Last week, Deanne left a comment on PRGirlz asking some advice about landing PR gigs. I started to comment and then said to myself, “Self - this would make an excellent blog post next Monday”. Here I am.

And, let me stress, what is written below is just my opinion. There is a wonderful team of folks here at TFC that have different ideas about this process. It’s all good.

I wandered into PR in an unconventional fashion. In the early 90s, while at university in Montreal, I started my career in PR unwittingly as the mouthpiece external coordinator for the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students Society (SACOMSS). At the time, sexual assault was a really hot issue on campus and in downtown Montreal; I was one of the few English spokespeople on the subject in the city at the time. This meant that I had to deliver the SACOMMS message to a variety of stakeholder groups from students to McGill University’s administration to the local police. I managed to piss off people in all areas on the one hand. On the other hand, we raised our profile in a hurry, gaining the respect of survivors, the community and media.

My experience was unique, without doubt. That said, once I decided to become a PR practitioner, I had to find a way to package my skills and experience in a way that would be palatable to prospective employers. It’s harder that you would think.

I sit on the opposite side of the table nowadays and review CVs and conduct interviews for our group at TFC. I have some ideas about breaking in that I hope can come in handy.

• Consume the media. Yep. Buy into it hook, line and sinker. You need to know how media works and what reporters/ editors/ producers want. You should understand who owns what outlet and how that makes an impact on coverage. Read everything you can. Develop intelligent opinions about the reporters/ outlets. Understand the news process.
• Research your target audience. There are many PR agencies in Toronto, and to the uneducated, they may seem similar. The thing is, they aren’t. And, as an applicant, you should educate yourself about the firm as much as possible. If you want a job at TFC, for example, you should know a bit about what we do, who we are, and what it is that we do that is different. If the principals have blogs or podcasts, review them.
• Create an interesting portfolio. Honestly, I am impressed by people who travel, do volunteer work and can make a case for what it taught them, and why they are a better person for doing that work. In PR, you do everything from the mundane to the glamorous at all levels. Don’t be afraid to translate your experience in an interesting way to the PR world.
• Proofread your CV and cover letter. I am blown away by the number of resumes that we receive that have typos. I’d say that you should have a text version of your CV along with an RTF version on hand at all times, properly formatted.
• If you get a call for an interview, dress the part, act the part and be the part. Come with a list of questions beyond payscale and benefits. Make me understand why I should hire you.

All that said, we are looking for a coordinator to work with Michael O’Connor Clarke, me and our consumer/ tech/ entertainment team. If you think you’ve got the skills, then please email me at mmj at thornleyfallis dot com.

Welcome to the first instalment of Thursday’s From the Front Desk.

Please note! Due to the unpredictable nature of the PR world From the Front desk may occasionally be posted on a Friday, after-hours, from my father’s computer. Like today, for instance.

From the Front Desk is Samantha Lovelace’s spin on the PR world from a entry-level perspective.

As an entry-level PR-erson and, indeed, office worker, Samantha sits at the front desk of TFC.

During an average day she doesn’t just answer phones and fix printers; Samantha’s front desk experiences are just short of a full degree’s worth of education in PR, computers and people. This, along with general office antics keep her, and she hopes will keep you, entertained all workday long (and sometimes longer).

Now that being said, and with out further ado, Here’s Sammy!

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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Welcome to the first ever post From the Front Desk!

I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself:
My name is Samantha Lovelace and I work at the front desk at Thornley Fallis Communications.

I was lucky to have been introduced to the job, Alex Milroy, Sandra Cruickshanks and Michael O’Connor Clarke by my most fabulous friend, Ms. Lauren Saliba.

Lauren was “the front desk” at TFC in Ottawa and knew they were looking for “Lauren” in Toronto. After great consideration, she declined the offer to transfer herself and passed on the opportunity to me; a quickly tiring, server/bartender/manager of 8 odd years.

Lauren and I have been faithful friends for close to 14 years. We met, one fine evening, in the yard behind Muchmore public school in Ottawa’s “the Glebe”. I believe it was a Friday.

With a fresh squeezed BBA and a desire for something new I was eager to take on the new challenge and marched in to the Ottawa office for my first “career” interview.

I got the job!

With in the month I left the famed Royal Oak in the Glebe of Ottawa, trained a couple of days in Ottawa and packed up my things, my loving partner-in-crime and our cat. Off to Toronto we went.

It was three days before I experienced my first printer malfunction, learned how to do a mail merge, met my first client and worked past five in a 9-5 job. Lets just say I didn’t find my admin skills they were violently thrust upon me with the fury of one incredibly angry volcano.

I like to think, though I’ve hit many a nasty pot hole along the way, I’ve fared relatively well. Not only have I learned how to take care of normally adminy duties, but I took on some new roles too. Media monitoring, event support, ideation, podcast production and some fundamental accounting tasks are just a few of my weekly activities.

And now I can ad one more notch to my PR agency belt:
Almost a year later, well versed in computer malfunction, telephone manner, morning scans, excel spreadsheets, and with a couple of events under my belt, I am writing my first official post on PR Girlz. I can say, as I sit faithfully at the front desk of Thornley Fallis Communications, I finally feel like I am an official PR Grrril.

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to sharing some front desk antics with you next week.

Until then, take care.

Samantha Lovelace

My first couple of months at Thornley Fallis have been great.
 

A new job is always daunting and you have all made my transition enjoyable and understandable. I had a lot of unformed ideas about what working in an agency might be like, but I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The learning curve is steep but I wouldn’t want to be here if it wasn’t.

This is just a short post. I needed to break the ice and say an official ‘hello’ here on the PR Girlz blog before too much time passes. As a former PR Girlz special correspondent, I’m especially happy to be here.  

Any advice for the greenest girl in the group?

It’s happened again today. A call from a well-meaning individual who felt they were qualified for a senior position with our firm because they had research experience, had worked in a healthcare related profession and felt ready to broaden their horizons and take on the public relations field.

I’m sympathetic to anyone who is interested in a career change. I really try to find a way to connect people who may not be “just right” for PR consulting, to an organization or pathway that might better suit their needs, interests and experience. Usually a simple but clear explanation of the requirements of the consulting role in this or any firm does the trick but sometimes not.

Again, not wanting to seem cruel, what is it about this profession that makes everyone think they can waltz in the door and become a PR expert with no prior training or specific experience? At a senior level no less. We’ve all had the joy of watching someone grow into a role in this profession and there are many people I take pride in watching today knowing that I had small part in helping them get there, especially those who started as interns or summer students. The other side of the story are those who even with training and education don’t make it and that’s discouraging too.

Apparently, these are the kind of things that can make you a suitable candidate for a PR job – as noted in several resumes reviewed in recent months: helped a client choose the right color code for supplies and packaging; toured a hospital unit and developed an appreciation of how information is shared; held a position as a sales manager; well, you get it. All of these are very important job experiences and if combined with some training or experience in public relations could really position someone for a job in PR.

So, please send along your resumes just be prepared for my colleagues and I to check them over for relevant experience. We’ll try to be as supportive as possible but no, experience as a animal trainer – however important that might seem to someone who has herded clients – will not do.

Miss Jos is upset with me….

On Friday she issued a decree to the girlz, to get back blogging or else. Her schedule dictates that I post on Tuesdays. So less than one week into the new schedule, it is off the rails because of me and a RFP.

If any of our readers out there have ever had to respond to a new business RFP (request for proposal) you know how much work it involves. Reviewing the document criteria, composing the response, hounding your colleagues for case studies and work samples, all while ensuring your billable targets are met.

This time around, things are not so bad. My colleague is leading the charge and I am acting as her loyal formatting lieutenant. Our other team members have been most helpful and supportive of the process, supplying materials in quick order. I have assisted with other RFPs that were so labour intensive, when they were submitted for consideration; the document was the same size as a City of Toronto phone book!

As I sit here, nibbling on the stash of TFC treats kept for those who are working late in the evening, I wonder is there anything that can be done to make this process easier? I have observed that sharing the work and having supportive colleagues seems to be key.

Any other tips to make RFP-ing a little less arduous?

First of all, if you’re reading this, my thanks. It has been an exceptionally busy winter and spring for the Girlz, still is actually, and we just haven’t had the time to keep up with the blog.

Now, onto the good stuff.

Everyday I do media monitoring for my clients. Most of you do, particularly at a junior level. If you’re in PR, you’re probably monitoring regularly, as well you should be! Now I don’t know how this was done 10 or even 5 years ago. Quite frankly, I’m not sure I want to know! When I started in this business almost 2 years ago, media monitoring in Canada meant setting up profiles in Infomart, maybe getting Bowdens (sorry, Cision) involved to send you broadcast clips and the odd hard copy of newspaper clippings. If you were properly set up and had all your keywords sorted out, this took 15-25 minutes per day, per client, on average. Let’s call it an hour of your morning.

Soon after I started, blogs started becoming a big deal, especially here at TFC. So I set up my Bloglines account and found many interesting and many useless, blogs on a variety of topics, including those that related to my clients. I started flagging the blogs I thought were particularly helpful and checked them regularly for anything my clients would need/want to see. So tack another 25-30 minutes onto your monitoring time for this. More if you’re commenting regularly.

Let’s toss Google Alert’s into the mix, just for fun. They pop up throughout the day; I try to clear them out 2 or three times a day, flagging the ones I think are worthy. I do a more thorough read-through when I’m doing my daily monitoring. So let’s call it another hour a day.

Now, I’m told that social news is the way to go. Citizen journalists, average joes like you and me are now writing articles all over the world about every issue and imaginable topic. And I’m supposed to keep up with them too? Who are these people? Why do I care what they have to say? If they say something negative about my client, is that as powerful as a negative piece in the Globe or on CTV? Does it merit us PR folk launching into crisis mode to diffuse the situation? I’m going with no. Is a negative piece on one of those sites going to have legs? Not very long ones. Yes, lots of people are reading those sites, but it’s the same people. Outside of this office, I don’t know one person who frequents these sites, who even knows what they are or who cares about them. A lot of people still haven’t caught onto blogs. The HORROR!!!

Media monitoring is one of the most recognized things we do in this business. It’s certainly important and I would argue that the one doing the monitoring knows more about the client’s business than the ones reading what is clipped. Valuable? Absolutely. But it’s not everything; it’s a sliver of what we do. I could blow a monthly retainer doing media monitoring, media scoring, media analysis, but is that value? So where do we draw the line?

At what point do we say enough is enough and concentrate on the more valuable media for our clients? I think an hour a day, per client, is more than enough monitoring. In that time, you should have found the relevant articles, anything that affects their business or their competitors, and learned something about their world. More than an hour and that’s a lot of time drifting from one site to the next, grasping at straws, looking for something, anything, that will make that hour valuable and worth your hourly rate to your client.

Oh, and don’t forget about measurement. It’s how we justify our budgets and clients need to see those reports. How do you measure those sites? Is it comparable to other forms of media? Who decides and what are the guidelines?

If you ask me, that’s a lot of unanswered questions related to social news and social media. Have the answers? Great! Love to hear em.

You know that feeling: a mix of exhaustion/relief/satisfaction after big event which you have been working on for some time was successfully executed. Like when you hit it too hard with the nightlife, it usually takes a day or two to recover.

Well, I am experiencing this malaise, yet no event occurred. I spent the last two months planning a press junket for my client. The writer/director of the film a major American comic was to be in Toronto today and tomorrow. The press were eager to meet him and all the major players had confirmed interviews.

Then two days out, the request came that the junket had to be shortened to one day, due the death of a close family friend of the comedian. Understandably, he wanted to be back home in time for the funeral.

After some scurrying, I managed to condense a two day junket into one, loosing just two interviews. I was thinking, “Phew! The Gods of Media Relations must be smiling on me!” I went home for the day tired but relieved things had gone somewhat smoothly.

I arrive at the office the next morning and there is an urgent voicemail from my client saying “Pease call me, ASAP” Sadly, the comedian’s father had passed away. My thoughts were with him and his family. It sucks, no one is prepared to loose a parent, at any age.

Personal tragedies aside….everything, the junket and associated events had to be cancelled. The whole day, I kept thinking, “how can I make this sad situation better for my client?”

My media contacts wonderfully understood the situation. I managed to salvage most of the opportunities, turning them into phone interviews to occur at a later date. The TV folks, I hope can be accommodated via satellite.

Ever had a situation like this? When forces beyond the control of the PR pro conspire against you and your best laid plans?

I know it’s Friday, so a Casual Friday post would be the norm (I use that term loosely since I’ve been sadly negligent in posting), but because I haven’t posted something more serious and PR-related in a while, I figured I was due. So. Now that we have that cleared up, let’s move on, shall we? What I want to write about is time management. In the PR agency world, we are constantly working on more than one client at once. It’s a tricky thing. I imagine that time management is as much as an issue in the corporate world, but in a very different way. There, you might be working on several projects at once, but you only have one person to answer to when things aren’t done properly- your boss. Here in the agency world, things are not so simple. You have to constantly manage each client, plus your colleagues, plus your boss.

It’s easy to get swept up in one client, especially if you’re working on several projects for them simultaneously. Then you suddenly realize that while that client is happy and taken care of, you’ve neglected at least one of your other clients. It’s a constant game of catch-up and balance. It took me a little while to adjust to this, to be able to say “no” to colleagues if I just don’t have the time to help them out, as much as I’d like to. I found out what other people did to manage time - some people found booking time for each client in Outlook worked wonders for them. When that hour or two was up, they’d move onto the next client/project. That didn’t work for me. As a junior, I don’t have the kind of control over where my day is going. The post-it notes that worked for me in University didn’t work either. I used to put everything I needed to do on each post-it and stick it to my monitor. When it was done, it got thrown out. But some things need to get done every day so I was spending too much time making post-it notes and not having the satisfaction of throwing them out and seeing fewer on my monitor. So that was not a option.

What did end up working is something very simple. I make lists. One of the first things I do every morning, once I have my hot beverage of choice (tea in the winter, coffee in the summer…don’t ask) I sit down with my book and write down each client and what I have on the go. Some things don’t necessarily need to get done, but I write them down to remind myself that they exist, should I have the time. Things that MUST get done that day are flagged. I love the satisfaction of crossing tasks off, but I don’t worry about that fact that I can never cross everything off. A successful and productive day is one where the flagges items, daily items (such as media monitoring) and one or two other things are complete. What isn’t gets put on the list the next day. It’s simple, but it works for me.

Another aspect of my time management is how I divide the day. I’m an afternoon person and a night owl. I use the morning to take care of the little things, like media monitoring, admin stuff, blogging, emails and phone calls. That way, I free up my afternoon for the heavy lifting. The writing is done in the afternoon, as is anything that requires more focus and attention.

So, that’s me. What works for you? How do you make all your clients are getting the attention they deserve and everything gets done?

The holidays are upon us and the Thornley Fallis team have things under control. 76design made these funky holiday cards with detachable gift tags. Client and new biz contacts were wrangled from all employees and mailing labels were created. Chris and Joscelyn should be proud of the fact that the cards went out in early December, a much improved track record than years past. With the cards done, we were confronted by another holiday task… client gifts.

Who gets them? How much do you spend?

This year our accounting department outlined budgets for each client; we were then dispatched across the city to select items that we anticipated our clients would enjoy. It is hard enough to shop for members of your immediate family let alone friends and clients.

This time of year, offices are inundated with boxes of chocolates, gourmet food baskets, booze, bath products and other goodies. Personally, I am in favour of donating the money allocated to client gifts to charity. Maybe to a food bank or charity that has meaning to your organization. It is the thought that is supposed to count, right?

When I was at Humber, one of the mantras we heard time and time again was to “manage expectations.” Often the news you don’t want out, sells itself. If it’s hard news, your job is done, and not necessarily for the better (depending on the news). If your client wants to have a press conference for something so soft, you know the only people there will be you and the client, best to put the brakes on the idea. Sounds simple, right? But it’s not. What if they’re having an event that is somewhat newsworthy, but they’re expecting everyone from the local community paper to Reuters to attend, while you know that you’ll be lucky to have a few token attendees? How do you tell them? If you do it wrong, it looks like your media relations are terrible and you couldn’t get anyone there. Or worse, that you don’t have faith in the cause and maybe they think you shouldn’t be working on it in the first place.

It’s part of our job, as a PR agency to manage our clients. But it has to be done in a way that the client doesn’t know he or she is being managed. That’s the challenge. You’re not the boss, they are. They say jump, you say how high. They say jump, you don’t say, “well, I’m not really in good jumping shoes, and this floor is a little slippery. The ceiling seems low, I don’t want to hit my head on it.” Not good. You want to look good, you want to show your client not just that you’re competent, but that you are enthusiastic and successful and the best for the job. But if you don’t manage them and their expectations well, you could end up looking just the opposite, often through no fault of your own.

So how do you balance on this thin line? How do you tell your client that while the news is interesting, it likely won’t attract a parade? Because if you don’t manage them properly and they are dissapointed, even if you know it was a success, you failed. Clients pay a lot for our services, and expect great results in return, as they should. So how do you earn the money and the respect at once? I know I’m spinning here. It’s a touch concept to wrap your brain around and translate into cohesive thought. But then again, easy matters never are…

Tips, advice, stories? Love to hear them.