The story of a year in which an engineer worked in public relations and didn't know what was right and what was left.

My name is Ito and I work as an infrastructure engineer and public relations officer.

This article is written under
the Public Relations Marketing Advent Calendar 2016 - Adventar It is the 19th day.

a story about an engineer who didn't know what to do in PR for a year ,

to look back on
my year working in PR while also being an infrastructure engineer, focusing on the mistakes I made and the things I wish I had done I'd like to share this story with anyone who is excited about taking on PR.

What led me to work in public relations?

First, let me explain why.

so we often work with
lesser-known companies we wanted to branch out in more different directions, so that's what
prompted us to start up a web marketing team.

I was originally interested in marketing and had been running a blog on my own, so
I joined the Web Marketing team (just because I wanted to use it).

Please also check out my personal blog:
http://saiut.com

So I started working in public relations as a side job in addition to my original job as an infrastructure engineer

What I did

As part of my web marketing, I have done things like blogging and holding study sessions, but
as a public relations professional, my main focus has been on press releases.

That being said, to be honest, what we do isn't anything new, so
for our 10th year, we wanted to create something that would be useful to society and also make people say "Wow!" So here is the service we came up with.

"A new service aimed at female high school entrepreneurs! 'JK Startup Lab' is completely free for one year"

This is the first time I've written a press release here.
For female high school students who want to start their own businesses, we offer a service that rents out servers completely free of charge for one year.

So, now that you've made it, you're left wondering what to do with it

Ask a press release distribution agent

You want to spread the word about your new service, but you don't know where or how to do it...
That's the problem. First of all, you don't know how people distribute press releases. Of course,
you can post them on your company's website, but that means the only people who will receive them are those who have viewed your website.

So, I used a "press release distribution agency."

I tried using @Press

A first in Japan! A new service aimed at female high school entrepreneurs! "JK Startup Lab" is completely free for the first year and will launch on May 25th | Press Release Distribution Service [＠Press: AtPress]

If you ask a press release distribution agency to distribute your release to the various media outlets they have partnered with,
the advantage is that it's more likely to catch attention.
@Press, which I used, distributes to 8,500 media outlets.
The disadvantage is the price. @Press costs 30,000 yen per press release distribution.
If you have your own list, you'll need to send emails, but that's free. You
'll need your own list, though.

By broadcasting JK Startup Lab,
Beyond was featured in various media outlets and received its first interview from a high school girl.
"JK Startup Lab" was interviewed by a high school girl! | Beyond Inc.

We have also had the opportunity to provide support.
"Rather than going to university, I'll try to do it myself first" - We interviewed a woman receiving support from JK Startup Lab | Beyond Inc.

Connect with people who work in public relations

Of course, by using a press release distribution service, you can get exposure in various media, but it
didn't go beyond that... To be honest, I didn't know what else to do.

There's no doubt that issuing press releases is one of the jobs of public relations, but
if you rely on a press release distribution agency, you won't be able to connect with people in the media.

Or rather, I don't know how to "connect with people in the media"..

So the next thing I did was to connect with people working in public relations.
the Kansai Public Relations 100 Study Group is held regularly,
mainly by volunteers I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in this group, and through the connections I made there, I was able to get featured in Nikkei MJ.

If we can increase our horizontal connections in public relations, we will also increase our connections with people in the media, and
we will be able to introduce each other to each other by saying things like, "A certain media outlet is looking for companies that do this kind of thing."

I had the opportunity to speak with the president of a company that puts a lot of effort into public relations.
He said that public relations activities are like sales, and that they involve meeting with the media many times to build relationships of trust.

I agree with that, and horizontal connections are important in the workplace.
On the other hand, I honestly feel like it's just sales.

Things I wish I had done better

Now that I've been working as a public relations officer for a year, there are certainly things I wish I had done more of

Be proactive about what you're going to do

I wish I had thought more about things like, "We're doing such interesting things!"
Server operation and maintenance work is not visible to the general public, and it's not exactly a job that gets a positive media response.

has seen some success,
such as an increase in inquiries and resulting work we cannot say that we have been particularly successful in terms of public relations activities, such as getting exposure in various places, and it is true that when we were featured in Nikkei MJ, I thought, "Isn't that just one of our goals?"

, I think we need to come up with a plan within the company on how to get exposure in various places and

One option might be to consider a BtoC service

Show up in various places

As my work as an infrastructure engineer became busier, it became difficult to do public relations activities, and I
realized that the problem was that I just had to wait.

although I've been looking into events to connect with other PR people

I think I need to get more exposure to this next year.
As I wrote above, this is a job that is hard for the general public to see and explain, so I
think I should work even harder.

summary

After working in public relations for a year, I got the impression that I just went ahead without knowing
what to do. There was no "how it should be," so I moved forward without knowing what the right answer was.

I'm used to writing output because I run a personal blog, so
I like writing press releases, but I'm

so I sometimes think that if the sales team were to make appearances at various places,

However, I also think that my horizons will broaden, so I hope to be able to continue to ``output my own ideas'' properly!