I Went to PRSA And All I Learned Was These 10 Things

By Aaron Blank

(Editor’s Note: Aaron actually learned quite a bit at PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference in New Orleans last week. This week, the Reinventing PR blog will feature several takeaways from the event. For more on the event, see below.)

1. Agencies and counselors with strong points of view break out of the hubbub. People are attracted to viewpoints. Clients want it. They expect it. Share your views online. Don’t be afraid to do it.
2. Generating new business might mean more speaking engagements, lunch-and-learns, offering up more online content, giving away free information on your website, and focusing on a specific industry.
3. Google Plus is the only social platform with a material impact on search engine results.
4. We all think we have the “secret sauce” but all we have is Thousand Island dressing. Customers just want the truth. Offer up your “secret sauce” and make it available online.
5. Growth is the number one problem marketing- and communications-service companies face. Make sure growth can be handled by your staff.
6. If the flag pole is missing from a golf course, the golfers will not find the hole. Show your staff the flag pole. Give them a vision and direct them to the hole.
7. Being different is attractive. People like new, innovative solutions that are different. Be different.
8. Agencies give people the ability to be entrepreneurs. Empower the entrepreneurial spirit.
9. If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. Enjoy the ride.
10. Create more content online. Answer questions. Become an “available” brand.

The Counselors Academy is a national professional-interest section of PRSA that facilitates peer-to-peer exchanges between senior-level agency executives regarding public relations agency management. Focusing on professional development, ethical standards and agency practices, Counselors Academy programs are designed to encourage networking, mentoring and peer support between principals and senior counselors of public relations firms.

Each year, the Counselors Academy hosts a national conference where agency leaders get together to discuss best and worst practices. This year it was held in New Orleans. Next year it will be Austin, Texas.