For those who know me, you are aware of how much I genuinely enjoy public relations. Those who do not know me, you’re probably wondering why? Why do I enjoy public relations so much? What is Public relations? In short, I love the aspect of discovering new connections, and building meaningful relationships. Relationship building is in every industry, whether it be internal or external relations. This semester I am enrolled in the Interactive Media and Communications 528 Content Creation class. Over the next 7 weeks, I will be recording my journey through a social media campaign from start to finish.
As a Public Relations graduate student, taking a class such as this as an elective will not only help me strengthen my skill set in content creation but will hopefully help others in understanding public relations from a different perspective. There is a variety of different public relations types. Each one focusing on something particular or incorporating a number of different communication tactics. What I love about public relations is that, it’s everywhere and in so many different forms. But I know how complicated and frustrating it can be to explain public relations to others. Whether its your family, colleagues, or even those who practice PR, themselves! The truth of the matter is, Public Relations has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to being a well understood profession. I would like to dedicate the next 7 weeks of this class towards creating content that will help those thinking about, or entering a public relations program. Far too many times do I hear about PR being criticized as spinning stories, lying, or so on. I want to provide a space for new comers and current practitioners to be able to find quick tips and guides on how to build meaningful relationships, understand different PR functions, best practices and more. This content will help you when you have someone criticizing you for PR or when you need to feel confident about explaining what it is you exactly do in the profession. I began to think about different ways to create an effective social media strategy.
Getting Started
According to the U.S Bureau of labor Statistics, employment for PR practitioners is projected to grow 7% from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations. Demand will be high, which is why offering a place for people in the profession and outside of it should be able to know exactly what PR practitioners do and best practices in the field. I decided to focus on Instagram, a platform focused around visual content. Visual content is a great way to connect with an audience and help engagement. Before creating content, I needed to figure out who my audience would be. According to Sprout Social, 67% of people between the ages of 18-29 use Instagram. This information is perfect, because I want to be able to target high school students going into PR related programs, current students, and entry to mid -level practitioners. While this may seem like a large audience to communicate with, adaptability in communicating to different audiences effectively and precisely is key. Now that I know what I want to do, who I want to target, and where I want to be; I need to figure out how to begin a social media campaign proposal and how to do it all from scratch.
How to Create Content
As I am doing my research I continue to find interesting ways of how to not only create a good social media campaign but also best practices for creating content on social media. With Instagram being my focus, I cam across a series of articles and videos to break down how exactly someone can be successful at creating content on this platform. Learning how to start an Instagram account from absolutely nothing, was valuable. In addition to also learning how to regularly create content that can last up to a month and if organized well enough with the help of a social media calendar; could make an extreme difference! With many of the videos and articles communicating how important it is to know your audience. Now that I know how to go about all of this, it is now time to actually put my knowledge to work!
Conclusion
While I am completely new to the content creation process, I am both excited and nervous to get started. I hope throughout the next seven weeks, I’ll be able to express my growth through this journey and better understand what content creation really means. I do feel as though I have always focused more on the analytical side of things such as measuring data, audience engagement or have been tasked to write a press release or other forms of media with certain parameters and expectations. It is interesting to think about. I certainly have created content for other businesses or assignments but I always had to master a brand voice or include certain products or descriptions in my work. This takes me completely out of my element. To have the freedom to completely make a social media campaign from scratch is challenging but I am excited to see where this goes. Hope you join me on this journey!
Thanks for reading.
-Austin
The Media Relations Nomad 