New Year resolutions for the Indian PR Professional

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“Resolutions are meant to be broken,” you say? How about these that can not only be kept but fulfilled? A PR professional’s checklist for the New Year.

• Spend more time with your digital followers:

A post here, a like there, won’t really work anymore. Be more involved; social media is only getting bigger and more sophisticated in the New Year, people can see through your networking sham. Remember-

Your Network = Your Net Worth

• Lose weight of dead practices and processes

AI is your next best friend. Make yourself AI ready. You will thank me for this one in the future. Your embracing the new technology will unburden you of the dead weight of mundane, no-brainer tasks that can be taken care of by machines. Explore and fix black holes in your processes that sap away your creative energy and time.

• Work harder on the brand image

Even the PR needs the right PR to flourish. Bring the smart strategies closer to home, practice what you preach. Create a brand image for your company that is instantly relatable with the services you offer. More importantly, live up to your brand’s ethos and maintain your brand identity all around the year.

• Have a more productive relationship with the clients

Another year of servicing clients and helping them achieve their business goals with effective PR. Connecting with clients at all levels across all platforms is super challenging, but it is most rewarding too. Making inroads with their in-house comms team and having an open channel of communication will ensure all are on the same page, working towards the same goal. Always think long-term, and earn loyalty points from your clientele!

• Take diversity seriously

PR thrives on making sense from the

chaos. Bring the chaos into your office. Welcome people from diverse backgrounds into your team. Build a team that truly reflects the values your PR firm stands for. Gender, experience, backgrounds all help in bringing a unique perspective to every assignment. Diverse is the way forward.

• Be real, don’t fake- while pitching to media

A pet peeve of most journalists is that PR professionals are least enthusiastic about their client’s news, but try and fake it as if it is the top headline for the next day!  Pitch it in the right light, and journalists will be more than happy to take it forward! Keep it real, and don’t fake what you don’t believe in. Personalise (aka frame) journalist’s pitches to get the best results, for example.

• Nurture your alumni relations

“Once a PR professional, always a PR professional.” Touch base with all your alumni, you need them to be your ex-insiders now looking from outside. They could be your best critics, helping you in course correction because they have seen and lived inside your world. To broaden horizons, get your alumni back in your active contacts book. Interact, meet, network, discuss, there is a lot they can still do for you!

• Create a healthy work-life balance

Go out, have fun, grab life with both hands, and live it to your fullest. That is the only way to bring the best of you at your work, day-after-day for the next full year. Better time management, focussing, and prioritizing will help you keep your clients, as well as your family, happy!

• Keep your  word for everything you do

Whether it is your professional or personal matter, your word is your reputation. If you make a commitment, fulfill it. You should contribute towards the growth and the major objective and responsibility on your shoulders is to increase business, or in other words- concentrate on the growth trajectory.

In his bestselling book Psycho-Cybernetics, author Dr. Maxwell Maltz says the “human mind takes almost exactly 21 days to adjust to a major life change.” Even though his research was originally on traumatic life events, he claims the principle applies “universally” and works just as well on positive changes.

If you can stick with it for only 21 days, you will have an excellent chance to succeed in achieving your goal because you changed just one habit. Commitment is key!

What is your new year resolution? Do you have an action plan for it? Leave us a comment!

Shiv Shankar – He is the Executive Director & Founder of K2 Communications. Under his astute leadership, K2 Communications has developed into a frontrunner among PR agencies that incessantly delivers excellent regional and national PR support to clients belonging to various sectors including government, IT, education, consumer, and healthcare.

©K2Communications Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction of excerpts or parts of this article without expressed permission from and due credit to the author is strictly prohibited.

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