PR Girl 101
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Building the Brand of You: What’s in a Portfolio
The holidays are here and we’ve all got a little extra downtime between all that time with family and loved ones. And with the new year just ahead, there’s no better time to give your professional materials a once-over, especially your portfolio. I don’t know about you, but I dread putting together my portfolio. Part of my problem may be that I wait until I need it to put one together. Most of it is that I don’t always know what to put in my portfolio. A portfolio is meant to be a sampling of your best work examples. It should show exactly what you can do and what you’ve…
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Taming your Twitter
It’s no secret that Twitter is most PR pros social media network of choice. No other network offers the plethora of information, the conversation possibilities or the chance to connect with millions of people in real time. There aren’t algorithms preventing anyone from seeing our tweets or ranking others above ours. It’s all about timing! On the user’s end, Twitter can get a bit messy. If you’re following hundreds, or thousands, of other users from all over the world who are interested in many different things, it can be difficult to weed through all those tweets in your timeline for information that you’re interested in right then. The unfiltered nature…
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Building the Brand of You: Finding Your Niche
In last month’s “Building the Brand of You” installment, I talked about where to start with your personal brand – what do you want it to say about you and how you want others to see you. I also talked about thinking about which channels and methods you’ll use to promote yourself. Today we’re going to dive right into determining your niche. Figuring out your niche is the best way to start building your own brand. There are tons of people on social media and many with their own blogs and sites to share their ideas, so why should people pay attention to what you have to say? That’s where…
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PR Girl’s Guide to…Job Searching
Whether you’re fresh out of college, looking to switch jobs or an experienced pro looking for a change, job searching is tough and no one really enjoys it. If you’re currently unemployed and actively seeking a new opportunity to sink your teeth into, the search often feels endless and frustrating. Time seems to pass by both rapidly, as the weeks fly off you calendar while you send resume after resume, and terribly slowly, as the days drag on while you check your email and phone hoping for good news. So, yea, job searching is a headache, but that’s not news to anyone. It’s also not incredibly helpful information, unless you’re…
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Building the Brand of You
When looking for a job, what do we do to prepare? We put together our portfolio, we spruce up our résumés, we clean up any questionable social media and we start putting our best foot forward and apply for jobs. It’s not enough anymore to get good grades, take the right classes, have the right internships and extracurricular activities if you want to land you’re dream job. That’s a lot of work to put in all at once before even submitting your first application. Why spend so much time prepping your materials and image once you decide to head down the job search path? Developing and maintaining a personal brand…
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Is PR right for you?
It’s that time of year again – graduation season. Whether you’re leaving the familiar cocoon of campus with your newly-minted degree or exploring some options in between semesters, it’s important to ask yourself along the way to the career of dreams. PR can be a demanding career and it requires a particular skill set to excel. Do you think you have what it takes? PR might be the career for you if… …you are detail oriented. It’s true, the devil is in the details. A PR pro must meticulously review and plan every little thing that is released, shared or created for your client. Whether it’s social media, editorial…
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Taking Your Own Headshot
I’ve been working on sharpening my online presence lately. So I’ve gone through and deleted the ones I don’t use anymore and updated the information on the ones that I do use. The thing I’m having the most difficulty with is updating my LinkedIn photo. Having taken my last professional-looking headshot a few years ago in college, it was definitely time to update. Since it’s winter and I want to wait for beautiful weather for a nice photoshoot, I’ve opted for taking my own headshot. Truth be told, it’s a bit easier than it seems.
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Grammar & Style for the Digital Age
Happy National Grammar Day, y’all! I have a deep respect for the rules of grammar and usage and a love of all its intimate properties. Grammar and language are beautiful things when used properly. Even with our regional dialects and quirks – I live in the land of Pittsburghese where “dahntahn” is a place and “yinz” replaces my beloved “y’all” – I still find words to be mighty when wielded with care. But how important are the rules of grammar and usage in the digital age? Handwritten letters have gone the way of the dodo, every one of our devices has spell check standard and “wut r u up 2?”…
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Staying confident when you don’t have the answers
Let’s set the scene: You’re in a client meeting, going over details for an upcoming campaign. You’ve run through all the pertinent information, answered a bunch of questions and you’re confident you’ve hit all the bases and are ready to get out of the meeting and move onto other things. But wait – your client has one more question to ask. You listen attentively and open your mouth to answer when the question is complete but – oh no! – you don’t actually know the answer! You begin to sweat and you’re at a loss. What do you do now? Like those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books I loved as a kid (and…
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PR Girl Goals for 2015
Happy New Year, PR Girls! A few weeks ago, our friends over at PR Girl Manifesto created this fabulous PR Girl Bucket List template and was kind enough to share it with PR girls far & wide. I can’t think of a better way to kick off 2015 than by reevaluating career goals, aspirations & making a plan for the months ahead. Check out my PR Girl Bucket List below. Don’t forget to download a copy & create your own! Follow PR Girl Manifesto on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest. Share your completed list with us & we’ll feature them on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest! Need a little inspiration…