5 New Year’s Resolutions for PR Professionals in 2017

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With the New Year here many have created their resolutions for 2017. Some constructed them for their personal life, while others focused on their professional life. For PR professionals this is the time to reflect on the goals reached this past year and some of the challenges that were faced.

Here are some ways to can make 2017 be your PR year:

Communicate better. How many times has a text or email been overlooked or miscommunicated? As professionals, we are supposed to be master communicators, but due to our hectic schedules, and juggling many hats, we fall short when it comes to communication. This year, prioritizing messages and taking time out to properly respond should be on top of everyone’s list. Concentrating on the message will cut down on mistakes and time wasted.    

Focus on storytelling. As public relations specialists we often pigeonhole ourselves into thinking that we just deliver others messages and forget about being experts in creating a story to catch audience’s attention. So throw out the boring numbers, stats and facts that make people fall asleep. Develop a colorful story that your audience wants to hear. Steve Clayton, Chief Storyteller, Microsoft explains how and why The Power of Storytelling in PR is so important.   

Make SEO your best friend. Search engines are the modern day fax machine, yellow pages and USPS. Almost every consumer has some type of digital device that they turn for when it comes to shopping getting information and communicating. By creating content that is filled with keywords and up-to-date trends, you will be optimizing the attention your content gets. In the New Year, stay on top of trends, keywords and SEO. Check out 10 SEO Tips to get your website to  the top of Google search.

Get projects finished early. We are all guilty of waiting till the last minute or moving our deadlines to give us extra time to finish a project. And if you’re not guilty of this, congrats you’re amazing, and most likely you don’t need to make a resolution list

Procrastination only hurts our work and ourselves. If we have to tell a client that we need more time our brand looks inefficient, untrustworthy and lazy. Scrambling at the end to finish something also creates stress and hampers the final product.. This year, I will make sure my work product doesn’t suffer, nor lose years off my life by giving reasonable deadlines and finish projects in advance.

Follow a tech blog to stay on top of the newest trends. For me, staying on top of the newest app or tech device seems to be my weakness. I often find myself relying on co-workers to show and explain cutting-edge technology. 2017 is the perfect year to start following and getting to know tech blogs to help me further my PR career. See the top tech blogs according to Ranker

The New Year will bring both challenges and opportunities but sticking to resolutions will help you stay on track and achieve your goals

Here’s to you and yours from LuckTamm Digital Marketing. Cheers!