With warmer weather slowly starting to defrost New England, it’s time for PR Pros to start thinking about Spring cleaning …but not the type of cleaning you may be thinking of. While your home may need a good dusting and epic decluttering, here at the PR Club, we believe it’s important to think about spring cleaning as it relates to your career as well.
As Louisa May Alcott wrote, “Housekeeping ain’t no joke.”
Spring is an opportunity to refresh your career goals, update and build your media relationships, an reinvigorate your client communication and strategic tactics.
Dust Off Your Career
After the mad rush of the holiday season and the gentle drum of winter, spring offers the perfect time to re-evaluate your career goals and plan ahead. Try asking yourself: Are you where you want to be at your company? Are you happy with your current progress and training?
Use spring as a time to check out new professional development opportunities in your area. Maybe there are some social analytics classes that are right up your alley, or leadership training exercises being held at a local college. Either way, use spring as your excuse to jump-start your next career move.
New Year, New Media
As PR Pros, we all know that our media targets are an ever-evolving bunch. But most public relations professionals don’t have time to update a media list until they are just about to start pitching.
Spring cleaning is a great excuse to whip out that old media list and update your targets proactively, making sure that each contact still covers a relevant beat, is still an active writer, and is still at your target publication. By scouring Cision, Twitter profiles, Muckrack and other online sources, PR Pros can ensure their media list is up to date for the season.
PR Pros can also use spring as a time to reach back out to old media contacts and refresh and reinvigorate media relationships.
Client Relations in Bloom
Clients are important all-year long, but spring is an excellent time to check in with your clients and make sure that their needs are met and their goals are moving forward. It would also be helpful to approach your client with new ideas for media, thought leadership, or general strategic planning.
Conclusion
As you think about washing your floors and organizing your closet, don’t forget to apply the same spring-cleaning principles to your public relations profession. Refresh your goals, clean up those lists and be proactive with communication and strategy.
