Generally, I enjoy what I do, but what is actually my motivation in PR? So here it is, my personal motivation list.
1. Intermediary
As a PR professional you are in contact with various parties that need each other, but also have their own agenda. I’m interested in getting involved in this interaction. I discover how customers and media bolster and encourage each other. And then there’s my colleagues. Of course, in any job it helps if you have the sort of colleagues who make the workplace a pleasurable place to be. I think the fascinating thing about working in a PR agency in the Benelux countries is the difference, both in terms of culture and language. It is a salutary lesson to come up against the differences in communicative approach again and again, not to mention my ever-growing vocabulary. Until recently, I had never been confronted with Flemish dialect words, but that’s all part of the game.
2. To-do list? Forget it!
Although I’m partial to to-do lists, the process of going through lists like that in the PR world every day is a challenge. Things have a tendency not to go exactly as planned. At the same time, that unpredictability is also enjoyable and stimulates your flexibility and creativity. I have learnt that I would be better re-christening my to-do list an ‘opportunity list’. I just take on board anything interesting that comes my way.
3. Headline hunting
A PR professional looks at the news differently. You see whether you can find any common points of reference between the news and the client. Technology is now a subject that attracts a large section of the general public; a few years ago, that was completely different. I get a kick out of seeing our IT clients being mentioned in a newspaper.
4. Learning to question everything
The business of communications is changing all the time and our clients are putting new products and services on the market all the time. I like to absorb those innovations. I take a critical look at which innovation suits the client. As an IT PR consultant, that is often a challenge. B2C PR concepts don’t work for B2B clients, but may well be instructive and provide inspiration for changing the focus.
5. Juggling concepts
The communications and PR playing field is wide. For one client, I take care of social media and assist in interviews while, for the next, I am the press desk or prepare media training. That sense of switching from one type of work to the other means that there’s never a dull moment.