Head over to Comms2Point0 where I’ve blogged today about the skills you need for a career in PR.
Tag Archives: Social media
What skills do you need for a career in PR?
Head over to Comms2Point0 where I’ve blogged today about the skills you need for a career in PR.
Social Media Streamlining For The New Year
As it’s the first week back after Christmas, I’ve a stack of emails to answer from over the holidays. At the Taylor Bennett Foundation we ran four programmes back-to-back last year and this has been my first chance to catch my breath before we run our next programme in the spring. We’ve also had to move out of our office space and don’t have a new one to move into so all our office equipment is currently in storage.
I already work from home a fair bit, but Continue reading
Filed under Careers, Social Media
Stephen Waddington – Brand Vandals
I stumbled across this lecture by Stephen Waddington from last year and it’s worth checking out whether you’re looking to start your career in PR or whether you’re a seasoned practitioner. He explores the impact of social media across business, practice and academia.
Also, take note of his advice right at the start of this video – if you want to work in PR, write a blog.
Filed under PR, Social Media
PR books on Pinterest
I finally found a good use for Pinterest! Here’s my selection of PR books to add to your library:
http://www.pinterest.com/sarahstimson/pr-books/
Some interesting reads there, including a novel and a biography.
If you want to check out my other boards they’re mostly decorating/interiors/recipes – I was going through a “home” stage when I set up Pinterest.
Filed under Books, PR, Social Media
Who should you be following?
If you work in PR and you’re on Twitter, there’s a good chance that the people you follow are a mixture of colleagues, acquaintances and recommendations. How do you go about finding the really influential players in the industry, and which are the accounts with the most interesting tweets? Here’s our short guide to who’s who.
PR People: This Peer Index list compiled by Andrew Bruce Smith is a good place to start. Based on the PR Week Social Media Power Players list, originally published in February 2011, it is a comprehensive guide to those PR folk with a strong social media presence. Another list from Andrew is those listed in the PR Week Power Book.
Agencies: Jon Priestly has listed the top UK PR agencies.
Journalists: Stephen Davies has a great list of over 300 journalists which is worth checking out.
Jobs: For jobs in PR there are a number of Twitter accounts worth following including @UnicornJobs, @PRJobsLondon, @vox-popPRcareers and @UKYoungPR.
Industry news: To catch up on the latest PR news @therealprmoment, @communicatemag, @Gorkana, @PRWeekUKNews, @Holmesreport, @esPResso_prnews and the PR Daily.
Industry bodies: @CIPR, @PRCA_UK and for industry news on cultural diversity @Ignite_UKPR.
And of course, you should all follow me.
Filed under PR, Social Media
Using Social Networks for Job Hunting in PR
The world of recruitment is changing. More employers and recruitment agencies are turning to social media to find PR talent. If you are looking for a job in PR how should you be using social media tools to find your next role?
I wouldn’t recommend having an open profile on Facebook. Most people use Facebook for keeping in touch with friends, family and the occasional colleague and are more inclined to write things on their status updates that potential employers would not be impressed with. If you are going to make your profile completely open stay away from status updates that say “I hate my boss”, “God, work is boooooring” or “completely hungover, cannot be arsed to go to work so am pulling a sickie”.
If your profile is secure employers can’t search for you, but that’s okay. There are other ways to use Facebook to network. There are a couple of groups you should join; PR Job Watch and The PR and Communications Network. If you are not currently employed put a note up on the wall saying what your areas of experience are and what you’re looking for. You can also have a look at the posts from employers who are looking to hire their next PR.
First of all, sign up! I am constantly amazed by how many PRs are still not on Twitter. It’s an amazing source of breaking news and a brilliant way for you to network with your peers without having to step out of your front door. Follow the right people. If you haven’t a clue who they are then this list of social media power players should help. You should also follow some PR recruitment agencies who will regularly tweet their jobs (Unicorn Jobs is @UnicornJobs) Then get yourself known. Tweet regularly and retweet other people’s comments when you think they may be useful. Once you are part of the PR tweeting community you are much more likely to be approached by a recruiter about a new role. You could also follow the hashtags #PR and #PRjobs which will throw up a surprising amount of jobs that you won’t see advertised elsewhere.
This seems to be the tool that most people are confused about. LinkedIn is probably the most formal of all the networking sites and as such can be really useful when looking for new jobs. Set up a profile making sure that you give details of all your past employment – it acts like an online CV and gives potential employers a chance to check out your skills and experience. Unlike Facebook you should make your profile public, making it easier for recruiters and head hunters to find you. Then connect like crazy. Add everyone you have ever worked with, friends, family and acquaintances. The more connections you have the more likely it is that a recruiter will be able to find you. LinkedIn’s job search engine is worth a go too. When you view the results concentrate on the ones that you are no more than two degrees away from – which means you know someone who knows the person who is hiring and will therefore have a better chance of being able to get in touch directly with the hiring manager. You can also search for a specific company and see what jobs they currently have posted. You will also be able to see their recent hires so if you are feeling brave you could get in touch with them and ask how they got their jobs there – if nothing else it might lead to a new connection.
Filed under Careers, PR, Social Media
Are your followers for sale?
I have an on-off love affair with Twitter. Sometimes, I use it loads. Sometimes, I forget it’s there and then there is a delight in re-discovering it. I use it mostly for business, although I do follow a few friends (and a couple of celebs, but I’m embarrassed about doing that so let’s not dwell on it). I don’t live in London and am only in the Shoreditch office two days a week so there are few opportunities to network face-to-face. Twitter is a nice way of finding out what’s going on in the industry, and building relationships with practitioners. These relationships are useful to me in three ways; firstly, I edit espresso, a weekly e-bulletin which we fill with PR and media news and feature career tips and industry insights. Quite often I find interviewees or industry spokespeople through Twitter and I also use it for leads on industry stories. Secondly, I used to be a recruiter. I no longer recruit directly but I do have connections with Unicorn Jobs and Taylor Bennett and run their diversity internship programme. Relationships with PR practitioners helps me raise awareness of the programme, and have led directly to donations of time, money and training to the interns. Thirdly, it’s good to just know who is out there, who are the influencers and who is the young blood to watch. And sometimes, I get to give a little something back – like last week when a student asked me to give some advice on how to get into the PR industry.
Yesterday, I received an email from a Twitter account. It was anonymous – in that I know which Twitter account it is but there is no way to know who runs it. I am not going to disclose which account contacted me, as I’m rather interested to see if anyone takes them up on their offer and so will be keeping an eye on them.
Anyway…. this is the email:
Hello,
I am writing to see if you are interested in taking over the Twitter account ******, including its large follower base of job seekers. The account can be renamed and rebranded, giving your brand and jobs a huge audience, saving time and advertising costs.
The account can be found at ***** and is followed by a community of PR professionals who are actively searching for their next role through social media. These job seekers have the online skills PR employers are looking for and are engaging with this Twitter account to find their next job. The account is currently tweeting a feed of job postings from various sources, and followers are clicking through to the job postings to find out more. For this demographic, young UK-based PR job seekers, this is the largest Twitter community I am aware of.
Taking over the account would put your jobs in front of the right people without having to spend money on advertising. It could also significantly help to establish your brand on Twitter. Twitter allows changing the names of accounts, and the followers will be transferred over to the new name.
Please get in touch if you would be interested in discussing this more.
This is my reply:
No thanks. I run a Facebook group, PR Job Watch, with over 3,000 members. We don't need to buy Twitter accounts, we can develop our own. Twitter is all about building relationships.
I'm not sure it's really in the spirit of social media to be "selling" your followers.
Regards
Sarah
And their reply:
Very true. Some do a great job, like Unicorn Jobs, but others look for shortcuts.
It is unfortunate, while there are those looking for shortcuts, there will be a market for things like followers. And when there's a market, there are those desperate enough to feed that market. Still, it isn't like it is being sold for spam. I am targeting relevant people who will take care of my followers. Atleast, that's what I keep telling myself.
Thanks for getting back to me and keep up the great work.
ps. I love your esPResso newsletter
I mentioned it on Twitter last night and a couple of people expressed outrage at the thought of followers being sold. I actually *am* a follower of the account in question, and I am not that happy about being sold myself. But maybe I am behind the times? Maybe it is acceptable to build up relationships and then sell them on? Perhaps the likes of The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den are encouraging such entrepreneurial spirit?
It still doesn’t sit quite right with me. I will be watching with interest to see if a PR recruiter takes them up on it though.
Filed under Recruitment, Social Media
