How is PR different from Advertising, HR and Marketing? How can I transition from journalism or marketing into PR? What is the best way to gain experience in PR?
We sat down with Bullion PR's Founder and Managing Director, Lola Lazarus, to gain insight into all these questions and learn everything you would need to know about PR.
How is PR different from Advertising, HR and Marketing?
Companies have different department which sometimes all link together. An example of this is advertising, HR, marketing and digital departments.
HR is normally a standalone department with Lazarus saying, "if you are doing internal public relations you will then probably work on certain projects with HR".
The Marketing department is responsible for the overall marketing strategy including advertising digital and social. There would therefore be separate teams for advertising and digital social media, "but generally the digital social media falls under advertising".
So how does PR fit into all of this? Lazarus explains:
There's a lot of times where the pr Falls underneath advertising and marketing so each company is different, it definitely overlaps.
Each company has different needs and depending on the scale of the company and what's practical for it, the roles and budgets will be distinguished according to this.
What is the easiest way for someone to gain work experience in PR?
Should you be a matriculant with no qualification behind your name and you want to gain experience, Lazarus recommends taking short courses or PR, like those offered by the Public Relations Institute of South Africa.
When you're looking for work, you don't necessarily have to look for PR jobs. Instead, get into the right departments through the job you're doing.
If you are going to answer the phone or you are going to be admin, make sure it's in an agency and that it's in the marketing department or the PR department where you want to be.
You could even get lucky and if you express an interest in PR, your company might pay for it.
Start with the nitty-gritty work and learn and work from there.
How can I transition from journalism or marketing into PR?
Lazarus has said that it is possible for someone who studied journalism or marketing to go into PR. However, you must have writing skills to start with.
Writing skills are needed because every aspect of what you do in PR involves writing such as press releases, business letters or copy.
