Our lives are transformed into digital lives; our communication, our work; our social relations have all been influenced and turned into a different direction from what we were used to. In such a world, where almost everything is connected with technology, PR and marketing professionals must change as well, acquiring new skills and competencies Not very long time ago, PR professionals spent most of their time organizing events, building relations with opinion leaders, writing press releases and trying to place them – through networking with media people – in newspapers and TV stations. Building rapports with journalists were as important as breathing. Needless to say that most of the principles and tasks of the past still apply today. Networking is still necessary, event planning and press release writing are of imperative importance. What has changed is the recipient of our messages: the customer; the reader; the viewer and the way they are engaged with the brands.
Preparing for and being competitive in a Public Relations Career
In a demanding and competitive corporate world, where the expectations are high, besides education which may vary and will be discussed in a future article, professionals must possess certain skills. But what are these competencies and how someone could build upon?
Writing Skills: Still, the number one skill is writing. Public relations was and will always be a writing function; the PR professional must be perceived as an expert in writing press releases, articles and features for internal and external media, presentations and speeches. Putting thoughts and ideas into words is not an easy task; thus your writing must result the desired impact and engagement to the various audiences.
Strategic thinking: Being able to see the big picture and link your PR objectives with the corporate goal requires a well-developed strategic view. This is a skill, which is acquired over time and certainly can be learned.
Ethics: In a world where corruption and unethical behavior is a usual phenomenon, practitioners operating under an ethical set of principles are needed as never before.
Creativity: In today's cluttered environment, creativity has become a necessity. Only creative and remarkable messages will survive.
Educated and always updated: Public relations and Marketing professionals need to be well – educated and study a lot in order to be updated in new technologies, new products and services, new tactics, competitors, and the internal and external environment.
Communication Skills - Articulate: Enhancing your oral communication, speaking and listening is really essential. You as a PR professional must ensure that your message is clear, credible simple, and within the right context. Moreover, the knowledge of additional languages adds to the professional status of a PR expert.
Sensitive to people with a pleasant personality: A PR professional must be a people oriented person. It is still important to establish and maintain relations with all stakeholders, media representatives, opinion leaders, co-workers, competitors, customers, suppliers. A positive personality and an optimistic attitude along with a smile can open doors in this industry.
Familiar with new technologies and Social Media: Depending your sector, sites such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram, Orkut, Wiki, or Twitter are used to defuse company's news and promote products and services.
Other skills and attributes include:
- Cultural agility and teamwork
- Multitasking
- Analytical skills
- Decision making and good judgment
- Well organized, with good time-management skills
- Self-confident
- Able to motivate others
What we do at the University of Sheffield International Faculty:
Both our postgraduate marketing programs, one in Marketing Advertising and Public Relations and the other in Digital Marketing and Social Media, are built around all the above principles. More than 90 students, in all four cities we are offering the programs - Sofia, Thessaloniki, Skopje, and Bucharest - are exposed to the latest trends in PR, Marketing and Social Media, while they are coached to implement through a series of workshops principles of communication in real life scenarios. We first teach them the core principles of public relations and communication. From research to planning and organizing, and from implementing to evaluation. We teach them the importance of goal setting which derives from a comprehensive situational analysis and an identification of the target audiences. Then we stress out the importance of setting the objectives in relation to the corporate goal and linking them with certain strategies and tactics, while we set techniques for evaluation and assessment. The ability to apply knowledge and turn it into skills has become a strategic pillar for all of our postgraduate programs.
Our students at Business Administration and Economics Department are developing decision making skills with a strong sense of ethics and integrity. Teaching however is not based on a single textbook but rather on a set of competencies necessary for the real world.
Dr. Dimitrios V. NIKOLAIDIS
Head of Business Administration & Economics Department
Senior Lecturer in Marketing
___________________________________________
CITY College,
International Faculty of the University of Sheffield
Business Administration and Economics Department
3, Leontos Sofou Str., 7th Floor, 546 26 Thessaloniki, Greece
Tel.: (+30) 2310 536 544 & 528 450 (ext. 103)
Fax: (+30) 2310 282 384
Skype: dimitri.nikolaidis
Times Higher Education University of the Year
No comments:
Post a Comment