On the importance of blogging for young PR grads

I've noticed that around me, more and more PR grads venture into the blogging world. I'm not talking about those in Europe or USA but of my friends here in Cameroon. 

Most of us discovered Internet in the late 90s. We used to exchange emails with friends and family abroad. Some created their first blog in the early 2000s thanks to platforms like Skyrock. But today we're starting to use Internet for another purpose: self-promotion and raise public awareness on what our job is all about.

In my country, PR is still its early stages. Most of our companies' CEOs do not know about PR or how to use our skills. They keep asking "Are you journalists?" and trust me we have a hard time explaining who we are and what we do. They sometimes confused with advertising and we have comments like "so, you're responsible of this crap we have on TV?" and here we go again explaining how we're different from advertising. 

It's a real struggle here to find a job that fits your profile. There's a lot of advertising agencies but no PR agency. What we learnt in college and what we found in reality are different worlds. It's rare to find a CEO ready to invest money in his company's communication or to welcome innovative ideas. They would rather stick to what they know best and keep their communication manager to meetings' organization. The fact that PR results can not really be measured makes things more complicated for us. That's why those here doing a bit of PR are...Advertising agencies! How sad right?

Plus, the fact that journalists here are very strange species: they want money for everything. You have to pay them to attend a press conference or pen an article about your products. Pitch all you want but pay. Don't ask me the reasons or the origins of this weird custom, I don't know. How can we sell PR as "non-paid publicity" if we have to reward journalists for their job? Not to mention the slew of amateurs...

There is a lot to complain about in the way communication is practiced in Cameroon but we chose to make a change via blogging.

Blogs are used by my fellows to comment strategies, communication campaigns and propose alternatives. We're trying to explain how companies can use PR and benefit from it. In fields like fashion, entertainment and events, PR is making a breakthrough and we hope this will set an example for others sectors. SMEs, small businnesses and young entrepreneurs start to understand that they need to use PR to build their image and promote their products. They know that business is about relationships and they begin to understand that PR is about building lasting relationships with the right people.

For my self-employed friends, community managers, communication consultants and freelance PR pros, blogs are very useful for self-promotion. They can show their works and discuss on topics that make the news, share their opinions and give another creative perspectives. They can demonstrate their personnalities and share their interests with people in the country and abroad.

When the case "Vanessa Tchatchou" - the now infamous story of that young woman whose baby disappeared from the hospital under mysterious circumstances -  took the news by storm, they were there to discuss every mistake of the government spokesperson who kept fooling people up to say a DNA test is not possible on a corpse. Doesn't he know we're in the 21st century and we watch CSI Miami?

Blogs are very useful too to network and build relationships with entrepreneurs, journalists and others bloggers, what may set the basis of new relations with medias. More importantly, blogs allow us to support each other. We went separate ways after school and blogging is an ultimate way to stay in touch and show some support.

Here are my selection of three blogs to encourage:

• Fashion Lab One O One  (English)
• Creative and Moving (French)
• Kongossa Alive (French)

Going Freelance

I've recently been contacted by a friend of mine who runs a young fashion brand. He thought it was  time for his company to start caring about its image and get some promotion. I was flattered he thought I could help.

We had a discussion about how he was considering the overall thing, his objectives, the budget, etc... After that, I seriously started thinking about going freelance. I'm already giving (free) advices to former classmates and friends on PR and Communication. I'm may be not an experienced professionnal with 10 or 20 years of in-house/agency work but I own a degree in Public Relations since two years, I did a bunch of internships, I was a good student with good grades and I graduated with honors. Plus, I like to think of myself as a smart and creative girl, so why not?

But I had a concern: what does it takes exactly to go freelance?

I went online to document myself and read some writings about freelancing. I found some helpful links and I learned a lot. Before going freelance, there are some questions you should ask yourself and while in the process, there are some essentiel things you need to know. Here's is a résumé:

•  Why do you want to go freelance?

For me, this is the most important question. Answer it first before doing anything else: Is the (relative) freedom of freelancing appealing to you or are you a job seeker who thinks it's the only way to work in these times of recession? May be do you imagine freelancing will allow you to unleash your creativity. Whatever your reasons, make sure they are good.

• Who are your clients? What do they need?

You need to know who you want to work for. Do you target little companies, agencies in your neighbourhood/town? The bakery of your neigbourhood, young and talented artists, etc..? Make a list of potential clients and figure out what you can do for them.

• Figure out your services: what do you bring to your clients?

How can you help your clients reach their communication/economic objectives? Can you be an asset for them? What are your skills and how can you make them profitable for you?

•  Be aware of the legal issues

How to write a contract, to avoid the non-payment of fees, etc... Make you sure you get everything in writing.

• Build your own brand

You want to promote other people? Start with you. Get yourself a good website or blog (or both), some good business cards. Be active on social networks.

• Forget the paycheck's comfort

This if you want to go fully freelance. Money uncertainty is the first worry of the wannabe freelance. You better have some money kept, enough to live six months until your first incomes.

• Network

 You need some good contacts in companies, agencies, press, etc.. Call your college mates and let them know what you do, join a local business network, use social media to make some new contacts.

• Make sure the freelance lifestyle is for you

 Helen James, founder of Freelance UK,  recommends to work out what's important in terms of your lifestyle too. Freelancing may not be a steady stream of work, especially as you get your business off the ground. One of the benefits for employers is that they can often ask a freelancer for last minute work, over the weekend perhaps. So bear this in mind. Plenty of freelancers take on evening and weekend work initially before leaving their permanent job.

• Have a good plan

Draw a good plan. Write everything down with a lot of details: time management, services, clients promotion, your plan to get clients, the number of projects you handle at a time, etc. Be organized.

I still have some fears but I think I'll give freelance a try. I'll keep my actual job and work on some little projects on my off-work hours. Wish me good luck. If you have some advices, feel free to share on the comments section.

Here are some useful links about freelancing:

• 9 questions to ask before going freelance
• Freelance Marketing and PR
• Going Solo: A guide to working freelance in fashion PR (this can be applied in any field of PR)
• The A to Z guide to PR entrepreneurship
• Ten tips for going freelance