Starting the PR journey

Kerry-May joined us at the start of this year as a PR assistant, so we set her the task of writing a blog documenting her first two weeks. Find out how she’s been getting on below!

I’ve spent the last three years at Leeds Beckett University studying Psychology and after deciding I wanted a career in PR, I completed a social media internship and undertook the gruelling process of finding a PR graduate job. Fortunately, Harris Associates has taken me under its wing and my journey into the PR world has begun. My first day felt like my first day at school. There I was standing with my backpack on being showed where my desk was, hoping that the bigger kids would be nice to me…thankfully they were!

I kicked things off by getting stuck into the media list and ensuring all journalist and editor contacts were up to date, before documenting the huge amounts of coverage that the PR team have already achieved for clients this year.

I’ve also already had a taster of the ‘relations’ part of public relations by contacting marketing departments at colleges across the UK in a bid to convince them to use a video from our client Johnstone’s Trade. The video features students from each of the colleges so thankfully I was able to secure good coverage for the client.

In addition, I’ve got stuck into writing case studies. It’s been great to be able to talk to someone first-hand about their experiences and then turn it into a piece that I know will be published.

Overall my first two weeks at Harris have been great! I’ve learnt a lot about the technical side of PR and I have been given the opportunity to start writing material myself. I hope to continue learning lots and turning into a PR guru…so watch this space!