Farzana Baduel, Co-founder and CEO of Curzon PR, speaks to Rahul Joglekar and Matt Eastley in this special interview. She spoke about a range of topics, including what exactly is PR, best and worst things about the job and why there’s more than what meets the eye to PR professionals.
What exactly is PR?
What is PR, and how much of our perception of who works in the industry is shaped by common tropes and stereotypes we see in the media? Farzana says there are many misconceptions about PR, often because of TV programmes and movies that have crafted stereotypes. Also, news stories about unethical PR practices have shaped many people’s perceptions of the profession. In this clip she explains what the scope of PR is and why it’s actually quite different from what we see on TV.
Best and worst things about working in PR?
Best part of PR is that you can meet incredible people especially if you work in London. This city is a centre of excellence for PR. The reason why many clients come to London is because of the UK media. This country’s media has an outsized global influence. Think of the BBC, the FT, the Economist, Times etc. We have to step up our game as PR professionals also because of this.
The negative aspect of working in PR is that you are “always ON”. You can’t really say to a crisis – sorry, I am on annual leave can you come back another day. That has an impact on mental health and, as a result of this, PR can be one of the most stressful professions. She explains more in this clip:
Trends in PR #Journalists #GenZ and #Purpose
The influx of journalists into the PR industry has helped professionalise it, give it an edge and bring a ‘mission mindset’. The PR industry has often been called (sometimes jokingly) as ‘the dark side’. Many journalists have have come into the profession with a much more mission-orientated mindset and they’ve brought with them the essential skill of storytelling and importance of authenticity. That combined with the influx of Gen Z, in the past few years, has seen more attention being focussed on the triple bottomline – it’s not just about profit but also about planet and people. She explains more in this clip:
What’s is like pitching stories to journalists?
Got a story as a PR professional? Pitching it to a journalist can be tough. How can you get it right and what are the traps to avoid? Farzana says that sometimes clients come in and demand to send a story to the FT (or another outlet) asking if you have a relationship with a certain journalist. But the reality is that quality journalists don’t really care about your relationship with them. The questions that matter are: is it a good story? Is it relevant? Is it on my beat? Are the he experts you are pitching credible? Journalists won’t sacrifice their reputation at the altar of doing a PR a favour. Farzana shares some top tips here for managing relationships with journalists:
Why does internal communications matter?
Internal communications wasn’t on my radar until COVID. But after the pandemic, my clients were all of a sudden hyper-focussed on internal comms. COVID has created a culture where people are working remotely, colleagues may be coming into the office on different days, and there may be fewer water cooler moments. So how do you build culture and that competitive edge? That’s where internal comms comes in. Also, Farzana discusses another reason why internal comms is so important: