Guest Blog: 'How to blog your way into work', By Anne-Marie Bailey at Smoking Gun PR


One of my all-time favourite quotes is ‘The harder I try, the luckier I get’. I don’t know who said it, but I do know it strikes a chord with me.



While an element of luck may have played a part in me landing my dream job as an Account Executive for consumer PR agency, Smoking Gun in Manchester, I’d like to think an awful lot of it came down to good-old hard work too.

           

While studying for my Master of Arts degree in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland, as part of the social media module my classmates and I were tasked with the job of creating and maintaining our own blogs. At the point of starting my blog, I didn’t feel I knew enough to discuss the PR industry without making myself look a little bit silly for all of the world to see. Consequently, I decided my blog should be written about the stuff I was experiencing within the PR industry, and so Raising the Profile was born.

My blog was written from the perspective of a PR student, sharing hints and tips about getting your foot on the career ladder and entering the working world of public relations as a fresh-faced, wide-eyed graduate. Anyone and everyone studying a PR degree is encouraged to write their own blog and create their own online content. I knew that in order to stand out from the crowd of PR-related blogs and raise my own profile, I had to do something a little bit different.

I decided I would interview established PR practitioners about how they got into the industry, as well as asking them to share advice about what PR students should be doing to raise their own profile in a very competitive job market.

Following the post, I would then ask the PR pro to take part in a Twitter chat using the hashtag #raisingtheprofile. Here PR students, interns and job hunters could further explore the career advice given in the interview and pose questions of their own that perhaps wasn’t covered in the initial blog post.

The day after the Twitter chat, I would then post a summary of the conversation, focusing specifically on the lessons I had learned from the PR pros advice, and encourage others who had participated in #raisingtheprofile to comment with the lessons they had learned too.

After running the idea past my lecturer and getting the green light, I began contacting the big-wigs of the PR world. I honestly don’t know what I expected, but I was overwhelmed when experienced and respected practitioners such as Stephen Waddington at Speed Communications, Sandy Lindsay of Tangerine and Rick Guttridge at Smoking Gun PR agreed to take part.

Before long, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations [CIPR] had got wind of what I was doing as part of my blog, and wanted to be involved in helping to promote #raisingtheprofile to PR students up and down the country. It's head honcho Jane Wilson also willingly gave of her time to assist the project.

After proving through my online portfolio I could put all the theory I’d learned in to practice, I was approached by a number of PR agencies about possible job opportunities. Long story short, I accepted a role with Rick in his agency, and the rest as they say is history.

So what have I learned from my experience and what would I share with other job hunters? Opportunities don’t often come looking for you, you have to go looking for them. It’s hard work but do something a little different. It helps you to stand out from the ever competitive job-hunting crowd, and the effort will certainly pay off in the end!

Anne-Marie Bailey



View Anne-Marie’s Raising The Profile blog


 



Comments...

  • Yes, there's another one, complete with hyphen and an e, and based in Manchester, having been born in the North East! So well done on your job at Smoking Gun and keep up the good work. Anne-Marie Bailey, Marketing that makes a difference
    05/07/2012 by Anne-Marie Bailey
  • Great approach - a real practical example of how the 'giving culture' can benefit yourself too. Well done.
    16/07/2012 by Rae Watson

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