All style - and substance too
Public Relations Copywriter. How does that sound as a job title? Does it suggest a monotonous cranking out of tactical PR documents, or a crucial role working with designers and new technology to make a difference to an organization’s reputation?
Stacey Dickens graduated with a PR degree in 2005 and is now a year into her first role - as a public relations copywriter for North Lincolnshire Council in eastern England. We’re all familiar with journalism graduates competing for PR roles; here’s a PR graduate in a role traditionally performed by a journalist.
As any good copywriter should, Stacey is happy to let the words do the talking. She’s just produced a handsome, revised style guide for the council, part of its commitment to clear communications. I’ll cite just one example to give a flavor of this excellent document. Among the words she advises us to avoid is stakeholder (a popular word in public relations circles). Why? Because it could mean “someone who is nervous around vampires.” Who said copywriting is dull stuff?
But is this a PR role? According to Stacey, the skills needed are universal ones in any PR job. She mentions diplomacy, tact and good listening skills. She says you have to know what’s going on, and to be kept in the loop.
While she cares about grammar, spelling and syntax, it’s for good reason. “The writer should communicate clearly and unambiguously, using the channels that people read. We must go with technology: using websites for interactivity; SMS for anti-truancy campaigns; blogging etc.”
While PR degrees are still young in the UK (the first graduates have less than 15 years’ experience in the workplace) and she’s the first in her team with an undergraduate PR degree, she believes that the qualification counts. “It shows that we’re becoming professionals.”
The degree is not enough, though. Her route into this job was through an internship with the same organization. “If everyone has a PR degree, then what separates you is your work experience.”
She likes the work, is pleased to be adequately rewarded and happy to be working in a “creative, fun team.” And there’s the added bonus of working close to home in a public service role: “I feel I’m making a difference to the area where I live.”
Local councils are judged on their delivery of services and on their management of taxpayers’ money. But how does the public reach this judgment other than through the council’s words and deeds. It’s clear that the public relations copywriter can indeed make a difference.
Too many times, information falls short of the audience, because it is not clear and full of jargon that no one fully understands. Who knows their target audience better than Public Relation Practitioners? I would say that this is most defiantly a PR role for that reason alone. This just helps the company improve their corporate social responsibility by having their publics know what is going on internally in a way that they can read and understand. This can help disseminate information down all the tiers of the corporation, leaving no one out. Once internally there is “clear communications” on how to stylistic handle situations, externally the company is perceived in a good light.
Comment by Jenny — June 4, 2006 @ 3:16 pm
Public relations practitioners are trained to know whats going on and to communicate information clearly through the different channels people use. So I don’t see any reason why a PR person could not fit the role of a copywriter. As Jenny mentioned, because PR practitioners can communicate so well to the public they can only help to improve the company’s image in terms corporate social responsibility. PR can help communication within the company and therefore lead to better understanding for those outside the company.
Comment by Dana Montalto — June 6, 2006 @ 9:49 am
I don’t think being a PR Copywriter should be looked at as boring in any way.
You have a career where you can toy with the English language and manipulate thinking…
I think that’s quite awesome.
Then again, I probably do the same exact thing and am trying to justify MY OWN life in this comment…who knows!
-kevin
Comment by kevin from www.become-a-copywriter.com — December 12, 2006 @ 1:40 pm