As professional communicators, PR people are required to develop content that is accurate and compelling on behalf of companies and organizations. In fact, the ability to be a good writer is arguably the most important skill needed to be a great PR professional. Yes, being able to pitch media and cultivating online relationships in this social media world are also key components to success in PR. However, without good writing skills neither of these tasks can be successfully accomplished. Great PR writing is not necessarily something that can be easily picked up at college, but can be learned through practice and diligence on the job. According to eCollegeFinder.org, an online education portal for online colleges, in an article entitled 5 Ways To Get Noticed and Earn a Full-Time Writing Job, maintaining a blog and social media presence and writing as a pastime can improve your ability to generate content and “showcase your talent.”
Those are lessons well learned for successful PR practitioners. Just consider these three points:
- Good writing can be learned. Look at content put out by other organizations and firms. What are they doing that really works? (And don’t be afraid to steal a few rhetorical tricks!)
- Good writing makes you look better. (And let’s not even get into the damage done by misspellings and poor grammar in emails to your boss or client!)
- Good writing bridges communications platforms. Writing a blog post and an email should be treated differently. What may be appropriate for one may not be for the other. (And even tweets benefit from good writing!)
Read more: How To Grow An Agency