I work in PR.  There, I said it, no going back now….

Actually I work in marcomms but it’s the PR bit that everyone picks up and makes a judgement call on. 

Not just any old PR, I hasten to add.  In the last 10 years the bulk of my ‘expertise’ has been focused on B2B, specifically in Print & Publishing, Finance and Healthcare, and a large proportion of that time spent writing Technical PR and collateral.

“Oh”, you might say…

“Poor you that you didn’t manage to get into retail or fashion or any of those other ‘sexy’ areas”

And, there was a time that I might have agreed with you, but not anymore.

You see, there’s a craft involved in technical PR & Marcomms. There’s lots of people out there doing it, as with any strand of communications, but how often do you pick up a product brochure, or access a website only to look at the images and put it straight down again because it’s, well, dry? I mean proper, Death Valley, every ounce of humanity wrung out of it, dry?

Undeniably it’s a challenge at times. But a good, healthy challenge because that’s where the craft comes in: engaging the reader from the get-go, freeing the content from the stranglehold of regurgitated statistics about performance and instead creating an interesting narrative, because everything has got a story.

So,*standing up and facing the circle*, that’s me.  My name is Paula and I’m a PR…
a confession…
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11 thoughts on “a confession…

  • February 5, 2010 at 10:28 am
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    Very brave. Are you one of those emailers who clogs up an inbox? lol

    CJ xx

  • February 5, 2010 at 10:31 am
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    LOL CJ, No!! Well, only if it’s a really, really good story!

    xx

  • February 5, 2010 at 11:45 am
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    oohh is it wrong that I’m a teeny bit jealous!! I knew I befriended you for a reason. I would love to be in PR or Marketing.

  • February 5, 2010 at 12:20 pm
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    Ha don’t be! Like I said, I don’t do the sexy stuff… no freebies or gala events here, but I do love telling a story and helping people to see the potential in what they’ve got and for those reasons it is pretty great.

  • February 5, 2010 at 4:51 pm
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    It must be a hell of a challenge at times trying to make any of it sound interesting! you are a braver woman than I.

  • February 5, 2010 at 5:57 pm
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    Well, y’know, you make your bed….. too late to retrain as a forensic psychologist now! x

  • February 6, 2010 at 3:28 pm
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    Was that a hard confession to make? lol…
    Interested that you’d like to be a forensic psychologist. ;0)
    XX

  • February 6, 2010 at 5:04 pm
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    Hard confession? Kind of… in some circles it makes me something of a pariah!

    But yes to forensic psychology…if I could go back and do it all again,that would be my dream job. Did my degree in Psychology but didn’t fancy another million years studying at that point…

    xx

  • December 21, 2011 at 10:09 am
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    I’ve just stumbled across your post about working in technical PR and it made me smile.

    As a fellow practioner, with well over a decade in engineering PR, I thought I’d leave you with my two pennies worth.

    Be interested in what you do. If you are interested, you are much more likely to end up being interesting and that’s what it’s all about.

  • January 1, 2012 at 9:24 pm
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    Agreed Richard. And, even in what appears to be the driest of technical deserts, there is always something to get interested in. Good luck in 2012!

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