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 after registering for
Public Relations Marketing Advent Calendar 2016 - Adventar It's the 19th day.

As an engineer working in public relations, I would like to talk about a year in which I didn't know , and I would like to look back on the year in which I worked in public relations while working as an infrastructure engineer

focusing on
things that went wrong and things that I wish I had finally done. I would like to do so. I'm going to do publicity from now on! I would like to send it to those who are enthusiastic about it.

How I got into public relations

Let's start with the trigger.
At our company, we are in a BtoB and unsung role, so I often work at companies that are not well known to many people and are

introduced
by acquaintances or companies. I wanted to move in that direction, so I started a web marketing team.

I joined the web marketing team because I had always been interested in marketing and had been blogging on my own (as much as you want to use)

Thank you for your personal blog.
http://saiut.com

So, I started doing public relations work as a side job to my original job as an infrastructure engineer.

What I did

What I did as web marketing was blogging and holding study sessions, but
what I did as public relations was mainly press releases.

However, to be honest, what we are doing is nothing new, and
as we enter our 10th term, let's do something that is useful to society and that makes people think, "Wow!" Here is the service that I thought of.

“New service for high school girl entrepreneurs! “JK Startup Lab” completely free for one year”

This is my first time writing a press release.
I want to start a business as a high school girl! ! A service that lends a server completely free for one year to high school girls.

So, I made it, but what should I do?

Ask a press release distribution agency

I want to spread a new service to the world, but where and how should I go about it? I don't understand that at first. . .
This is it, isn't it? In the first place, people don't know how to distribute press releases.
Of course, you can also post it on your company's website, but then the only people who will receive it will be those who have viewed your company's website.

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

I tried using @Press

First in Japan! New service for high school girl entrepreneurs! 1 year completely free “JK Startup Lab” service starts from May 25th | Press release distribution service [@Press: @Press]

If you ask a press release distribution agency, they will distribute it to the various media they are affiliated with.
The advantage is that it is more likely to be noticed.
@Press, which I used, distributes to 8,500 media outlets.
The disadvantage is the price. @press costs 30,000 yen for one press release distribution.
If we had such a list ourselves, we would have to send it by email, but it would be free.
We will need such a list ourselves. .

By distributing JK Startup Lab, we were featured in various media and
received Beyond's first interview with a high school girl.
"JK Startup Lab" was interviewed by high school girls! | Beyond Co., Ltd.

Also, I have a good relationship with them and I am able to support them.
“Rather than go to university, let’s try it on our own first.” We interviewed women who are receiving support from JK Startup Lab | Beyond Co., Ltd.

Connect with people working in “public relations”

Of course, by hiring a press release distribution agency, you can get exposure to various media, but
it didn't spread any further than that. . Honestly, I don't know what else to do.

I think there is no doubt that publishing press releases is part of the job of public relations, but
if you rely on a press release distribution agency, you will not 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,
led by volunteers I had a chance to participate in this meeting, and because of the connections I made there, I was able to get my work published in Nikkei MJ.

If we can increase horizontal connections as public relations, we can also increase connections with the media, and
we can introduce each other by saying things like, ``A certain media is looking for a company that does this.'' Masu.

I had a chance to talk to the president of a company that focuses on public relations, and he
said that public relations activities are like sales, and that he has to meet with the media over and over again to build relationships of trust. He said he would go.

I think that's certainly true, and "horizontal connections" are also important in work.
On the other hand, I honestly feel like it's a sales job.

Things I wish I had done better

I've been working as a public relations officer for a year now, and of course there are times when I wish I had done more.

proactively announce what you are going to do

I wish I had thought more about things like, "I'm doing something interesting like this!!"
The work of server operation and maintenance is difficult for the general public to see, and it is not a job that is well-received by the media.

we have achieved certain results
such as an increase in inquiries and receiving work from them we cannot say that we have been successful No, and I'm sure that when it was published in Nikkei MJ, I thought, ``It's just one goal.''

, I think we need to work more internally on how we can "expose ourselves in a variety of places."

One option might be to consider services for B2C.

Show your face in various places

When I got busy with my work as an infrastructure engineer, it became difficult to do public relations activities, so I ended up
having to wait and see what happened, which was a big no-no.

even though I'm looking into events that connect me with other public relations professionals

I think we need to sell our face even more next year.
As I wrote above, it's a job that's hard to see and explain to the general public, so
I think we should be even more active.

summary

After working in public relations for a year, I got the impression that I went through it without knowing what was right and what was left.
There is no such thing as ``this is the way it should be,'' so I feel like I've been moving forward without knowing what the correct answer is.

I'm used to outputting things in writing because I run my personal blog, so I like
writing press releases and other things, but I'm
not good at doing things like sales, and I'm used to it in a lot of ways.
shows their face , it might lead to a job. That's what I think.

However, I also think that my range will expand, so I want to make sure to do my own output!