If I had been thinking, I would have posted this before Josh published his first piece. Nonetheless, Josh is our newest contributor, and we are delighted to have him! I’ll insert his bio below, which can now be found with the rest of ours on the contributors page.

Josh Morton is an associate in the Corporate Affairs Group at Weber Shandwick Chicago, one of the world’s leading public relations firms. He recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BA in speech communication. At Weber Shandwick, Josh works on crisis and issues management programs for a variety of clients in industries such as food and health, financial services, agriculture and alternative fuels.

While at the University of Illinois, Josh co-founded Green St. Records, the only student-run record label in the Big Ten, and served as its president of public relations. In addition to his work with Green St. Records, Josh has held internship positions with Weber Shandwick, the University of Illinois Office of Public Affairs and the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received the PRWeek Student of the Year Award in 2005.

Josh plans on contributing his thoughts on crisis and issues management to Forward, as well as his insight on other topics such as career decisions and other issues facing the PR field. He maintains his own blog at http://jamorton.prblogs.org.

He’s an impressive guy! We’re very proud to have him on the Forward team.

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The dominant story in the news this week will be the War in Iraq. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the start of the war, and news outlets all over the country are buzzing with this topic. The heavy hitters of the Bush administration, including the president, spoke on TV yesterday, trying to get out the message that the war is under control.
Obviously, there are heated arguments on both sides of this debate. But I’m not here to talk about that. I want to look at this from strictly a PR point of view.

More than anything else, President Bush’s administration will be judged by this war. So I’m going to pose the question: How has the administration done in trying to get its message out about the war? And how do you think it could improve on it?

I know none of us here are political strategists, but there are basic PR fundamentals that come into play in the political arena. A few questions to look at: Has the news media shown enough of the positives in Iraq or focused too much on the negative, and how could you combat that? Has the President done a good job of truly explaining why he feels Iraq is so essential to the world’s security? Has the administration done a good job of speaking with one voice?

This is a big situation with many nooks and cranies to explore. So let’s explore this a bit from the PR perspective …

(And Paull, I think we would all be intererested in the view from down-under on this topic.)

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If there were one word to describe the pace of life at a PR agency, it would be “fast”. PR professionals often write large amounts of material under the pressure of a deadline, and the stress of trying to please the client. The reason why companies like to hire their in-house PR staff from agencies (other than experience) is because seasoned agency folks know how to produce top-quality work at break-neck speed. In fact, most agencies like to start entry-level staff out as interns to see how well they adapt to the pace of working at a PR firm.

It’s certainly not for everybody, but don’t be worried if college life has filled your world with slow motion and procrastination. Here are five tips to prepare you for life at an agency. They’re not magic bullets, but each simple thing will help improve your time management skills.

KEEP A SCHEDULE
It sounds simple enough, but you’d be surprised at how many people keep it all in their heads. Instead of writing exam reminders and all of your friends’ birthdays, try planning ahead for your day; hour-by-hour. Don’t just keep track of your classes. Block off time for studying, working on specific projects and hanging out with your friends. It will kick-start your time management skills and you’ll be more prepared when you sit down for the first time to look at a full Microsoft Outlook schedule.

PUT YOURSELF ON DEADLINE
You know your paper is due Thursday, but are you able to complete all your research by Monday night? Break your large projects into smaller ones and set tight deadlines for each of them. See how quickly you can complete each section, and check for accuracy.

PRINT YOUR WORK WHEN EDITING
As long as you work in PR, you will always be editing. Especially as an intern or assistant account executive, people will rely on you to fix the grammatical errors that not only you make, but that others make as well. When editing a document under time constraints, looking at the computer screen is not often the best thing for your eyes, and you may miss crucial misspellings and other errors. Try printing things out and working with a pen and paper to edit your documents.

LEARN TO TAKE BREAKS
I know this sounds like weird advice for someone trying to produce under pressure, but trust me. We all have a friend who studies for hours on end with no breaks at all, and freaks out when she doesn’t do well. You may even be that friend. The bottom line is that you don’t retain information, or produce good work when you don’t let yourself breathe. Plan 10-minute breaks every half-hour or hour when you’re working on a large project, or studying for your exams. This way, when your boss asks you to read the 100 pages of articles and write an analysis in 3 hours, you pace yourself and finish the job on time.

GET AN INTERNSHIP
The best way to learn about the pace of agency life is to live it first-hand. Get an internship, work hard and keep in mind that you should be learning something every step of the way. Ask your superiors what they do to manage their time, and try different techniques to see what works best for you. The more experience you have, the better off you will be.

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