Public Relations is vital for the growth and prosperity of any organization. This is a changing field, and as a college student, you need to learn more about it in order to land successful careers and internships in the future. Here are 4 reasons why you should care about PR, and how it’s changed in recent times.
1. It’s possible for you
You may think that PR is only possible for big agencies, as many used to think. However, even they can’t guarantee success. If you learn the art of PR, you can have good results as well. Some of the things you can do to start off are: Work for your college radio, magazines etc. to develop your credentials. Start a blog on your own topic of interest. Work in student societies that arrange events within and outside the college.
2. Helps in the future
At college level, you can take part in fundraising and charitable events. By participating in such events, you’ll learn more about Public relations. This is going to help you in the future. You can show your employer that you were part of a noteworthy social event. You can get recognition from media companies (the benefit of PR) before applying for a job. You can land internships by making connections at such events.
3. You can do anything
By learning about PR, you’re likely to make a lot of connections. In the future, you can start any type of business, and use those connections for making it successful. For example, if you decide to start a fashion outlet, you can use the connections made to attract people to your outlet. Your connections are going to trust you and spread the word about your business/service. This is where PR can lead to success when you’re starting out. Even a business like chair mats for your office can be successful with a good knowledge of PR.
4. You can be lucky early
Affect, a public relations firm from NY, held a contest where students were asked to submit a creative photo or video. Students had to use their own social media connections to drive traffic back to the entry. Pat Gotham of Salisbury University won this competition with 795 votes and 43 comments. The company gave him an internship in June 2011, and he started full time employment on September 1, 2011. He got employed by a great company as he had the know-how of Public Relations, and it’s not impossible for you too. By reading the reasons mentioned above, you’re likely to get an idea why it’s good to learn about PR while you’re in college.
Liz Becker is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.
I like what you said in this post. It’s scary sometimes how quickly PR gets tossed to the side or neglected because of how things are changing. In reality, with the shift of control to the consumer, PR may be more important now than ever. It’s vital for students to be preparing for this before taking responsibility of this for a company or other organization.
Nice article! whether you are student or employee career planning is must to get right direction in your career. Hence for this you have to prepare at the right time. Career planning surely help in getting your dream job or career. Thanks a lot for sharing this!