Guest blog post from Amy Ziari, University of Oregon ’06.
It’s nearly been one year since I graduated from UO, and for those of you who think that Information Gathering was just a huge pain in the you-know-what, I’m a testament to the fact that it may be one of the most useful classes you will take at the UO in preparation for your career.
A huge part of my job is research: Market research, competitive analysis, industry news tracking, research on reporters, research on industry players…the list literally goes on and on. When research is required, I’m your gal.
Wait, you may say, I want to work in PR, not be a research analyst! But let’s get real: We are in the news business. Our job is to understand what’s going on in our client’s industry, know where the stories are, know what reporters write about, know the messaging of our client’s competitors so we can make our own more effective.
And even beyond this, our job is to be able to provide analysis and derive meanings from our research. What’s important? What isn’t? What does this mean for the industry? And most importantly, what does this mean for our client?
You can look at it this way: Would you book a flight to Morocco for a vacation without knowing where it was, or what it was like, what you could expect to see when you get there, or what activities you could take part in?
I know I wouldn’t.
Then why would you recommend that your client change their messaging without knowing the values and pain-points of their industry? Or why would you pitch a story to a reporter if you had no clue what he/she writes about or were unprepared to answer questions about your client’s industry? Beyond annoying the heck out of reporters and wasting your client’s money, not taking the time to do your research can even cause you public embarrassment!
These are just a few examples—among endless—of situations where you will be required to do some research as a PR pro. Even as you (and I!) gain more experience in PR and move to more strategic positions, research will undoubtedly still play a role in in your career in one form of another. Truth be told, doing your homework doesn’t stop with a diploma. In this business, you will be doing it for many years to come.
ABOUT
Amy Ziari graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in public relations. Today, she works as an Assistant Account Executive in Portland for MacKenzie Marketing Group, a marketing communications agency that focuses on emerging markets and start-ups. You can contact her at 503-225-0725 or amyz@mackenzie-marketing.com
Comments
2 responses to “Guest Blog: The Importance of Research for PR Students”
InfoHell!! I also agree that students can learn “a lot” in this class even though most of journalism students have struggled in the class.Actually, I do not think infohell was the most difficult journalism class for me because at least it is not just reading books and taking exams. Doing resear does take long time but we can more understand the subject we want to know. I also agree that we are not able to have a good campaign without knowing our clients. Also I believe that investing time and effort to do research about knowing the clients will be good tactics to successfully accomplish a good PR plan or campaign.
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