Hone Interview Skills to Enhance PR Writing

It is fairly common knowledge that public relations requires strong writing skills…but interview skills? As PR professionals develop news releases and feature stories to support communication goals, it’s important to write and think like a journalist. This means interviewing with tenacity and tact.

In order to construct newsworthy, accurate pieces worth distributing to the media, you have to make an effort to get the facts and conduct the groundwork that creates interesting quotes. Nowadays, many colleges actually require “reporting” class as part of the public relations curriculum. This added practice interviewing people in the field strengthens one’s ability to ask the right questions and get quotes with personality.

Here are a few tips to consider:

• Research your interview subject in advance – don’t waste time on unnecessary questions.
• Have open-ended questions prepared (in-hand or in-head), so you don’t stumble awkwardly…
• But allow questions to develop as your subject responds.
• Be engaging and help the subject feel comfortable.
• Take good notes / record the interview (with permission), and transcribe information immediately to retain details.
• Gather relevant personal facts, including name, title, organization, age (as appropriate) and form of contact in case of follow-up.

Demonstrate Value, Report Results

Personally, I enjoy implementing the public relations work itself, more so than taking time to generate a meaningful “report” of actions and results, but demonstrating the value of public relations activities is arguably the most important step of all. However, it cannot be fully reflected in a list of news clips – what’s the ultimate impact of your efforts?

Good PR practitioners make it a priority to demonstrate results – front and center – by helping clients recognize how public relations contributes to business success. Early measurement is necessary in most cases in order to create benchmarks. What’s the return on investment? Are the most important audiences being influenced? It is often helpful to show correlation to sales, participation, funding or other measurable results.

PR reports may vary in content and format from client to client, depending on their goals and industry intricacies. Elements may include but are not limited to:

• Overviews of tasks completed
• What was created, generated, maintained, minimized etc…?
• Web trends
• Industry news, trends and possible risks
• News clippings with resulting message content and impressions
• Hours and budget utilized
• Upcoming tasks and action items

Undeniably, social media is shaping the way PR results are reported. Practitioners are more frequently including feedback from “followers,” “fans” and “friends.” However it’s conveyed, show clients results that are relevant to them and use their business language. Whether reports are given weekly, monthly or quarterly, provide updates relevant to the organization’s reputation and brand.