Why is networking important as a PR student?

One of the first thing most PR professionals state when sharing advice for people looking to get into the field is to network, network and then network some more. It was only after attending the annual student/practitioner networking event last week that I realised just how important networking is both as a student and as a PR professional.

It may seem a bit awkward and forced at first, but getting out there and surrounding yourself with people industry is so important, but try and do it in a way that works for you! As cliché as it sounds the PR industry is sometimes all about who you know! It was through work experience that I first began to realise how fundamentally social the industry is. Alongside the fact you're always working as part of a wider team, networking is a core function of the profession, and occurs not only in the work environment, but at industry events, gatherings and nights out!

PR professionals tend to build up relationships with journalists and stakeholders over time, sometimes years, and retain these key relationships throughout their entire career. While we learn this in theory as part of our degrees, actually witnessing these interactions in real life is essential for budding PR professionals, to develop the skills to learn from key people in the industry and form your own relationships with these types of people. With this in mind I thought I'd share my top tips for networking:

The look of concentration!

1. Go to industry events!

Events present the perfect opportunity to start practicing your networking skills, meeting like-minded people and build your network. I was lucky enough that my lecturer hosts an annual networking event on campus with a range of practitioners attending from around the region for my first event (Thanks for hosting Diane!). The CIPR also host regular networking events around the country which are great. Once you sign up to an event, check the speakers on social media and see what they like talking about and what field they're in. This way, you have a topic in mind when you approach.

At these events, you will tend to be out of your comfort zone. But it's important to remember that all those professionals were students before and are only human!

2. Ask questions

These people understand how important it is for students to communicate with successful professionals like themselves, be sure to ask questions about everything you'd like to know! About their role, the industry or any interests. Listening and learning is key as part of the networking process and developing yourself.

3. Stay in touch with your peers

You never know when someone in your class could come in handy! Even in the PR blogging community it's a great way of approaching like-minded talented students. Before I even started blogging and my masters I had conversations with both Orlagh Shanks and Jessica Pardoe about starting my blog and both offered such good advice back in September that I've kept it up ever since! Be sure to look through the #PRStudent hashtag, read their blogs and connect with people - the worst they can do is say no!

4. Get connected 

Thanks to the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter, networking is so much easier now than ever before, students can now connect with practitioners and follow their careers. It's the perfect place to join the conversation and comment on some posts. There are so so many successful people out there who are always willing to talk to students and help out - you just need to approach them!


How have you found networking? Have you got any tips you remember while trying to network? Let me know below!

Beth x

Click-Plate

Dreamy holidays, make up inspo and even work-out plans... Instagram is showing and influencing us on just about everything these days, even down to how, what and where to eat. I read an article this week that claimed that 'one in five brits have shared a food pic over the last month'. So no the wonder dishes we are cooking and buying are getting brighter and more photogenic just for the gram!

Before the world of social media, people would have chosen where to meet their friends for dinner or go for cocktails by a recommendation or review. Yet people's obsession with pretty food and extravagant looking drinks has resulted in bars, cafés and restaurants completely changing up their marketing and PR strategies to make them as "instagrammable" as possible. Some places will even stretch as far as basing their menus and interiors around how their dishes and environments will look in photos.

A study from Zizzi has revealed that 18-35 year olds spend five whole days a year browsing food images on Instagram, and 30 per cent would avoid a restaurant if their Instagram presence is weak. I'm sure a lot of you can relate when I say eating out has become merely a pastime, a good way of catching up with friends - and when we do, we love to share it on the gram. In fact, it's now normal to sit down in a restaurant having already decided what you're going to order because you've spent a few minutes stalking on Instagram in advance.

So - what are these places doing to make sure they are the chosen location in their city to make in to the gram?

Even starting out with the interiors...

I have definitely been guilty of visiting somewhere for food or drinks purely for the back drop - there's just something about a good flower wall, or even a bath tub in a night club. You can bet if I'm in a cool café or bar with a quirky quote on the wall (especially if it's neon) it'll be featured on my Instagram or Snapchat story... and no one will be surprised.

Take 808 bar and kitchen in Sunderland for example, their interiors are to die for (see below), from a gorgeous bathroom to the most perfect flower wall near the bar, these guys have really hit the nail on the head when it comes to the perfect instagrammable bar - and don't even get my started on their amazing cocktails and food! You can tell as soon as you walk in who they're targeting and if you're from the North East and haven't been already I'd highly recommend (and not just for the photo).

Trying out Stunt Food

The food section on the instagram explore page can be a dangerous, dangerous place. From rainbow donuts to freak-shakes, as we scroll in admiration and think we need to try that - we're falling victim to the world of stunt food. Stunt food is particularly popular within fast food restaurants with the rise of competition means if you don't innovate, you're relegated to the "has-been" pile. People use interest, sales drop, stores close, and that's the end of that.

These items are made purely for the novelty factor. I mean, why else would Burger King make a green burger bun? It doesn't exactly look appealling. Or why would Starbucks think of releasing a unicorn frappuccino? But one thing they know for sure is that millennials will buy it, post and share it all over their social media platforms and influence others to do the exact same, even if a regular product would be much more enjoyable.

Burger King feeding nightmares with their Halloween stunt

The Starbucks unicorn frappuccino

It's all in the presentation

It ultimately all comes down to the food and us milennials love to take a quick snap/insta/boomerag/whatever if it looks the part. A bacon sandwich for breakfast or a toastie for lunch doesn't hit the spot like it once did - now we're all about that smashed avocado with the perfectly runny poached egg and the most aesthetically pleasing salad bowl you've ever seen. Who knew Insta could be good for the diet?

It ofcourse doesn't stop with the food though, that would be far too simple. How are these dishes going to be presented? Plates now have to be aesthetically pleasing, usually large oval plates, rather than circular and have some type of print and even occasionally on a board. Gone are the days of a cocktail in a simple glass - you now have smoking cocktails, rainbow cocktails and even cocktails in mini bath-tubs to name a few, with each place trying to be different and stand out from the competition. Millennials are particularly all about this, the more unique the better at the end of the day. It's exciting and I love seeing the personal little touches each place has and it the perfect outlet for creativity - not even just for the photo!

So - next time you're out for food or drinks, try and maybe resist taking that snap for the gram and just enjoy the moment. I don't know about you but I'm now very hungry!

5 reasons why brands should start a podcast 🎙️

Podcasting is now one of the biggest audio mediums, from personality and comedy to educational and horror, there really is a podcast out there for everyone and is a platform that over the past year brands have started to get on the back of and be really successful doing so.

Pretty Little Thing's podcast is now one of my current favourites - they've really hit the nail on the head for their target listeners. Guests such as Maya Jama, Sophia & Cinzia (YouTubers) and Megan Barton-Hanson (Love Island) means it's the perfect content for PLT's target audience and it shows in the ratings shooting up the iTunes charts every time a new episode comes out. Another branded podcast that I've enjoyed is #LIPSTORIES (by Sephora), the podcast that tells real "stories from everyday lives" of "influential female founders, creators and thought leaders", all while promoting the Sephora "lipsticks for real life" arm of the campaign and within the first 3 episodes they achieved a 5 star rating on iTunes. So why are these brands using podcasts to reinforce their brands...

1. It adds some personality to your brand and builds a relationship

A 30-second TV or Instagram ad is nice, but if a company has a larger message they want to convey and add some personality, a podcast is the perfect platform to tell a story and convey that over multiple episodes. Even though a podcast is a one-sided medium, it helps in building effective relationships with the listeners. People listen to podcast because they have something in common with the speaker and the brand or topic the speaker is representing, it gives the feeling that the listeners know the person speaking on the podcast after just a few episodes.

A good relationship between a brand and it's audience is key in building trust. This encourages listeners to be associated with the brand. Which, in turn, leads to improved conversation, people are of course more likely to buy something from a friend than a stranger.

2. They're easy and cheap to create!

Creating a podcast doesn't involve a lot of steps at all, the equipment needed for them are reasonably priced and easily available. A podcast can quite literally be created and edited down on voice memos  (or an alternative) on your phone, no audio experience is necessarily required to create a podcast. Once the podcast is created, getting people to listen to it is just as easy - there's free options such as PodBean and SoundCloud or for a small fee you can make your podcast available on all the major listening apps such as iTunes and Spotify.

3. Why not video record it as well?

It's not that much more effort to set up a camera or even an iPhone camera and post your podcast to YouTube, it's all about maximising your audience and listenership and getting your brand out there.

4. Reach out to new, loyal audiences

Using podcasts can easily help you reach out to new audiences for any brand. No matter how big or small the brand may be, a podcast can help in building familiarity with a wide range of audiences. Once someone listens and likes a podcast, they send to subscribe to the series and regularly listen. As long as the series continues, the audience is likely to keep listening.

5. Podcasts are highly engaging

In this day and age we are no strangers to an information overload, with the internet being filled with an enormous amount of written content, an audio platform that attempts to engage with customers can be the perfect break from the norm - I always find with a podcast you can listen to it while doing something else and still enjoy them. This leaves enough room for the speaker to get the message across in a highly interactive, personal way which written content may not be able to provide.

In a recent survey conducted on 300,000 podcast listeners, it was found that 63% of respondents had bought what product the host had promoted. Suggesting that a podcast can be used successfully to engage the audience and influence their buying decisions positively!



Have you got any favourite podcasts? I'm always looking for new ones so let me know below!

Beth x

HOW TO | Make the most out of your PR internship/placement

Over summer 2018 I completed a 3 months digital marketing/pr placement and found it was so much more than a summer job or something else to put on my CV, it was the perfect opportunity for growth in the field and to discover what 9-5 work was really about! Make sure you take full advantage of everything they have to offer, and you'll learn valuable skills to make you an employee everyone wants to hire! Below are 5 ways to make the most out of your PR internship.

1. Take it seriously

At the end of my placement months I was offered further freelance work while going back to university to study my masters. Potential employers could be using an internship as a trial run of what you can do and what they expect from you. Give it everything you've got, just like you would if you'd got hired full-time. Whether the internship is paid or not, having the experience will give you the edge over another candidate with the same degree.

2. Ask questions

A placement is the perfect opportunity to ask questions and learn from professionals in the field. The more questions the better if you ask me, there is something about asking questions that I know people are afraid of. Whether it be because they're afraid of asking a stupid question (no such thing), or just in general. You're not always going to know the answer to every question you have and being surrounded by PR professionals and employees with more experience in the field is the perfect opportunity to use it as a learning experience. People usually love talking about themselves and their achievements and I have always found it really interesting when talking to people in the industry about how they got into the field and why they choose to do it - usually a great ice breaker too!

3. Keep a record of everything you do

An internship is the perfect opportunity to not only get experience in the field you want to work in, but also to build a portfolio. Anything you do whether it be a social media campaign, any published press releases, blog posts or any other samples of work be sure to keep it to start building your portfolio.

4. Get Feedback

Setting up meetings along your internship with your supervisor where possible or just ask when you're unsure on something, it's the perfect opportunity to get some constructive criticism and improve your own work. In a busy working environment where meetings aren't possible, a final meeting at the end of your internship is the perfect way to work out your overall strengths and weaknesses.

5. Stay Connected and get a reference!

They often say it's not about what you know, it's about who. You never know when a connection will come in handy, so stay in touch as best you can! You won't be texting your manager every day, but there are plenty of other ways to stay in touch after your internship! You could connect on LinkedIn, the perfect place to professionally connect and coworkers can endorse you for skills you exhibited during your internship or give you public recommendations. Engaging in other social media like Facebook and Twitter is also another option for a less formal manner. It's great to check in every once in a while to maintain your network.

Also, if you've done well during your internship there's no reason you won't get a letter of recommendation! Most supervisors will offer to be a reference, but it's still good to stay connected. That way, you'll have a stronger relationship and they'll be able to tailor the recommendation to the specific role you're applying for in the future.


When it comes to furthering your time at university or even college there is no better way than putting yourself out there and getting some experience in the field you eventually want to work in. It's the perfect learning experience - have you completed any internships that landed you full-time work? Let me know below!

Beth x