I am in my last few weeks of the corporate communications and public relations program at Centennial College and the pressure is on to find a great PR agency or organization to join. I’ve been blogging for about four years now and I found that it helped me get a few interviews and it developed a creative portfolio. I always find it weird when people who are starting out in public relations are not taking blogging seriously.
For those that want a career in public relations you need to have strong writing skills, social media experience, and multimedia experience. If you don’t have those skills, don’t worry. I am here to tell you how you can possess all three essential skills just by blogging.
First, writing blog posts can help you develop and practise your writing skills. It shows that you’re paying attention to the fast-paced PR industry. By writing a variety of content on your blog, it can train your mind for future projects when you get a job at an agency. So I really suggest you get creative. A cool tip; if you’re following a blog that you love, try asking them if you can be a guest blogger.
The more blog posts your write, the better you’ll get. Trust me. With practice makes perfect and your best blog posts can be printed out and added to your portfolio.
Second, creating your presence in social media is relevant for getting a PR job. Employers want to see that you know how to use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. When you start a blog remember to integrate your Twitter account so your feed show up on the homepage of your blog. That will show interviewers that you know how to create widgets.
When you write a blog post share it with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends. You can start a conversation on Twitter and carry it on to your blog. That shows employers that you know how to do cross-promotion and develop relationships using these tools. Having a blog and promoting it with Twitter will help you made a name for yourself with your fellow PR peers. Another good tip; if you are interested in joining an agency, retweet their tweets so they notice you. Overall, you can tell that Twitter will play an important part when blogging.
It’s very important that you understand how to use social media tools and can demonstrate the difference in how these tools work. For example, explaining how you’re using Instagram images on a blog and driving traffic back and forth to the blog and Instagram in some unique way would impress most interviewers.
Lastly, if you want to stand out from your competition, develop some multimedia skills. If you have a blog try customizing it by adding ads or changing your layout. Adding ads will show that you know how to generate revenue from your blog, and customizing your layout will show that you know and understand some basic code.
Knowing how to use Adobe Photoshop and InDesign can be really useful for any PR organization. This can be as basic as putting words over a picture or graphic, or something more advanced like creating your own logo on your blog. Knowing how to use the Adobe software is an incredibly relevant skill for public relations.
If you have a blog, then you know some search engine optimization. By tagging your blog posts with keywords for Google, you are helping people discover your content on your blog. This can be useful if you have to start a brand’s blog or be a writing for your employers blog.
Simple metrics like knowing how to use Facebook, Google, and WordPress analytics can be very useful when creating campaigns in public relations. You can describe to the employer how you used the metrics to increases views by changing the content on the blog.
Public relations has always been the main factor for brand identity. Blogging is the best one-to-one communication because it represents free advice, builds trust, and it improves the understanding between you and customers. A blog an be helpful when it comes to establishing a brand that is credible and authentic. A professional blog design, presence in the social network, posts with perfect grammar and useful information, and consistency go a long way.
Get blogging, have fun, and in no time you’ll have a great portfolio that will attract the PR world!
PRdrink PRvoker 
I definitely agree with blogs helping to improve writing skills! I look back on older posts (before #CCPR) and think how much my writing style has changed!
I think your suggestions are great and gives me something to think about when I’m blogging. I also agree that I think its important to make your presence known on social media, especially in PR.
As a new blogger, I can definitely appreciate this post. I can feel myself growing as a writer and finding my place in the social media world.
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