10 skills PR pros have that other professionals don’t

Organizations have every right to manage their own public relations, but if they do, they aren’t availing themselves to these techniques PR pros learn over their careers.

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1. Categorize stories as pitches, press releases, or none of the above. 2. Identify the right media contact to pitch for a story, even when that writer’s name isn’t on a masthead or in a massive contact database. 3. Communicate with influencers in a way that isn’t off-putting, but rather nurtures long-term relationships. 4. Know what kinds of campaigns will drive high Web traffic but few leads, and which ones will drive many leads but little Web traffic. 5. Come up with ways to say “no comment” that doesn’t send up red flags. 6. Find the real story inside the organization, not just the sales pitch. 7. Teach executives how to engage with humans, not just sell to anyone in earshot. 8. Juggle hundreds of quick deadlines and not miss a beat. 9. Find 10 different ways to repackage a single piece of content 10. Create opportunities for positive outcomes to emerge from negative publicity.

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