Jenny Corlett

A personal brand can make or break a career. The key to a good personal brand is consistency and authenticity. Think about what you enjoy writing about, and where you can provide insights that will be helpful to people and build your approach to social around that. Combine this with good research about the ideal types and lengths of content for each platform you want to use in order to ensure you get maximum engagement, e.g. LinkedIn is better for long content, video content is king across all platforms, etc.

Top tips: - Follow PR news: sites like PR Daily are full of useful info - Diversify your skills: PR is no longer a standalone profession. Learn how things like digital marketing and data analytics interact with PR - Find a mentor: no one can give you guidance like an experienced PR professional - Look for PR case studies from agencies or industry awards to understand how people have approached different challenges

1. Know Your Journalist - a completely irrelevant pitch is the fastest way to annoy a journalist. Read their stories and make sure they're the right person for this story. Find out how they like to be pitched (phone, email, DM, etc) to ensure you're contacting them in the right way. 2. Keep it Short - journalists can get thousands of pitch emails a day, they don't have time to read your essay! Make it short, and consider using bullet points to break up the text to make it easier to read. Make sure the subject line is snappy too - research shows the ideal length is 28-39 characters. 3. Make it Unique - research what competitors are saying and whether your story has been covered before. Use this to find a way to make your story stand out.

The PR version of burying your head in the sand is assuming that PR campaigns still can't be effectively measured. While this may have been true five or ten years ago, there is now a plethora of amazing tools available which can measure sentiment, reach and message cut through of coverage. Ignore these tools at your own risk!

Here's how I would describe the best entry-level PR professionals I've worked with: - Consistently proactive and organized - Strong subject matter and client/company knowledge - In-depth knowledge of the media landscape - Curiosity and a need to learn as much as possible These were the most valuable juniors on my team, and the ones whose careers progressed the fastest.

It varies massively depending on the journalists you want to reach. Some platforms might be good for the US, but lack Europe and UK contacts, or not have the industry trade publications you need. The best thing to do is get a free trial so you can see which platform has everything you need. I have also found emailing journalists has a much lower success rate than DMs on LinkedIn and X, so it's always worth looking up the people you want to reach out to on their social channels.