How do you spend your day in PR?

That PR is changing is a given. With social media, a typical day in the life of a PR professional looks different from what it was five years ago. We reached out to PR professionals both in-house and consultancy side to find out what they spend their day on. While PR has changed, it seems the basics of PR remain the same with media pitching a large part of the grunt work for the under 30 group; especially if they are working at PR consultancies.

3 Rituals of the day: reading, writing and a bit of arithmetic!

Naeem Shaikh, PR Consultant, has 3 rituals for the day. These include:

“Information tracking: Scanning the newspaper, social & digital media is a fundamental function of PR. My scanning work begins right from the moment I step out, from new hoardings, activations at malls, content on radio to features on television, I make a note of what brands are doing. Within the team, I have divided mediums & information sharing is done on a real time basis.  

 Service: I service my brands the way I would treat my best friend – stand by them through thick and thin. I have always believed that servicing is not limited to brands but the media as well. A quick meeting with my operations team followed by calls and emails to my brands, helps me ensure the machinery is working well.

Strategize: What, When, How, to whom – these are the fundamental questions that are posed to any marketer. PR, I believe answers the same set of questions in a slightly different way –namely how to make a brand better and what will it take to make a brand better.

News jacking!

Apart from keeping on top of news, Jimit Shah, group head, planning at GolinOpinion gives priority to, “Doing a quick check on what's been trending on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and accordingly devising a strategy for clients who can piggy back on these trends and make stories instantaneously.” 

It’s Twitter time!

Prachi Tyagi, manager – communications, Credihealth, spends her time with Twitter, tracking market trends and catching up with people. She also write a blog on startups and digital healthcare, ‘Prachi Preaches’

This is how she splits up her day in PR:

“1. I call this Twitter time. I pick any hour of day just to browse through Twitter. The idea is to connect with at least five new relevant events (or organizers) taking place in the near future.

2. Having learnt this from a market leader himself (my boss), I reckon I've picked up the habit of following market trends. One of the ways this can be achieved is by setting certain keywords in Google alerts.

3. Connecting with a new person is the first part. There's a whole another dimension to maintaining contacts and that includes follow-ups’. People tend to underestimate the significance to re-connect with a connection, more so - follow-up on a previous conversation.”

Connecting with the boss!

Muskaan Tandon, corporate communication manager with job portal Babajob give top priority to reading, planning and aligning her goals with her boss.

Muskaan points out that, “Often we witness a gap in what you personally what to achieve and what your reporting boss might want you to achieve. I believe that if you take 10 minutes outs early in the morning to update your reporting manager on the way you will approach a particular task, trust me half of your time will be saved.”

Client Management, Payment follow-ups’!

Ahmedabad based Kirtan Chauhan, who works with Simulations Public Affairs Management Services, spends a big part of the day in client management. He says, “This includes planning to execution of PR events, reporting of ongoing projects, taking briefs from clients and planning for next projects, review meetings and payment follow-ups’.”

Roopali Pasricha, founder of SpotLYK which handles 18 start-ups client servicing is a key activity. Says Roopali, “ We need to guide our client regularly on the areas on which he should focus. Apart from that we do have to juggle with regular story-ideas and story-angle. Reading a competitor-story can leave us in jitters, so we need to make sure that in any industry-story also our client also gets featured.”

Bagging new clients 

For Juhee Oberoi, independent PR consultants, till last year her day began with tracking newspapers, sharing coverage updates and coordinating con-calls with clients. Says Juhee, “Now that I have quit my agency job, I do not have to manage any superiors or other internal agency pressures, however I have to be virtually available 24/7, as business development is an integral part of the day.”

Handling the journos

Yes, you knew this was coming! Handling the media is still the number one activity for most PR pros. Says Tarveen Kaur, Blink Communications, “This is the most tiring work. Calling journalists and asking what stories they are working on and giving them story ideas about clients.”