My Melting Pot of Public Relation Attributes

When I was in high school I competed in 'Emerging Business Issues'  at the F.B.L.A (Future Business Leaders of America) State Convention.  My topic was to argue the affirmative side on the growing problem of the depleting social security funds and how my generation would probably not see a penny by the time we would draw from it.  The problem was I was given a panel of judges who in 5-10 years would start drawing from the pot.  How could I pitch my argument to the judges who saw the problem in a completely different spectrum then I did?  Somehow I managed to convince them of my ideas and walked away with the 4th place trophy, but it was afterwards in the brutal interview session when I realized the power that was in my communications skills.  The judges asked me what I would be my major in college and I told them I had no idea.  One of the judges looked up and said, "might I suggest sales?"  I asked, "Why sales?"and he answered, "because you just completely sold me on your ideas and you argument, you have amazing communication and speaking skills, use them wisely and you will go far." 

Communications skills are essential in the mass comm world.  Good communication skills will get you far and great communications skills are like having a gold mine.  I always knew I had great communication skills because I was the one in class that was excited to give a speech in while my classmates cringed.  

As I learn more about public relations I realize that having great communications skills will only get you so far.  There are other attributes that are just as important if not more important to being a well-rounded PR rep.  I like to think of the skills talked about in Dave Fleet's article as a melting pot of traditional and new skills that only gets better with time and the addition of new skills that you master and add to your pot. 

I do not believe that I have mastered any particular skill completely or ever will because there is always room for improvement. However there are skills that I am stronger at then others.  My strong skills that I bring to the table and place as the foundation in my melting pot are: communications,  writing, proactiveness, work ethic,and  social networking.  I am not afraid to communicate with people whether it be with 2 million or 2.  I consider myself a good and creative writer; I try and put an interesting spin in my writing so that it is eye catching and people will enjoy and want to read it.  I am very proactive about getting projects and deadlines met in a timely fashion.  I live, eat, breathe, and sleep by my planner as does every other public relations student.  When I am working on something, especially for a client, I like to make sure that it is done to the best of my abilities and that I have something to turn in that I can stand behind and be proud of.  Sometimes that might mean that I have to stay late, and sacrifice my time, but I would rather do that then present something that was half-heartedly done.  Social networking is something that I feel every college student has down, but at the same time being a public relations student I feel like I have a slight edge in that skill over the majority.

There are skills that I would consider mediocre and would like to expand my knowledge on before I spread my wings into the real world.  These skills I could add to my melting pot, but are not quite seasoned yet: media relations, attention to detail, blogging, microblogging,  blogging relations, and social media ethics.  Last spring was the first time I was introduced to media relations and I feel like I know more now, but I still feel a bit like an amateur when dealing with the media.  Attention to detail is one of those hot and cold skills for me.  Sometimes I am at the top of my game and can pick out all the details that others passed over and other times I am in shock at how I let a detail slip through like that.  As far as blogs, microblogging, and blogging relations goes I am definitely still in the baby-step-stage.  However I feel like this skill is something that is 'user-friendly' and can be acquired through trial and error.   Social media ethics is a personal skills that I have not really tested and would like more guidance on because I feel that there are no set rules, but more guidelines when it comes to ethics.  

Coding, RSS, and SEO are attributes that I would definitely not stick into my pot, but I would like to learn more about so I could one day use them in my future career.  

There are only two more skills or attributes that I would add to my melting pot: creativity and flexibility.   I am a very creative person it is one attribute that I am very strong in and believe that it might not be essential to PR, but it definitely gives me an edge.  Flexibility is one those attributes that is so important to PR because nine times out of ten something does not go according to plan and you have to have the ability to think on your feet and work with what you are given to move over the obstacle.  

All these skills whether I am strong or need to expand on make up my melting pot of PR attributes.  I feel like my pot has a good solid base of skills , but there is definitely room in there for additions and improvements.