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Walking into the office on the first day of your first PR job without having an understanding about the basics of good PR is not a great idea. If you want to shine in your job, you must keep in mind the following tips.

Writing high-impact press releases

Writing press releases is an integral part of the PR job and can be among the first things that you may be asked to do. It is important that you excel in writing press releases. This applies to email and business memos, too.

A great press release has the following attributes: accurate message and facts, compelling content, appropriate tone, no marketing fluff, and a natural flow. For your writing piece to have all this it is necessary that you have clarity of thought.

Before penning down a press release, ensure you know the answers to these pertinent questions:

• What is the news story?
• Who is your audience?
• Why should customers show interest in your product?

Your press releases should provide readers and journalists with relevant current news. People are generally quite busy. If they don’t like your headline, rest assured the remaining part will likely not be read. So ensure your press release has a catchy headline.

In addition, your first paragraph must cover the following: who, what, when, where, and why. The subsequent paragraphs are about divulging more details. Keep your press release short and to the point.

Managing time smartly

A PR professional at any given time handles multiple accounts. You can’t succeed if you don’t know how to prioritize your work and do multitasking.

Start by putting into practice the following advice:

• Know how you work. Are you more productive at the start of the day, or are you at your best in the afternoon? Keep the most challenging tasks for the time of the day when your energy levels are at its highest.
• Write a to-do list every day. Ensure you include all the tasks in it, big and small.
• Rate each task listed in the to-do list based on urgency. Complete the urgent tasks first.
• Plan your week in advance. Write down the most important and challenging tasks of the week and ensure you don’t procrastinate with them. Do them at the time of the day when you feel at your best.

The secret of completing tasks on time, is to get complacent.

• Who doesn’t want to be a perfectionist? But the reality of the matter is that usually the time we get to complete tasks is not sufficient for producing absolutely spotless work. Don’t aim for the impossible and miss the deadline in the process. Also don’t use the limited time as a ruse for submitting poor quality work. Go for the best option—do the job as well as you can in the allotted time.
• Hard as my you try, once in a while you may not be able to keep a deadline. When that happens, ensure you communicate the same with your team and supervisor.

Making impressive presentations

A key component of PR is presentations which are used for effectively sharing information with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. For your presentation to have the desired effect it should be engaging, interesting, and focus on the key message.

Here are a few tips to help you make presentations that work:

• Keep your presentations short, to the point. No one wants to spend hours watching a presentation.
• Engage your viewers. Show enthusiasm in your voice and in your body language.
• Sound natural and don’t read from a text. Notes are only for referring to and to ensure you don’t miss any key points.
• Don’t speak to the wall in front of you; neither to one person all the time. Maintain eye contact with your audience, naturally shifting your attention from one person to another.
• Keep a short question and answer section for the end.

Michael Davis is a career counselor with more than 25 years of experience in private practice. He is internationally certified as a Master Career Development Professional (MCDP) and have been recognized as a Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF). You can check out his site at ResumeSamples.net.