10 Yetis Insight Blog - A Week in The Life of a Head of PR

For those of you who don't know me (contrary to my mum's beliefs, I imagine that's a fair few of you) my name is Shannon and I've worked at 10 Yetis since I was 18 years old. Fast forward seven and a half years and I'm now Head of PR here. I'm one of those lucky ones in life who can say I really, really love my job.

I didn't have a degree in PR or years of experience when I started here and I didn't have a clue what search engine optimisation (SEO) was, how to deliver a persuasive new business pitch or what media titles I could target for a campaign about will writing. Don't get me wrong; I knew what public relations was, how to write a press release and how to pitch to a journalist on the phone, but my experience was definitely limited. Luckily, Andy took a chance on me and I very quickly got into the swing of things. I'm a true believer that learning on the job (not like that, you smutty bunch) is the best way to progress in the industry of your chosen career.

Like I said, I'm now Head of PR at the agency and I think it's safe to say that over the last seven or more years there isn't a sector, region of the UK or campaign type I haven't worked in/on. For those of you who want to know, I thought I'd share with you how a typical week in my job looks. One of the best things about PR is that no two days will ever be the same, especially in an agency. I often get a lot of 'oh you've worked there a long time' remarks or 'isn't it time to move on?' quips. I even get the impression that some people think I lack ambition or drive for staying put here, which couldn't be further from the truth.

I just know a good thing when I see it. The truth is, there have been so many clients during my time here that it's like my job has changed regularly. Each campaign is like a new job. Each client is like a new boss; except I get to take it all in my stride from the comfort of my oh-so-familiar office surrounded by my great workmates and my actual boss. Don't tell him this, but he's the reason I won't leave here. And no, I'm not after a promotion or pay rise.Without further ado, here's a week in my Monday-Friday life...

Morning

As soon as I get to the office (OK, that's a lie, I start this process as soon as I wake up and look at my phone) I check for client coverage that's come through over the weekend and collate it all to update my reports and clients with.

I catch up on emails and respond to anything urgent and flag important things for later.

I head up the whole PR team here and so one of my main priorities on a Monday morning is to compile what we call the weekly grid. This is a daily am/pm plan of all of the activity each of us will have to work on for clients and it's an absolute God-send. Of course, PR is unpredictable and things can move around, but it's handy to have a plan to work to, such as what days certain press releases will be going out to the media, what day you need to write certain things etc. During the weekly grid planning and talking to the team, I'm able to see what their work load is like, how things are going for clients and such like. Throughout the week, the team highlight what they get done in yellow and anything they don't in red, so I can keep a check on everything and sort out whatever needs to be sorted.

I have a travel agency client (sunshine.co.uk) that I manage the PR campaign for and on Mondays I send 'late deals' to a number of journalists who I've built relationships with in the hope that they're able to use them in their travel deal weekly roundups.

Before lunch, I'll get my head down and do some press release writing for my clients. When I have a campaign plan that's been signed off by a client, I'll get as far ahead as I can with my writing so that nothing is left until the last minute.

Afternoon

Throughout the day I'm constantly on the lookout for reactive opportunities for my clients and the rest of the team's. We have Sky News or the BBC on TV all day and use sites like Feedly (it's awesome) to get breaking news when it's actually breaking. This is something I do every day of the week, but to avoid sounding repetitive I won't include it every day in this blog.

I take the lead with new business generation for the agency, so I'll spend a fair bit of time on this. This can be anything from putting a presentation together for an upcoming pitch to searching for companies to approach for PR and getting in touch. I look for events that I could attend and networking opportunities that could lead to new clients, making sure I get tickets and plan them into my diary. I'll try to cross-sell our services too; just because I work in PR, it doesn't mean I won't approach a company if I can see that'd they'd benefit from our social media services or some video work.

On Mondays I always set some time aside to work on features for my clients (pitching to journalists and writing). I also keep an eye on Response Source media requests from journalists and monitor #journorequest on Twitter throughout the whole day to look for opportunities for all of the clients the agency has (the whole team does this for their own clients, but I always forward them on or flag them up if I happen to see them first).

Every day, I have things to approve from the team like press releases, features, campaign plans or ideas, so I'll spend some time working through these.

Morning

Releases for clients can go out any day between Tuesday and Thursday, so I'll send out any press releases I have scheduled to go out as soon as I get into the office. I've already prepared who I'm sending them to, so it's just a case of working through targeting different contacts and media titles with it.

Then, I have more late deals to send out for sunshine.co.uk as certain journalists have specified that this is the preferred day for them to receive them.

I'll get some more approvals done next. I have a folder set up in my Outlook and a rule set that means anything sent to me with 'approval' in the subject line goes in there. The team know to include this, so I can see easily how many I have to get done. I constantly check it, as one of my pet hates is having that little 'unread' blue number in brackets next to my folders.

I send some press releases to my clients for them to approve once they've been approved in-house by either our Senior Account Manager Leanne or Account Manager Lauren. I avoid self-approving my writing if I can, as getting a second pair of eyes on my work to proof for any errors puts my mind at rest.

Afternoon

I'll get on the phones for a while to sell in some press releases that have gone out that morning or other ideas that I want to pitch to journalists for clients. This can be anytime from 11am, but generally starts in the afternoon.

Quick check of the weekly grid to see how everyone's to do lists are looking and what work might have fallen off so that I can catch up on the whys and what can we do about its if anything has.

Every week, I write a good and bad PR column for industry blog PR Moment. I'll usually get that written up on Tuesday afternoons ahead of the Wednesday deadline.

I might work on some more writing, feature pitching or whatever is taking precedence that day.

Morning

First things first, I'll send out any press releases that are due to do out that day. If I have some press releases ready that aren't due out for a week or so but have already been signed off by the client (and aren't time sensitive) I'll send each one exclusively to a different journalist to see if they want first refusal. This is often a good approach for the Sunday papers which prefer exclusive content.

Each week, I usually have some awards work that needs doing for clients. As part of our PR service, we look for awards that clients can enter and will often handle the drafting of the entries. I'll set some time aside to work on this and let the team know if I spot any awards that their clients could go for.

I'll do some more approvals, check in with the team and help anyone out with any bits and bobs that they might need guidance on.

Afternoon

I'll work through press release sell ins and pitches to journalists that I have planned.

Next, I normally have some blog writing to do for clients. Sometimes it's just a case of re-writing a press release into blog format for them to post, or it can be on a different topic entirely.

I'll work on some more new business presentations, tenders or approaches. We use One Page CRM to keep on top of our new business leads and a simple Google Doc that the team shares, so we can keep track of who we're all approaching and that we aren't going to the same companies.

For one of my clients, I try to arrange as many face to face meetings with journalists as I can, so I'll spend time researching new contacts who might be interested in a quick coffee or lunch, as well as contacting them to ask the question and pitch why my client might be of interest to them.

Usually there's at least one day a week when I'm out of the office for either a client meeting or a pitch, so let's say for the purpose of this blog post that it's the Thursday. Being out of the office doesn't mean that my work gets put on hold. Thankfully, we usually travel by train, so I can write press releases, reply to emails, pitch features and work through approvals as I normally would in the office.

I work a lot out of an awesome place called The Hospital Club in London near Covent Garden when I'm in the big smoke for meetings, which is a lot. It's a great little London base that I can duck into between meetings or if I have some down time before my train back and it's a great place to have meetings with clients. We've even carried out some less formal new business pitches there. It has WiFi and a great menu, so I really couldn't ask for more.

I'll check in with the team from afar, by phone or via Skype, to check on clients across the board. We have an average of 30 clients at any one time, so even if I'm not the day to day contact working on the accounts, I still have a responsibility to make sure everything is going smoothly and we're achieving results for them all. So, the pressure is on! Thursday is the day before weekly report day, so if a client hasn't had much coverage for whatever reason we need to rally the whole team together to help with sell ins.

Morning

On Fridays, I try to catch up on some admin stuff, like updating my reports and creating press cuttings of the coverage I've achieved for clients. I might write an insight blog for the 10 Yetis site, as I'm doing right now, because we all take it in turns to make sure we're keeping it nice and up to date with good, shareable content. Hopefully you'll think this is worth a share, but no pressure.

After the meeting the day before, I'll take care of any actions that need doing. This could be putting together a suggested campaign plan or contract if it was a pitch, or drafting and sending a wash up email or notes if it was a client meeting.

I'll then properly compile reports for the clients that I look after, which includes putting a table together that contains all of the print, online and broadcast coverage I've achieved that week. How long it takes me to do this varies depending on how successful a week I've had coverage-wise. My reports contain information like the date of the article, the journalist who wrote it, the URL or page number, the audience reach and PR for SEO information like the domain authority of the online piece and if it contains a follow or no-follow link to my client's site. We use MOZ to find this out.

Afternoon

I'll work on getting ahead on some of my release and feature writing and check on deadlines so that I can ensure I'm getting things done in plenty of time.

My approvals folder will have some more in it awaiting my sign off, so I'll get those done. Fridays are my busiest days for approvals, as the team will often need things signed off to send to clients as part of their weekly reports.

I'll do some last minute feature pushes and sell-ins for my clients (just to squeeze as much coverage as I can out of the week) concentrating particularly on the online media because it's much more instant.

After a last scan for media coverage (using Meltwater, Twitter searches and Google searches) I'll make sure there's nothing new I need to add to my reports (hopefully there is) and then I'll actually hit send on the reports for my clients.

I check in with the team to see how everything is for their own clients and how the week has gone, so that we can plan actions for the following week that need to be a priority.

THE END.

Except, it isn't the end. When you work in PR, you do tend to have this 'always on' mindset, which is no bad thing. It doesn't mean that I'm not a normal human being, or that I'm all about work and don't have a social life; it just means that I care about my job and want to do well for my clients. So, yes I do check my emails during the evenings and over the weekends, just in case. The last thing I want is to come in on a Monday morning online to find a journalist emailed me on Saturday morning asking for something urgently and I missed an opportunity for coverage for a client. It's rare, but important weekend emails do happen.

I'm sure there's plenty of weekly activity I've missed here, but this is a very basic overview of what life as an agency Head of PR can look like. I hope you've found it useful and, you know, maybe a bit inspiring.