PR through a political looking-glass

Entering the world of PR with a background of studying Politics and Sociology has made the transition into a foreign industry a lot easier.

I have been able to utilise my understanding of current political trends and representation in order to create engaging content appropriate for its target audience. Being aware of current political news and how political entities function has been advantageous for generating relevant content for clients that are impacted by affairs such as Brexit. An awareness of the importance of representation has allowed me to create content that is relevant for the target demographic, rather than using diversity as just a marketing tool.

Since joining the Purplefish team, I have been given a wide range of fun tasks with new exciting challenges occurring every day.

A significant part of my role here has been content creation from writing posts, scheduling and engaging with responses on social media, to writing press releases. This has helped me adopt appropriate styles dependent on the content being created and the audience it is intended for.

I have also been involved in maintaining and developing media relations through distributing press releases, arranging features, developing media lists and building working relations with publications which have expressed interest in any of the above. This has given me an insight into how the PR industry functions as well as a better awareness of how content makes it into publications.

All of this while never being asked to make anyone a cup of tea, what a dream.

I have been able to approach these tasks for various clients through the lens of my educational background in many ways.

The current political climate in the UK with Brexit approaching is providing ambiguity for UK businesses, having a direct impact on a lot of our clients. My understanding of political affairs has given me the ability to decipher between fact and opinion on certain issues. This helped me find articles of interest for clients and create social media content that highlights positive events in this age of uncertainty.

My knowledge on the political climate in foreign countries have been advantageous to best frame content in line with the interests of international client. This has helped me find my feet in the PR world by spending less time identifying relevant content and more time getting to grips with the industry.

It should go without saying that fair representation should be a central principal to every company’s values. For that reason, it is extremely important to adhere to this for clients in the context of their target audience, whether that be a small community or an entire country. It is vital to generate content that is attuned to the views and experiences of the target audience for it to be well received. A respect for representation and diversity should be held as a moral code rather than a marketing tool, this needs to be clear within the content.

So far, my internship at a PR agency has been a fun learning curve that has been made easier by already having a grasp on these concepts which the job relies on, allowing me to dedicate more time to enjoying the world of PR for the first time.