15 Expert Communicators Share Critical Knowledge For Industry Newbies
Communications, PR, public affairs & media relations executives from Forbes Communications Council share firsthand insights.
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In most industries, experience nets you a lot of information. The longer you work in a particular area of expertise, the more versed you are about the situations that may arise. More importantly, you learn how to deal with those situations to best benefit the company.
Critical knowledge about how to handle certain events can only come from dealing with them. However, experienced employees can impart their knowledge and experiences to those who are only just getting their feet wet. Below, 15 experts from Forbes Communications Council share some critical advice that more experienced colleagues should offer their peers and junior employees to help them succeed.
Members share their best communications industry advice for newcomers to the field.
1. Develop Your Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is necessary to thrive as a communicator. Having EI, especially early in your career, will help manage your emotions for more meaningful conversations and stronger relationships. Externally, EI will allow you to structure your strategic communications and content to be more relatable and reach your potential customers. - Beth More, Mazars USA LLP
2. Build A Diverse Skillset
One choice marketers have to make as their careers develop is whether to focus on a specific area/type of marketing or to broaden their experience across multiple channels and disciplines. While there is definitely value in becoming a true expert in one or two areas, a more diverse skillset gives you more flexibility and likely more options, as the marketing industry evolves. - Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies,
3. Put Your Persona First
Communication should be created through the lens of your persona — your ideal customer. Don't create something because you like it; create something that will add value to your ideal customer's daily challenges. Don't claim to have all the answers. Claim to help your prospects and customers find the answers. Put your persona first, and you'll build more trust for yourself and your organization. - Holly Tate, Vanderbloemen Search Group
4. Focus On Value
We tend to work with a client-centric vision. While this is important and fundamental as a marketer, it is not enough. The successful companies of today and tomorrow are those that go beyond profits. Economic sustainability is at the core of every business. Social and environmental sustainability should be there, as well. Become value-centric: value for the client, for the business, and value for society. - Pablo Turletti, ROI Marketing Institute
5. Volunteer At Work
Volunteer at work. This means asking to help others with projects that are not assigned to you. Let your manager know you’re willing to do this work outside of your other duties, which means you may be helping after work hours. This is a great way to be exposed to new technologies, processes, departments and partner organizations you otherwise wouldn't. This helps your company, team and career. - Kristi Harrington, PestRoutes
6. Do These Four Things
The advice I give young professionals on our team is the following: 1) Read every day, looking for trends or to learn something new; 2) Seek mentors both inside and outside our industry; 3) Volunteer with a large nonprofit to absorb that knowledge and a small nonprofit where you can lead and make an impact; and 4) Invest in yourself and learn graphic design and video production to build your brand. - Jeremy Park, cityCURRENT
7. Don't Be One-Dimensional
Learn about your company's strategic priorities, know the marketplace's sentiment toward your brand and constantly read about your industry. In short, you should always be learning. This will afford you a multidimensional lens in your profession. - Amena Karim
8. Start Building Connections Now
In the field of communications, it is impossible to gain any traction without making connections. You gain a lot of net worth just by who you know. Without any connections, it will be hard to infiltrate the communications industry. - Christian Anderson, Lost Boy Entertainment Company & Preach Records
9. Keep A Customer Service Mindset
At the end of the day, we are all in customer service. We all have people to serve in our roles. Remember to treat everyone like they are rating your customer-service levels. Did you greet them? Did you provide value in your conversation? That mindset will help keep you in check. - Eileen Canady, BST Global
10. Listen To Understand
Listen. Don't just wait to speak but truly listen. Conversation is a lost art, whether it be person to person or in developing a marketing strategy. Simply waiting your turn to speak means you've already decided what you're going to say regardless of what information is being received. Tuning in and listening and then responding based off of that information is true communication. - Mason Burchette, Best Buy Metals
11. Stay True To Yourself And Your Profession
It's very hard, especially when working in executive communications, to be pressured into not being transparent, 100% honest/truthful, etc. It's important that you stick to your own morals and ethics, as well as the ethics of communications. Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and your profession, but do it in a respectful, fact-based manner. A great tip — always listen more than you speak! - Heidi Green, BrightMove, Inc.
12. Don’t Be So Quick To Seek Leadership Roles
Spending time in the trenches doing the work can provide valuable lessons and make you a better leader to those who will eventually be in the trenches. It allows you to see things before others see them happening. Being great at one thing outweighs being OK at a lot. - James Gilbert, CRMNEXT
13. Get A Wider Understanding Of Business
Being able to write a catchy tagline or funny blog only goes so far in more senior communication roles. Marketing is not a siloed function and works with almost every department. By developing an understanding of different parts of the business — from sales to technology and even operations — you can position yourself for growth later in your career. - Roshni Wijayasinha, Foxquilt
14. Be Ready For Both The Good And The Bad
Junior communicators often walk into their first stint(s) with rose-tinted glasses on. Seniors need to give them the good, bad and ugly soon after they’ve been inducted. So ideally, they should be exposed to opposing examples of both quickly — the ranked best account within the firm, as well the ranked poor account. From there, they’ll learn a plethora of lessons for their journey ahead at the firm. - A.J Minai, Subture
15. Never Lose Your Own Voice
Communications professionals must take on many different voices, from that of the organization as an entity, to channeling the voices of leaders for content. When becoming an expert at doing this, it's important not to lose your own voice, not only because that voice is the one that got you where you are, but because it also needs to get you where you're going. Without it, you'll lose what makes you, you. - Adam Giffi, Forbes Councils
This article was originally published on Forbes.com