In a world ruled by SoMe (social media) and txtng (texting), it can be easy for public relations professionals (or anyone) to slip in their writing skills and abilities. Since deciding to go into public relations as a profession, I have had an internship and two jobs where most of my work revolved around social media.
That’s not a complaint. I love social media. But when my work is focused on keeping all my writing to 140 characters for Twitter, or 400 for Facebook (often using shorthand), it is easy to see how my other writing may suffer as a result. This is a huge problem since writing is a valuable horcrux of any public relations professional: if destroyed, our entire “public relations soul” is diminished greatly.
So, what can we do to keep up on our writing? Well, here are a few ideas I am currently using to keep up, and even improve, my writing skills and abilities:
1. Keep a blog. All you need to do is create an account with Blogger or WordPress and then start typing. And it doesn’t really matter what you write about (though I would strongly counsel against writing anything that could harm you professionally!). You could blog about your family, your dreams, your favorite restaurants, your thoughts on national or world politics, events or issues. The most important thing is that you write, and in the process, you will begin to see where you can improve or correct your writing, especially if you allow others to view your blog and leave comments.
2. Practice writing press releases (or other industry deliverables). This is especially good for those who may not have a lot of opportunities to do such writing in their current jobs or classes. As I mentioned, I had an internship where I mostly did social media. I didn’t write a single press release the entire six months! Needless to say, when it came time to write a press release again, I needed to freshen-up. Thus my recommendation: whether you’re a student or professional, continue practicing writing press releases and other client deliverables, especially when you’re not currently doing it for school or work. And don’t worry about what to write about, just pick a topic or product and prepare a press release for it. I recently wrote a press release about the discovery of eggs as food from the perspective of the chicken, who was trying to get humans to stop eating live chickens and just eat the newly laid eggs. Sounds silly, but it allowed me to practice my writing with a little bit of light-hearted fun. If you have any friends in journalism, you could ask them to let you pitch the story and see if they would write a story based on your pitch and press release.
3. Write short stories. This is my personal favorite. I know it is a different kind of writing, but it is still writing. And I think by doing a little creative writing, you can find your voice in a way that is hard to do when you write only professional documents. I have already finished one story, and am currently working on a couple more. My first short story was about 5000 words. They don’t all have to be that long (or short). Writing short stories can help you not only improve your writing, but also your editing, which you can do once you’ve finished a first draft of a story.
4. Keep a journal. This is very much like a blog, but most likely won’t be shared publicly, though you may decide to share it with family or a significant other. Keeping a journal can help you learn to organize your thoughts and feelings, putting them into coherent ideas and phrases on paper (or computer screen). As you go back and read, you will not only find your writing style, but you will also discover how our writing changes based on our moods and life experiences. This can be valuable when you are expected to write professional documents for work or school. Understanding how your moods affect your writing will help you be in control of your writing, which will make you valuable to your employers or clients.
Keeping up with our writing in a social media and texting work is very important, especially in the field of public relations. If you have any other ideas that you or others use to keep up with your writing, I would love to hear about them! Feel free to leave a comment below.
Sincerely,
Parrot Tongue
