Valley PR Blog

New Grad PR Secrets Series – Part 3: Networking

By Dan Wool on April 17th, 2008 In Professional Development

This is the third post of a four part Valley PR Blog series for new grads or young professionals seeking a career in PR — and the experienced professionals who wish to help them.

Part 3 – The Thrill of the Hunt: 10 Killer Networking Tips

So you’ve developed your key support materials – your resume and your cover letter – now what?

You should now treat your PR job search like a PR campaign. Since you’ve been learning about PR in school — and hopefully, through some work experience — it’s now time to put it into action for your most important client: you.

Notice I said campaign, not pitch. A campaign is an ongoing process to get a particular message out there and have it resonate. The most obvious example is a political campaign.

In contrast, a pitch is usually a one time event designed to provoke a specific decision. Think: sales pitch – you either buy the product, or consider it for a little bit, or walk away.

Campaigns are strategic. Pitches are tactical.

In the hunt for a PR job, networking is your campaign. Making contacts are your pitches.

Here are ten critical networking tips:

No networking, no job. Simply submitting your resume and sitting back to wait for a call is fruitless. The best opportuinties happen through friends of friends, no matter how talented you are. You almost always need to know someone on the inside who can get to the hiring manager. This comes through networking. And you have to be out front and aggressive. Networking for a job should be your 9-5 job. You have to be engaged inthe hunt and you can’t be lazy about it.

It starts by asking your contacts: “I just put in an application for a PR Coordinator at Company XYZ, do you know anyone in that department at Company XYZ?” Then you get in touch with that person and say, “So-and-so suggested you may be able to help me….” Bingo – you’re in. You must do this daily with multiple people in multiple organizations until you get what you want.

The key to networking is staying in regular touch with your contacts. The calls I loathe most are from “long lost” interns or other former co-workers I haven’t heard from in years. They call and say “Hey! How’ve you been?” My defenses immediately go up; the firsth thing I think is, “What do you want? Why are you calling me?” The caller has a burden of proof, something to sell. It’s like a cold pitch to a media contact you’ve never spoken to.

When someone has the will to stay in regular touch with me or keeps up with me on a regular basis – that is, they are a true part of my network — the contact is more natural and I’m all to happy to help the person if they need a favor.

Staying in touch requires very little effort. A quick email to just say hello or to send a cool article the person might enjoy (personal – not to include someone on a spam joke list!) or to say you ran into someone we both know – these are examples of staying in touch. We don’t ask anything of our friends until we need it. Think of it like a doctor – they make rounds to patients at regular intervals, they provide updates, make sure everything’s going okay. Similarly, couldn’t you easily start at “A” in your contact list and call 5 people a day, each for a couple minutes. You could even start over at some natural point after you get through the “Z’s” as well.

Don’t be afraid to name drop. Your goal in networking is to be the natural friend, not the awkward cold call. In the job hunt, you won’t have a lot of natural friends. You’ll need to make them, or to leverage the contact’s friends by proxy. Leveraging friends of friends is a powerful way to get in touch with someone. We perk up when we see or hear from someone we know/respect/like. If you get in touch with my good friend Len Gutman and tell him Dan Wool suggested you get in touch, he knows me well enough to know I’m a good filter for that sort of thing and regard your inquiry well.

You should be looking for any foothold in an organization you wish to work for. If there’s a barrier, safely network around it. When there’s a crash on the freeway, you just move into another lane. For example, if a job listing says “no calls” it really means don’t call the HR rep or hiring manager — it doesn’t mean you can’t find other people to inquire with — other people who might walk your resume over to the hiring manager. In many fast growing organizations or markets where labor is tight, companies offer cash bonuses for new hires they bring into the company. Your presence could be someone’s windfall!

Networking events are not really for networking. PRSA and IABC and other events are for making in-person contact and gathering information. Go around the room, talk to as many people as possible gather information and to gauge if they’ll be helpful in your search. Networking comes afterward when you follow-up and forge ongoing relationships with the right people.

The goal of getting contacts should be to generate more contacts. Most people you meet will not be the right people to help you; just as when you are doing a PR pitch to multiple outlets that not all will take the story. (Note: the journalists with whom you have relationships are more likely to take the story). So be sure to expand your base by getting more contacts from those you speak with. Rule of thumb: every contact should beget you three more contacts. That’s how to grow your network and work your way to the right people. Great closing question to ask people: “Can you give me the names of a few other people who might be willing to help me out?”

Coffee and beer are the lubricants of networking. Getting to know someone in person is the best form of communication. When you’ve narrowed down whether someone can be useful to your job hunt, go to coffee, grab a drink or otherwise meet with them in person. Formally, you can go and have an informational interview in someone’s office or lobby. Initially meeting over coffee or beers though, is informal, which enables everyone to loosen up and share information. Either way, following up by phone or email is easier – more natural — after you met someone in person.

A social networking site is not a professional networking site. MySpace, Facebook, etc can be used a professional network but as I said the other day, use professional-oriented social media tools such as LinkedIn or MyRagan for professional networks. LinkedIn in particular is a great tool for finding those valuable “friends of friends” and narrowing it to specific industries and jobs.

Never, ever stop networking. The biggest mistake most people is to stop networking once they get a job. If you’re like most people, you won’t stay in that job. If you get fired or laid off or your job becomes a dead end, where will you turn if you’ve done absolutely no networking? And what will the response be? (See “long lost friend” call above). If you have an active network, these events are far less traumatic for you and txing on them; in fact, your someone in your network may even want to snap you up for themselves. If you are happy in your job and plan to stay in it – network with others inside your company, those outside your department; this can lead to opportunities within the company or the person’s support on a key initiative. But you’ll never know this if you don’t stay current with people.

So stay in touch.

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