Do you feel like the ‘Public Relations’ umbrella is growing wider and wider, or not wide enough to cover the large list of responsibilities that fall under what you and your team do every day?
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
So how would you define what you do?
“My PR Perspective” is a series of blog posts where we’ll be asking our chapter members to give us their perspectives of PR because, even though it’s right in the middle of this professional development group’s title, there are several roles and careers that can contribute to this common goal.
Our first post in this series features Adam Cellini, a CWC-FPRA member since 2019.
What is your job title?
Content Coordinator (with Visit Sarasota County, the local destination marketing organization).
In a few sentences, describe what you do.
I sort of live between a digital marketing management and production role. I help strategize, create and deploy the daily social media content (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Trip Advisor) and content for our website (occasionally digital ads too). My daily duties range from writing, photography and graphic design to monitoring all of those social media channels and parts of our website where we encourage our paid partners (local businesses) to tag us and share their updates, like our events calendar. I also have the ability to assign some of these content projects to freelance individuals and companies in the area.
Unofficially, I’m one of two people in our office who understands how to edit our website through the Content Management System (CMS). So whenever there are questions internally about why something is where it is or if we can change it, I’m one of the people who gets the email.
How did you get to this point in your career?
I majored in communications in college because it suited existing skills (writing, public speaking), but I never really had a career goal. I thought I wanted to work in sports media, so I got a job at a local TV news station to get reps writing scripts and being on-air. I didn’t love the job enough to chase it the way you almost have to these days (having to move to different markets instead of promoting from within) so when my contract ended after three years, I was open to trying something else. Again, marketing seemed to suit existing/recently developed skills, so I took my current job with the hopes that I could continue my passion for storytelling, but finally focus on topics I enjoy (instead of car wrecks, crimes and other ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ stories).
Do you tell people you work in ‘PR?’ Why or why not?
No.
To be honest I actively avoided job openings for PR when I was looking because I didn’t want to be on the other side of the media relationship. I had worked closely with a lot of outstanding PR professionals while in news, but through it all I was always happier to ask questions than try to answer them.
Thankfully, we have a PR manager (fellow FPRA member Britney Guertin) who deals with the media requests for our organization. Sometimes I will help create content for a pitch, or help provide content for a media request, but I don’t feel like my job should be tagged as PR.
How would you describe an average public relations job?
I would describe the average public relations job as constantly creating and telling a brand’s story through press releases and impressions. Also, creating crisis strategies and determining on a rotating basis who should be the face and voice of the company when someone has to stand up and answer a question.
How is what you do different?
I feel like I support a brand message and voice, but away from the spotlight, and I kind of like it like that. I can help tell a good story, but I don’t have to always come up with the best way to spin a story or position a story in some sort of earned media that will reach an audience we want it to reach. One of our directors always uses the phrase “Content is king, but distribution is queen.” While I help distribute on the channels we own, I feel like my skills are far from suited to build the relationships necessary to distribute into those platforms that we don’t own.
What do you wish more people inside your organization understood about what you do?
I wish more people inside my organization understood what a big difference time and money can make on content, whether it’s an article or some form of photography. An unspoken rule in our industry seems to be “it’s better to be fast than good” because there’s either not enough time or manpower to create that vision we started with.
What do you wish more people outside your organization understood about what you do?
I wish more people outside my organization understood how much thought and effort goes into our social media strategy. My coworkers and I take a lot of pride in our social media efforts and feel justified in doing so, but it’s very difficult to try and explain the impact to stakeholders and others outside the industry.
How has CWC-FPRA been a positive part of your professional development?
I am most grateful to CWC-FPRA for giving me an opportunity to speak candidly with communications professionals in my region because it has provided more insight into my own career than I could have ever imagined. Sometimes you feel alone in your struggles, obstacles, failures, etc. at work, but there’s something extra helpful about being able to share and receive feedback from others with similar experience in the same geographic vacuum. As someone who switched industries, I truly view these members as mentors and it makes me excited to attend workshops and other FPRA events where I can receive some fresh perspectives I trust.
If you would like to be featured in a future profile, please email us at info@cwcfpra.com.