10 Yetis Insight Blog - 10 Mistakes You've Probably Made If You Work In PR

Time and time again, PR roles are voted amongst the most stressful of all career choices. Is it surprising? It's certainly a high-pressured environment; you can get excellent coverage for a campaign or client one week and then you're back to square one the following Monday, having to do it all again. The thrill of getting that aforementioned coverage is all worth it though.

Mistakes are inevitable in any high-pressured job though and any PR person reading this can probably reel off a fair few slip-ups that they've had in their time. What gaffes have you made? Maybe a few of these will ring a bell:

1.Targeting a totally irrelevant journalist

Most of us have done this at some point, probably very early on in our careers; but it's a faux-pas you definitely want to avoid. For example, sending a press release about a new breed of flying pigs to a fashion editor who writes about catwalk shows is stupid; they won't give a fudge about flying pigs. It's clearly more a story for an agricultural editor, but because you didn't look up what the journalist you were targeting actually covered or wrote about, or even what their job title was, you're going to make them angry.

2.Over-promising and under-delivering

The real challenge with PR is that results are something you can never guarantee, but that's not to say that some of us don't fall into the trap of over-promising. You should never, ever give a client false hope, because when you wake up one day and find that your cuttings service has picked up bugger-all coverage for your client, you'll regret promising them that their story was going to be in the Metro, Daily Mail and on the Huffington Post (when all the journalists told you were 'hmm, maybe').

3.Sending something out with a typo or grammatical error

No matter how many levels of human proofing a press release or piece of content goes through, there's always the off-chance that something could have been missed. I mean, seriously, even if you've proof-read your own work, had it approved by someone else internally and then sent it to the client who has also signed it off (along with their whole in-house marketing team and the CEO's mother's cat) there still might be a rogue there/their/they're mistake or a 'too' where it should be a 'to'. It could even be something more obviously glaring that you only ever seem to notice once you've hit the 'send' button and it's way too late. I'm sure you've all frantically hit the 'recall' email button a few times before, only to realise it's pretty pointless. Don't worry. You're a human. It's normal.

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4.Annoying a journalist on the phone

I'm calling this a 'mistake', but most of the time it's not your fault. If you catch a journalist at a bad time, or when they're stressed, have a deadline to meet or have just suddenly developed a loathing for anyone with the initials 'P' and 'R' in their job title, you might end up pissing them off on the phone. My advice? Stick to email unless you really have a need to call them. If you are calling them, ask them straight off if it's a good time to call - they'll appreciate that - and don't waffle on for hours on end.

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5.Being forgetful

Generally, as a PR person you have to be a pro at multi-tasking and remembering precisely 4,762 things all at the same time. It's just part and parcel of the trade, particularly if you work agency-side as opposed to in-house and you have multiple clients to service. So, maybe you noticed an email that came in from a journalist saying they'd love to feature your client in a piece they're working on and tell yourself that your reply is next on your to-do list; but then something pressing crops up and you forget. Maybe it's just for an hour and then you remember, thankfully, or maybe it's for a few days, weeks or months and you immediately look for a wall to start banging your head against. In frustration. At yourself.

6.Missing deadlines

This one's right up there with mistake number 5, but missing deadlines is something that will land you firmly on the PR naughty step. Don't worry, it's a big step and there's room for all of us. Again, missing a deadline isn't always within your control; perhaps your client didn't quite get something to you in time and that meant there was a delay, but if you didn't keep the journalist in the loop then I'm afraid that becomes your fault. As soon as you start working on something for a journalist, ask them when their final deadline is and then set reminders that will pop up every ten minutes for the next few days... if that's what it takes to get the job done.

7.Sending something out before it's actually approved

There's sending something out after it's been approved and then realising there are errors in your work and then there's sending something out before it's had final approval from the client. Sometimes, it's a case of 'too many cooks' on the client side and one person coming back to tell you they're happy with it (which you take as final approval so start distributing). Then, you get another email from someone else on your client's team asking for some changes and you immediately break out in cold sweats. Lesson? If you're unsure whether or not to take something as the final sign-off, ask.

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8.Pretending something is exclusive and getting caught out

Hands up then, how many of you are guilty of this? You send a story around to a few journalists that you think might be interested, maybe more than a handful of people, and then somebody replies asking if you've sent it elsewhere, because they'll use it if it's exclusive.... "uh huh, sure it is...". NO! Never do this. It's a bad idea and you'll look unreliable if you get caught, you bad PR, you.

9.Missing coverage

There's nothing more annoying than sending a weekly coverage report to a client and then realising the following week that you missed a load of coverage you actually could have included in it. To make matters worse, the report wasn't the best and it would have been so much better with all the other pieces included. It's just as frustrating when a client sends you coverage that you've achieved before you've had the chance to tell them about it and send it to them. Lesson? Do regular checks for coverage and be thorough in those checks.

10.Sending an email to completely the wrong person

Have you ever sent a client email to completely the wrong client, or CC'd someone you shouldn't have in an email because Outlook is the devil and auto-filled Kate from the Metro's email address instead of your client Kate or Kate on your PR team? This mistake can land you in all sorts of hot water, particularly if you're having a moan about something that you really don't want the accidental recipient to see, or if the content is highly confidential. Lesson? Always check who you're emailing before you hit send.

That's it folks! What are we missing? Share your PR mistakes with us in the comments section below... if you're brave enough!