At some point in life, this phrase escapes reflexively from
every adult's mouth, delivering the horrible epiphany that you have
switched sides on the "We vs. Them" continuum and signaling that
you have officially arrived at the end of youth.
After 20-minute periods of wincing and shaking your head in
disbelief, and internal arguments where you pathetically try to
recall and cling to the last time someone called you "cool," it's a
natural reaction to consider the question rhetorical and to leave
it unanswered.
Ironically, however, it is those who persevere in attempting to
answer the question, both in life, and in the workplace, who may be
most likely to retain their own vigor.
This is because junior public relations professionals do have
plenty to offer. They are arriving at their first internships with
an impressive set of skills, already proficient in word processing,
desktop publishing, Internet research and even multimedia design.
They already know how to multitask. They already know how to
network. They're on the cutting edge of culture. They know what's
new and hot and next. Sometimes they even come fully equipped with
cool electronic accessories.
They also come poorly prepared for many rudiments of our
profession. They can't necessarily pitch. They don't come out of
the box thinking strategically. They don't understand the big
picture. They're afraid of hard work. They have an inflated sense
of entitlement. They're just like "the kids" always have been.
But as a 30-year PR pro who claims to have ridden an actual
dinosaur to school recently told me, the difference now is "the
kids these days" also can't write.
Perhaps the phenomenon arises from the spread of email and
instant messaging, which has apparently convinced a generation that
the written word is not quite as handy as the typed character,
prompting millions to replace meaningful nouns, adjectives and
verbs with strings of colons, semi colons and closed parentheses,
i.e. ;)
Perhaps the most immediate reason your young professionals
haven't learned to write is simply that you haven't yet taught
them.
"So, what's wrong with the veterans these
days?"
Ask a group of juniors, and it is likely they will all list the
same handful of complaints about senior PR professionals. They
often see the top dogs as close-minded, unavailable, and in the
worst cases, out of touch with the actual in-the-trenches practice
of public relations. The gripes are probably the same ones you had
when you were a "flackling." Young public relations professionals
grouse most when they feel their potential is untapped.
But this sort of dissatisfaction is only a byproduct of
impatient passion and enthusiasm. It is the result of a desire to
excel and to reach the next level.
For this reason, many junior PR professionals do actually want
you to tell them a thing or two. They want to know where the gaps
are in their skill sets and how to fill them. They crave awareness
of the big picture. They want to understand the various factors at
work within your organization beyond communications. They would
love for you to truly explain the macro view necessary for strategy
formulation instead of throwing tactics at them and telling them to
go get ink. They would cherish your stories of initial failure and
hard-earned success. They want to know how to get into your shoes.
And they're listening quite intently.
Young professionals also want to tell you a few things. They
want to report back to you about the successes they've had. They
want to tell you what tactics just aren't working. They want to
tell you about trends they've seen in the media and how they think
they can capitalize upon them. They want to teach you how to
operate the color laser printer. They may even have a new way for
you to make more money. So, the question is, how intently are you
listening?
Maybe you've long stopped mourning the loss of your youth and
prefer proven accomplishment and experience to new thinking. I'm
guessing, though, since you're reading PR NEWS and this column,
that you never stopped searching for ways to become a more complete
PR professional. I'm also guessing that you remember and crave the
across-the-board excitement of your early career.
In future columns I will explore in detail some of the ways you
can tap in to the passion, perspective and innovations of young
professionals.
I hope you'll find that by wading in to take care of "the kids,"
every once in a while you get splashed with the waters of the
Fountain of Youth.
Out of The Box
Out of the Box highlights inventive tactics applied successfully
in the past month by members of http://www.YoungPRPros.com, an
online forum for professionals in the first 10 years of their
public relations careers.
Megan Licursi, of HSR Business to Business, actually sold mold
to a reporter this month. UPI ran a story on AK Coatings Inc.,
manufacturer of a silver-based compound that fights microbial
growth, as result of including the angle in a list of possible
story ideas within a media kit made available at this year's
National Manufacturing Week conference...Hunter Hoffmann, of
Government Liquidation LLC, a subsidiary of Liquidity Services
Inc., took an evergreen pitch about military surplus goods and
turned it into a Baltimore Sun story by honing in on a single item
- a 20-foot American flag, which he referred to as "patriotic
wallpaper"... Myles Weisslander, VP of Communications for Meetup
(http://www.meetup.com),
snagged a New York magazine article, a spot on FOX News and hits
with dozens of Vermont media sources this month. Weisslander
grabbed attention by publicizing the news that Former Vermont
Governor Howard Dean is using the Meetup service to create
gatherings in as many as 477 cities to support his 2004 bid for the
White House.
Ian Lipner ([email protected]) is an
account manager for Washington, DC-based Stanton Communications.
His Front Lines column will run exclusively in PR NEWS on a regular
basis. He also founded and moderates an online forum for early to
mid-career public relations professionals, at http://www.YoungPRPros.com.