before. Which of the numbers are most eyecatching? Which best tells the underlying story of the business? Turnover or profit? Executive remuneration or corporation tax? The financial public relations team gets to tell its story first through the results announcement and through its presentations to analysts – but financial journalists will also look to tell their own story from the data.
Indeed, data journalism has been a growth area in recent years, though there’s been much less of a focus on data public relations.
We may not all work for stock market listed companies, but we can all have access to Google Analytics or Twitter Analytics.
Public relations activity has never been so measurable – though measurement is not the same thing as evaluation. Outputs are easy to measure – but output data is not very important. It’s the outcome of our activity that’s important to know – and yet so often difficult to quantify.