Four months ago when I began my internship at Buchanan Public Relations my mind was filled with questions. With no background in PR or the B2B industries in which the firm primarily works, I found myself inundated with new information every day. From how to build media lists to the seemingly endless string of acronyms and shorthand references rattled off at staff meetings, my mind raced to keep up with my new environment.
While I have benefited in many ways from this experience, working in public relations has imparted to me one lesson that stands out above the rest: the importance of messaging.
This may seem a fairly trite observation—of course the very cornerstone of PR is the development and distribution of messages on a daily basis. While this may not be the most earth-shattering revelation of the day, it has been a significant insight for me into how the world works.
I was initially very hesitant about PR’s approach to messaging; who needs press releases and pitches? If a topic is newsworthy it will attract its own attention, won’t it? Yet as days turned into weeks and I tried my hand at a greater number of tasks, my doubts gradually faded away. After seeing how many different topics our work influences, I realized that many of society’s seemingly organic messages are actually carefully crafted pitches. From entertainment and government to non-profits and the education sphere, everyone with a stake in a cause, an idea, or a venture is involved in developing a message to tell their story.
Realizing that so much of the information we digest on a daily basis is backed by an agenda can be unsettling—but it has also prompted me to ask myself a more empowering question: what will my message be?
Surely if the banks, law firms, politicians and Hollywood stars can have a personally tailored message, so can I. This message can say something about who I am, where I come from and where I am going. It can share elements of how I think, what I believe, what is important to me and what simply isn’t. Through personal interactions, professional endeavors, social networking and a host of other methods, I can build and continually develop this message about me.
Of course, each person will have a unique path to creating their own message. I always like to think of myself as a writer—so perhaps I will craft my message by taking to Twitter, expanding my personal blog and improving my prowess in the digital sphere. What matters is not how you choose to do it, but that you ensure that you are in control of your message and conscious of the pitch you are making about yourself through actions, whether big or small.
So while I’ve learned to create a tight media list and convert corporate jargon into a comprehensible press release, the greatest takeaway from my experience at Buchanan PR is the recognition that messaging is everywhere and it’s in everyone’s best interest to take advantage of it.