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Table of Contents
About the book ......................... 3
What is Public Relations? ......................... 4
Different stages as a PR professional ............. 5
Key Things to remember ........................ 13
Areas of expertise ........................ 14
Different verticals in the industry ........................ 15
AISFM 2

2.
AISFM 3
About Book?
This book is a step by step
guide to stages of growth in the
PR industry and insights to do
well and grow in each stage,
if you decide to take on this
career.

3.
What is
Public Relation?
Public Relations (PR) is a way companies
or individuals communicate with the
public and the media effectively.
Maintaining a positive image, creating
a strong brand presence and building
a positive relationship with the
audience is key!
Working in this field, you need to deliver
comprehensive communications
solutions that leverage many tried
and tested ways to directly interact
with important stakeholders AND
effectively communicate key messages
to the target audience.
landscape” { } -Ronn Torossian
AISFM 4
“PR is a mix of
journalism, psychology,
and lawyering – it’s
an ever-changing and
always interesting

4.
PR Professional?
• Media Expert
• Client engagement
• Key client relationship
• Client Leads
• Client Directors
• Regional Practice/Vertical leads
• National Practice/Vertical leads
• CEO/MD
AISFM 5
Differnt stages as a

5.
AISFM 6
Media expert
As an associate, you will hit the
ground running in this fast-paced
environment. Your focus at this
early stage of your career should
be building strong relationships
with journalists and editors. The
media relations you make, build
and maintain will carry you in this
industry as your career progresses.
To make a great impression
internally, you will need a good
command of the English language
and excellent knowledge of digital
marketing and communications.
With more and more companies
looking to their PR agency for online
PR and social media strategy, even
new PR professionals can position
themselves as digital ninjas!
Remember that corporate social
media strategy is very different to
personal use, so keep up to date
with case studies and PR blogs
from around the world.

6.
7 AISFM
Engagement Client
With your media relationships
now in place, the next step up
the career ladder is a client
engagement role. You will spent
more time on industry research
and campaign documentation
for your clients. Your industry
and media knowledge should be
strong enough for you to handle
client meetings with little or no
supervision.
This is the time for you to shine!
With the eyes of both the client
and your own management on
you, take every opportunity to
stand out as a professional. Own
your client’s campaigns and make
your boss redundant!

7.
Relationship
Your hard work as a team player has
paid off and you have now been
given your own team to manage.
While management brings its own
set of headaches, it also brings
leverage - your team can achieve
vastly more than you can alone.
As them team manager, not only
are you the first point of contact
for your current clients, but your
agency will also involve you in the
pitching process for new business.
To succeed in your new role, you
need lots of patience and great
people management skills!
AISFM 8
Key client

8.
9 AISFM
Client Leads
Client leads or Partners are
responsible for a larger portfolio of
clients and focus their energy on
strategy and issues preparedness
for the clients. You will develop the
managers who report to you, helping
them with their team leadership skills.
By the time you reach this level,
you have your own way and style
going and mostly have a handle on
all things! Clients look to you for
guidance and inputs on strategy and
journalists look to you for help when
they are on deadlines, quick help or
responses.

9.
Client
Welcome to the big wigs! As a
Client Director or a Managing
Partner you have all of the other
stages under you and you are
responsible for a specific vertical/
practice.
A lot of client relationship building/
maintaining meetings. You are now
also in the middle of all crisis and
issues that might crop up. Being in
the system for so long and climbing
the ladder, you must remember
that the journalists who you know
and have made friends with also
grow to be editors. Which is why
media relations is so important.
You are also responsible for
bringing in new business.
AISFM 10
Directors

10.
11 AISFM
National
Practice Leads
One needs a considerable amount of
experience in your specialised domain
to become a National Practice Lead. By
now, you must have in-depth knowledge
and experience leading large and multi-layered
campaigns for high profile clients.
Managing niche campaigns in your
vertical, having expertise in corporate
and product messaging and outreach,
employee communications, financial
communications, crisis management and
all industry related issues.
You will have your hands full with
firefighting, and you will be on your toes
with all issues and crisis events!
Other than overseeing and managing
high level relationships with clients, at
this level, you also create and conduct a
lot of messaging, media training and crisis
communication workshops for clients.
You are now in the league of the big wigs!
You are looked at by everyone in the
company for council on any matter. You
are the Yoda of your domain!

11.
You are the Yoda or Shifu of PR!
Not just of one domain but the
industry overall! You are well
connected and respected amongst
your industry and others! By now, if
you have made your way here, you
are in the league of Prema Sagar
who started the PR industry in this
country 21 years ago!
AISFM 12
CEO/MD

12.
Remember
Build, nurture and enhance the
reputation of clients through
strategic communications
Create well crafted messaging
and in-depth understanding
of priorities in context to the
environments in which the
company/client will operate in
and the target audiences that
need to be reached.
Be positive and have a good
sense of right and wrong! That
is sure to take you a long way
AISFM 13
Key things to
Online
Reputation
Management

13.
Areas of
Communication tools are
rapidly changing in today’s
dynamic environment, requiring
an integrated communications
approach to successful run
campaigns and reach the target
audience.
Specific tools used:
• Press Releases
• Profiling - Company and
CEO/MD
• Messaging workshops
• Issues and Crisis workshops
AISFM 14
Expertise
Brand
Reputation
Management
Media
Communications
(Internal & External)
Corporate
Reputation
Management
Issues
&
Crisis
Online
Reputation
Management
Industry
News/Views
Social
Media

14.
15 AISFM
Different verticals in
PR Industry
• Brand Marketing/Consumer
• Corporate and Finance
• Telecom and Technology
• Health and Wellness

15.
Brand Marketing/Consumer
You will fit right in if you are a
passionate about media relations,
storytelling, strategy, content creation,
social media and more. An evidence
based approach, using research and
consumer and industry insight, is used
to develop business-to-consumer and
business-to-business programs. Here
they develop smart creative ideas for
the clients, that impact short term
behaviour, while building long term
brand preference and loyalty.
Campaigns for clients in this domain
are usually engaging and enterprising,
creative and drive conversation,
inspired to make a difference and
focused on the end result for the
client.
Some big and exciting brands fall
under this category, including, adidas,
Procter & Gamble, INVISTA, National
Geographic Channel, Pepsi, among
others.
16 AISFM
Industry Different verticals in the

16.
17 AISFM
Industry Different verticals in the
Corporate and Finance
If you are a corporate
communications specialist, you
serve as trusted advisors to leading
multinational corporations, public
and private companies, financial
and professional service firms,
investment management first,
private equity funds, and high-profile
business and public figures.
Expert counsel and support is
given on a wide range of complex
communication challenges
like, corporate repositioning,
reputation management, thought
leadership development, crisis
communication and more.
Some names of companies that
can be clients in this category are,
Franklin Templeton, GE, Genpact,
Accenture and more.

17.
Telecom and Technology
If you are a communications professional
who works with technology clients, you will
work across a spectrum of communication
challenges and issues; Including everything
from product launches, brand repositioning
and extensions, to entry into new geographic
markets. Communication happens with
customers, investors, partners, employees and
regulators around the world.
Storytelling is critical for technology companies
to communicate a compelling vision of how
their products will change and improve
the world. Creating a story that moves an
audience requires a deep understanding of a
company as well as a strong, intuitive sense
of the audience. Once the story is developed,
you will deploy every communication channel
to tell the story; digital media, social media,
traditional media and live events, in order to
reach the audiences.
18 AISFM
Industry Different verticals in the

18.
Industry Different verticals in the
Health and Wellness
The healthcare environment is growing and
evolving both globally and in India. The increase in
scientific discoveries and the more active consumer
participation in healthcare decision-making have
made result driven communications a necessity for
healthcare organisations everywhere.
As a PR expert, you will help your clients to navigate
the complex medical, political, social and economic
landscape. From introducing first-in-class medical
devices and drug therapies to defining the issues
that help change the delivery of services you will
provide support for global PR campaigns at the
cutting edge of science and medicine.
Your team will likely include physicians, public
health experts, advocacy group representatives,
registered dieticians, cultural experts and former
journalists.
An evidence-Based approach to communications
is very important, providing a methodology to
test and measure messaging and content, third-party
influence and the optimal use of multi-media
channels to yield highest share of voice among
target audiences.

19.
AISFM 20
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