Ain't all Glitz n Glam

As a general rule when people think of PR professionals they think of these big extrovert characters spending every evening at some insane launch party with a bottle of tequila in their hands Samantha Jones SATC style.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a good party and there is certainly a video somewhere of me chugging straight from a Prosecco bottle embracing my inner Absolutely Fabulous Edy, however that is not a regular occurrence and definitely was not a work event.

I think the biggest issue with the PR Professional Reputation is a lot of people don't really know what PR is. During my summer internship last year I spent the majority of time researching clients, monitoring their media coverage, creating and sending mailers to journos to get media coverage. Basically lots of office based mundane activities. But when I ask my friends what they think I do? You did a shoot with Binky Felstead! You went to Harrods to buy Bella Hadid face masks! You go out for lunch with people from Cosmo! Which, you know? Isn't wrong, but was a very small percentage of what I did.

Networking is 100% a key part of Public Relations. Consistently building relationships with relevant journalists, influencers and industry professionals is critical to engage people. I spent hours scrolling through instagram creating influencer lists for campaigns and it's definitely one of those tasks which sound more fun in theory. Research is another key part of PR. Understanding the sectors of the clients, researching unique and creative ideas and obviously checking out what the competition are up to.

I really enjoy PR. I think it's a fast moving, exciting, ongoing industry and will be really interesting to see what’s going on in ten years time. My favourite definition of PR is the one from The Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

Ultimately, that is what we do. And yeah, sometimes we have cool parties, or meet cool people, or have cool launches, but ultimately if you're going into PR thinking it's a 24/7 party then, honey, you'll be disappointed.