ICYMI: Satisfying your PR Craving Recap

By: Katie Masko

Our first meeting, “Satisfying Your PR Craving,” brought three public relations professionals from the food and beverage industry to discuss their day-to-day work and most important skills for working in the field in Franklin Hall September 26.
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“Most messaging starts and ends with us,” said Brandi Neloms, the chief strategy officer at Sipping Black Only, about the most important part of working in the industry. “We are drafting what sounds good and what's true.”  

Social Media Strategist at Nestle, Deanna Langer, and VP of Communications at J.M. Smucker, Abbey Linville, joined Neloms to share their experiences on digital analytics, crisis strategy and essential transferable skills learned in the PR Kent program.

Langer and Linville quickly agreed good writing is the most important skill a PR professional should have when entering the workforce.

“If you can write, you can do almost anything,” Linville said.

When discussing crisis strategies, Langer shared that a minor crisis can potentially change all social media plans for the rest of the month.

“Social moves really fast… you'll have a content calendar planned for the whole month and then something terrible happens,” she said.

Langer also spoke about her use of digital analytics in social media, bringing light to why Digital Analytics in Advertising and Public Relations is an essential class for PR majors to take.

“We work really closely with our consumer marketplace insights team, and they do tons of market research on our consumer, how people are interacting with our brands, and what channels they're on,” Langer said.
Their final pieces of advice went beyond standard networking advice.

“Look for ways to constantly engage with people so that when you do have a need, or you do have an opportunity for them, it's more of an authentic symbiotic relationship than it is just you tapping on the shoulder and asking for things,” Neloms said.