It’s good to talk

Good communications skills are essential in PR, right?

Why, then, do I regularly receive calls and emails often on the same day from different PRs at the same agency asking more or less the same questions?

Questions such as “what are you working on right now?” “can I have a features list?” “will you be attending the forthcoming smartphone exhibition in Earls Court?” “are you interested in meeting my client?” “do you want to come to a roundtable?” all have one answer and can be quickly disseminated among your cohorts.

What’s more, if I’ve called you up asking to speak to one of your clients about something in particular, how about a quick shout out to your colleagues, maybe I can speak to one of your other clients about it too. Or better still, one of your client’s customers – but a word to the wise – DON’T FORCE IT. If you don’t have any other genuinely relevant clients just be happy that I called up and asked to speak with the one I did.

All too often, it seems, PRs do not pay enough attention to internal communications, which is odd because they’re just as important as their external equivalents.

Talk to your colleagues, at the very least set up a centralised database.