Hello there, talented journalist!

I’m often approached by print and broadcast reporters and editors like you for tips on transitioning into a career in public relations. After years—even decades—of researching, reporting, investigating and doing your best to file balanced, accurate and timely stories, you’re contemplating making the move to the dark side.

Congrats! You’re really going to love it over here. That is, unless you take a job you have enough years, but not the experience for; assume you are still going to see your name in the paper; or negotiate a salary that does not take into account the overtime you’re about to give up. Yikes!

Never fear, I’m happy to help. Here are the pitfalls and pick-me-ups you’ll need to remember in order to rock out your new career:

Your decade of newsroom experience does not equal a decade of communications management experience.

Public relations isn’t rocket science, but it is a learned skill set. Just like “talking to reporters” everyday doesn’t make me a great journalist, “talking to PR people” doesn’t translate into mastery of project management, strategy and proposal memos, event planning, running a client’s budget, dealing with corporate bureaucracy and crafting and implementing a media relations campaign.

If you walk into a room of experienced PR folks and declare that although you’ve never done their job, you’re awesome at it, they will turn on you so fast it will make your head spin. And you need those flacks because you’ve never done this before…

Accept that you don’t know what you don’t know—then, seek out an employer who understands that.

Take a job at a public relations or public affairs firm that understands that although you come with a highly-valuable skill set, you must be trained in—and given time to learn—the actual craft of public relations.

I strongly encourage you to NOT make your first communications gig a “Communications Director” for a company, or any place that expects you to be a one-woman show. Read More…

I was thrilled when Lisa Byrne’s DC Event Junkie profiled the DC Flacks Two Year Anniversary happy hour. The feature brought us several new members and tons of exposure on Twitter. Who could ask for anything more? So, when a Washington Post photographer decided to cover the event after reading about us on Lisa’s site, it was a double bonus! Thank you, Lisa, for enabling this fabulous coverage of DC Flacks’ second birthday:

DC Flacks Two Year Anniversary featured in The Washington Post! (September 3, 2011)

Read More…

Oh, sure, it’s been two months since my last post, but I’m back with all kinds of fabulous news! For starters, it’s time to welcome Tallahassee to our Flacks family!

That’s right: Tallahassee, Florida, public relations, communications and new media pros now have a no-pressure happy hour of their very own. And my Best Friend in the Whole Wide World, Rachel Davis Cone, is the hostess!

Check out the #TallyFlacks and please help Rachel spread the word. Besides, when it is too freakin cold in DC to be social around January and February–and if we have been nice to her–maybe Rachel will let us relocate DC Flacks to Tally for a couple of months.  Just a thought.

Thinking about starting a Flacks Meetup in your town? Check out our Flacks affiliations page; and don’t hesitate to email me (Margie @ flackrabbit dot com) if you need help or a pep talk! 

This morning, I had the absolute pleasure of informing six talented, young DC-area communications professionals that they had been selected as finalists in the Washington Women in Public Relations 2011 Emerging Leaders Awards (ELA). As a WWPR board member and Chair of this year’s ELA’s, I’ve been working towards this day for months; this morning’s announcement makes it so real!

Please join me in congratulating these amazing young professionals who have already made significant contributions to the public relations field!

2011 WWPR Emerging Leaders Awards Finalists

Veronica Brown, Gibraltar Associates

Jennifer Mastin Giglio, Ogilvy Washington

Katie Lilley, Hillenby

Amanda Miller Littlejohn, Mopwater PR

Judy Lubin, Public Square Communications

Tara Silver, SilverStrategy

The final three winners will be announced the evening of July 26 at the ELA cocktail reception. Please join us! If you’d like to learn more, volunteer or sponsor this event, email me: ela (at) wwpr (dot) org. Read More…

{Today’s guest post comes from Susan Hart, a Tennessee-based PR pro who pens one of my favorite current events blogs: EveryDayPR. I don’t write about current events here on FlackRabbit, nor comment on them in a public forum; but I love reading about them. Especially when folks’ views are relevant, quick reads that make me think. Susan’s blog fits that bill. In this post, she talks about what set her on the path to blogging and how she’s stayed true to herself along the way.}

My New Year’s resolutions for 2009 were to read the Bible and learn about social media, two completely unrelated goals or so I thought.  The two goals actually couldn’t have been more related.

So I became my own client. I immediately set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, et al.  I also started my EveryDayPR blog to have a venue to express an experienced public relations take on industry topics or current events. I was confident that people were begging to know what I thought about things.

This brings me to the single most important lesson of blogging: Be yourself. If you can’t be you, then who are you going to be?

I never started EveryDayPR to grow Hart Public Relations. The reality was that I was opinionated, a decent writer and a thinker. In my experience, effective public relations leaders from the C-Suite to department heads want thinkers on their team. Thinkers equate to problem solvers. Problem solvers mean happy clients and employers. I am rewarded on a number of levels when happiness happens. Read More…

I read a lot of resumes. For the most part, they attempt to detail the career path of smart, well-educated young professionals on the hunt for their next great challenge. Yet, most of these resumes scream mediocrity and naiveté. Maybe it’s because most folks learn how to craft a thoughtful resume in college; maybe it’s because they are trying so hard to be a team player.

Whatever the reason, Young and Talented People of Earth, please stop making these three resume mistakes:

1. Leading with your education and grade point average: Oh, I know this stings; you’ve worked so hard to earn that masters degree. But as much as you love your alma mater, your major/minor, GPA and campus activities offer an employer zero indication as to how qualified you are for an actual job. We want to see your real life work experience. If you’re leading with four paragraphs about education, we’re assuming it is because you don’t have much relevant employment to talk about. There are of course, exceptions to this rule: if you are a Ph.D. applying for a fabulously wonky research position at a well-respected think tank, you have our permission to lead with education. If not, you should move education down by “Special Skills” and “References Available Upon Request.”
2. Cutting and pasting your title and job description: I don’t know anyone whose day-to-day responsibilities mirror her job description. You do so much more; am I right? Why so many of you choose not to communicate your gig beyond your title is beyond me. It’s also the first sign of someone whose self-esteem is keeping them from achieving greatness in the workplace. Take the time to thoughtfully craft the description of your contributions, successes and skills. Read More…

{Today’s guest submission comes from frequent FlackRabbit contributor and friend, Joe Flood. When it comes to hiring a public relations or marketing firm, how do you know you’re getting your money’s worth? It’s a question Joe poses and hopes you’ll answer! Do you tally sales, social media mentions, traditional media placement, happy executives? Do metrics differ between “marketing” and “PR” efforts? Share your thoughts in the comments!}

I recently attended a seminar on movie marketing. A pair of experts from Allied Integrated Marketing shared their experiences in promoting independent films such as Milk and Sin Nombre.

They used a variety of interesting tactics to get the word out about these important movies, including partnering with local nonprofits and having “tastemaker screenings” for influential people in the community.

But I had a more fundamental question. How do you measure the results?

After all, if you’re going to hire a public relations firm to promote your product, business or movie, how do you know that the expenditure is worthwhile?

In the case of movie marketing, there’s no direct way to track promotional efforts to ticket sales. You can’t connect PR to asses in seats. At least not in an objective way.

I think that’s part of the reason why the field can be so frustrating to clients. If I bought Google Ads, I could see how they’re performing and adjust my efforts accordingly. I could measure the clicks and the ticket sales. I’d know what ads and markets were working.

But how do you measure schmoozing tastemakers? It’s certainly worthwhile to appeal to the audiences who would be most interested in your film, especially for challenging films that are difficult for the general public to embrace. Read More…