Carefully Crafted on December 07

Is Writing the Most Important PR Skill?

What do you think is the most important skill for PR people to possess? Some options:

  • Ability to pitch media
  • Understanding of Facebook, Twitter and other online tools
  • Multi-tasking and time management
  • Knowing how to measure PR outputs and outcomes
  • Networking/developing relationships
  • Fostering/sparking online conversations
  • Basic understanding of HTML
  • Incorporating customer service into the PR mix

How about writing? People can learn to pitch media, be more organized, measure, or use social media for business; however, if you can’t write, it’s nearly impossible to execute any of these tasks well. As communicators, writing is our foundation. And, while some communication is becoming more conversational (even informal), clearly articulating ideas is what we do. This takes many forms: press releases, pitching bloggers and reporters, e-newsletters, case studies, speeches, message development, blogging, tweeting, and so on. PR 2.0 isn’t just about social media. There are lots of other facets to the industry. As such, writing for different mediums is a critical skill. In fact, the ability to write well across a variety of platforms can fast-track a PR person’s career.

If you need to brush up on your writing skills, here are a five helpful resources:

How do you keep your writing skills sharp?

Trackbacks

  1. […] refuse to believe that good writing will ever go out of […]

  2. […] Writing is the number one skill of PR practitioners. It’s more important than being a nice person. Seriously. […]

  3. […] Writing is PR’s number one skill. So it needs to be practiced. And in my view you are better off starting ‘out there’ then reining it back in. Hence the need to sharpen the sword by taking ‘penmanship’ to the limit. […]

  4. […] the technical heart and soul of public relations communication is writing, what better PR topic to discuss than qualities that characterise great writing? I wonder, though, […]

  5. […] 3)      The Importance of Writing.  […]

  6. […] her blog. Here, Heather provides pertinent tips and resources to help sharpen your writing skills.  http://prtini.com/public-relations-writing/ Start NOW! Find local businesses, organizations and departments within your institution to write […]

  7. […] in every sense of the word.  Bowles indicates that public relations professionals consider strong writing skills the most desirable quality of job candidates, as these people will be responsible for […]

  8. […] to be much better writers than they currently are, because the profession is sick and tired of poor writers emerging with degrees, then having to do the hard yards which PR educators failed to […]

  9. […] although PR professionals can learn how to write, prTINI’s Heather Whaling believes some natural talent is advantageous. “People can learn to pitch media, […]

  10. […] They told me that to succeed in public relations that I would need to like to write because I will write a majority of the time, which made me nervous and excited at the same time. I haven’t had to […]

  11. […] of communication like social media and IM messaging, PR professionals are also expected to have good quality writing skills. From press releases to magazine articles, professionals are required to have proper knowledge about […]

  12. […] good communications expert must be an excellent writer. Writing is as important in post production as having one’s camera when going to shoot: “What […]

  13. […] only will your writing improve, you’ll gain the ability to write for different mediums allowing you to place similar information but written differently to suit the publication and media […]

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