First impressions are powerful. When you are introduced to a new colleague, client or agency, the first exchange with an individual can forever shape the way you’re viewed by that person. Once made, opinions may be impossible to change, even if time and experience should theoretically sway them. In the corporate world, old habits may hurt others’ opinions of you. Worried about your reputation? There are some steps you can take to help improve your professional image in the coming year.
In this week’s Friday Five – an analysis of the week’s biggest public relations and business news and commentary – we’ll examine five ways you can improve your reputation as a professional. We’ll take a look at an interesting way to boost productivity, how to polish your mobile email etiquette, tips to improve your content distribution and rules for texting during work hours. We’ll also discuss automatic email pitches and their effect on your reputation as a public relations professional.
The New Habit Challenge: Boost Productivity by Ending Every Workday at the Same Time (Fast Company)
PR professionals—there is only so much coffee one can drink. Beyond caffeinating, what can you do to increase productivity? Journalist Brigid Schulte suggests leaving work at the same time each evening to become more productive. According to Fast Company reporter Rachel Gillett, Schulte believes that you will become more motivated throughout the day if you force yourself to leave at a certain time.
What if you still have something on your plate? Gillet explains the thought process, according to writer Belle Beth Cooper: “But what happens when your time is up and you’re in the middle of a task? According to Cooper, stopping while you’re in the midst of a task could actually work to your benefit. Many famous writers like Ernest Hemingway and Roald Dahl stopped writing mid-sentence or mid-paragraph, which made it much easier for them to pick up the pen again the next day.”
Do you agree that these actions can improve your productivity? Read the full article and let us know in the comments below.
7 crucial tips to refine your mobile email etiquette (Mashable)
Between autocorrect, quick fingers and finicky phones, mobile email can be both a blessing and a nuisance. While most people tend to understand minor typos from mobile email, you don’t want your email to be riddled with embarrassing mistakes. Mashable reporter Jillian Kumagai compiled advice and several tips to ensure you leave a good impression, including:
- Subject lines and greetings still count
- Clean up Links
- Consider whether mobile is the best medium.
Visit Mashable for the full list.
Why No One’s Reading Your Marketing Content (Harvard Business Review)
You’ve done your research and you know what your target audience wants. Your content is smart, succinct and valuable; however, nobody is reading it. How do you get your great content to your audience? One suggest by article author Jayson DeMers, is to optimize your content for search and mobile.
DeMers explains: “This step is essential. According to one study, search contributes about a third of the traffic that websites receive. The principles of good search-engine optimization (SEO) must be applied to every piece of content as you create it, not just after-the-fact, in the metadata. Also create content with mobile in mind. Think carefully about how the length of your message, the formatting, visual elements, and links will shape user experience. The better the experience, the more likely customers are to stick around and absorb the message.”
Read all of DeMers helpful suggestions via the full article.
7 Essential Rules For Texting at Work(Time)
Just as email became a way for employees to communicate with one another, texting is increasing in popularity. However, while we may be used to proper email etiquette, text etiquette can be a gray area not quite understood. Time reporter Martha C. White offers her tips for texting for work, including:
- Ask first
- Keep it brief
- Abbreviate judiciously, spell correctly
- No emoticons
View the complete list by visiting Time.com.
Dear PR person who just sent me a robo-pitch: (Quartz)
Are you guilty of automating your email pitches to save time? It’s time to break that habit for 2015. This week, Quartz senior editor Gideon Lichfield shared an open letter to robo-pitching public relations professionals imploring them to stop with the automated emails.
Lichfield rightly points out that PR professionals should be treating journalists like human beings. He states: “We’re quirky people, journalists. Scratch that: We’re people. We have obsessions, blind spots, perspectives, framings. I like to cook and you like to cook, but I’m a carbon-conscious flexi-vegetarian and you basically don’t care as long as it didn’t have more than eight legs. He covers architecture and she covers architecture, but one of them is obsessed with green office buildings and the other won’t even look at it unless it has a wood frame, a cute family, and preferably a fascinating but terrible story about insect infestation.”
Read Lichfield’s entire letter and tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Rosanne Mottola is public relations manager for the Public Relations Society of America.