3 rookie misconceptions about PR—shattered

I imagined late-night brainstorm sessions, phones ringing off the hook, and a Twitter feed that—like a newswire—constantly refreshed with possible story leads.

And maybe this is all true to a certain extent. But after four months as a PR intern, I have received a much deeper understanding of what PR actually is, what lies beneath those exaggerated, surface impressions.

Here, in no particular order, are the top three things I discovered about PR during my tenure as an intern:

It’s right-brain, left-brain.

PR is often described as a creative industry—and it is. It takes a lot of outside thinking and collaboration to pinpoint the most engaging way to tell a client’s story.

But before I came to PR, I thought creativity was all that there was to it; that PR gurus were coffee drinkers huddled around a table throwing ideas back and forth.

Not so. At least, not exactly.

What I came to discover was that PR relies on strategy just as much as it relies on innovation. When I began working on my first new business account, the majority of my time was spent researching the client and its competitors.