Today we are going to take a tour through the toolkit of the PR pro. Actually, I’m going to focus on one of the tools we all have that very few people refine to the level of true mastery.
If you’re looking for ONE thing to focus on that will impact your work in every area of PR, that thing is writing.
Understand that we’re talking about PR writing, which is a very specific breed of writing.
It’s not business writing. It’s not the “corporate speak” type of writing where it takes six paragraphs to say almost nothing. And it’s certainly not hyped-up sales writing that makes you sound like a used car salesperson.
PR writing requires a strategic use of words and ideas to create impact and behavior. It’s about training your brain to think in effective ways and then taking those thoughts and carefully communicating them to create ACTION.
There aren’t many places to learn this skill.
And that becomes obvious when you read the writing of your average PR pro. You quickly realize that most people in this industry have a lot of room for improvement.
This is actually an enormous opportunity for anyone who chooses to take some action.
When I was getting started, I hated writing. I hated it because it took me forever. To get started, to finish, to edits, to get approvals.
And when the edits came back on my work, it basically looked like the page was bleeding.
If you’re looking to boost your pitching results, writing can do it.
If you’re looking to win awards in PR, then improving your writing can do that, too.
If you’re looking to earn a raise or a promotion, better writing can make it happen.
And if you’re simply looking to (finally) get the respect you deserve from leadership and industry peers, writing can deliver that…and more.
There’s a dark side to this as well.
The dark side involves the real problem that comes with not mastering the art of PR writing.
And that leads me to a project I’ve been working on for some time that I want to show you today.
In the PR world, there’s actually something far worse than finding out your PR writing isn’t good.
You can find out what that one thing is by visiting this page.
P.S. So I don’t get a flood of emails: yes, I purposefully misspelled “mistakes’ in the title 🙂
This article was originally published on November 2, 2017
(I’ll also send you other weekly tips)
This is in the footer of any articles and can be edited in the "Theme Options" and "Single Blog Form" tab: http://d.bbg.li/sbzf7x