The Little Things in PR

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
- Arthur Conan Doyle, Author of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes –

Back when we were kids, we may have used to think that life is easy. Everything revolves around us. I should say that, particularly in my case, one of my most memorable moments are the times when my family and I go to events. It can be animals playing in the show, circus carnivals, Disney on Ice-skating show, and much more.

Nowadays we still enjoy well-crafted events (such as attending international music concert or watching musicals on live-theaters), but we also now understand the long hours of rehearsals, preparations and budget costs in running these shows. As Public Relations professionals, we take into account these concerns for the total success of the events we run or have been assigned to. We now understand that it is the small things that matters in big things, and this philosophy should apply to all PR people.

As I have mentioned in my last blog, Clubs WA was going to hold the AGM on 22^nd October. Starting with the first week of September, my supervisor had assigned me to do various odd jobs in preparation for the AGM.

The first things I got assigned is cold-calling. As I have talked about it in my last blog, it is one of the most important skill that PR people need to hone and own.

However, compared to cold-calling, I was also assigned jobs with non-PR related skills. These include putting sponsor flyers and stationaries into delegate bags; create registration forms, name tags and table number tags to be printed through word document; and fixing spelling and images of the AGM PowerPoint slide.

These jobs do not constitute PR skills, but I do beg to differ. I believe everything we do in an organisation is PR-related, as long as everything is targeted towards an audience of people. For instance, it takes me about 4 working days to finish putting all flyers and stationaries into 130 delegate bags. I have to ensure that everything is placed into order, not missing any gifts, and the presentation of each bags should look consistently neat. Again, I also have to ensure that I made the presentation of registration forms, name tags and table number tags consistently neat in word documents. Fixing spelling and images of the AGM PowerPoint slide may not be as glorious as cold-calling, but it is needed to ensure that the little mistakes will not get to the AGM attendees’ attention, as they expect professionalism and consistency of the whole AGM event.

These little things are often overlooked when we were kids or when we just want to enjoy the event itself, but PR people have to be keen in looking in these little things to ensure that they don’t distract the audience from enjoying the whole show. That is why I believe that these odd jobs – ‘non-PR related’ jobs – are essential for PR people, and they are often overlooked in favour of the seemingly ‘communicative’ jobs.

In my next and last blog, I will talk about my involvement in the AGM itself. I hope this upcoming story can enrich your experience as PR people.