Career Advice

Each year, PR News celebrates its list of Top Women in PR, an elite group of communications professionals who have spearheaded highly successful campaigns in recent months. They’ve also mentored colleagues and ideated some of the most creative PR plans in the business. So, what does it take to be a Top Woman in PR? We sat down with 2019 Top Woman honoree Adriana Arvizo, external communications manager at Comcast, to find out.

Social media has made listening easy, right? Not so fast. There’s listening and then there’s critical listening. It’s not hard to figure out which kind is more advantageous for communicators. Tips and thoughts about listening will help your career blossom.

Interns can contribute to your PR effort, hurt it or be inconsequential. The key to a successful internship program, argues PR pro Michelle Mekky, is to treat interns with respect, have enough work and guidance for them and avoid viewing interns as cheap labor.

With the continual introduction of new platforms and instant response, management and moderation becomes a key skill for any brand. Contrary to popular belief, the titles social media manager and community manager are not interchangeable. Both work towards the positive promotion of a brand underneath the direction of the marketing department, but the similarities really stop there.

Demand for public relations agencies continues to grow. But with the entire concept of strategic communications quickly evolving, the business model of the agency needs to be reassessed and, often, modernized and right-sized. Here are some considerations as a jumping off point.

PR pros and the company executives they collaborate with often become friends. After all, working closely on everything from brainstorming to crisis communications can be incredibly bonding. The questions arise when colleagues becomes friends and then find themselves working together. Can friends transcend the client-PR firm structure? These tactics will help.

Most of the time you should just say no to Facebook, target tweets carefully and, most importantly, embrace LinkedIn and its tools. LinkedIn exists to help people and businesses connect, and an effective strategy will put your story in front of a large audience. It is best used as a platform to highlight your thought leadership, announce the good stuff you’ve got going on, and put your savvy people up front to let them shine.

Fall is right around the corner, and while it marks a new school year on the calendar for many students, parents and teachers, it may also inspire a change up for your current job situation. Whether you are just starting your career, wanting to move up the corporate ladder or just expand your network, there are right and wrong ways to go about applying for jobs and the interview process. Take this quiz to see if you are on the path to success, or need a little brush-up on your job-seeking skills.

There is a proverb that says, “Failure is the mother of success.” And we, as business professionals, know this to be true. Struggle is the best educator. And innovating and failing fast has become a top business strategy. In this PRNEWS series, in partnership with the Institute for Public Relations, some of the most successful leaders in the industry will share the lessons they have learned from failure.

Journalism remains one of the most volatile careers due to industry mergers, political attacks, and the gutting of resources to maximize profits. In the past month we’ve seen GateHouse Media announce an incorporation with Gannett and CBS combining its assets with Viacom, withering away an already sparse news ownership scene. While an important and exciting job, for some the pressures and layoffs are too numerous and frequent, and enough is enough.