In Your Shoes - Alan Morrison

Monday

Monday started, as every work day does for me, with switching on my phone at 6am to read the latest news on the BBC News website.

I’ve been a ‘news junkie’ since I was a teenager, but since I became a journalist in 1987 and a Public Relations professional in 2011 staying in touch with breaking news and the day’s national and local news agenda is an essential part of the job – looking for how you can contribute to the conversation. As a PR that means spotting opportunities for your clients to be part of that conversation and pitching journalists at relevant publications to have your client comment or be featured in order to put them in front of their target audiences as an expert in their field. This kind of ‘Reactive PR’ is something we prepare pitches for – to send ASAP when the opportunity arises because it’s highly competitive, with many other PRs doing the same and journalists looking to choose the best available quickly.

Once breakfasted, reading The Courier print edition while I eat, showered and dressed, I go for a half-hour walk to get my body and mind stimulated and let ideas for the day’s challenges surface from my subconscious into my conscious mind – part of good creative practice.

The work day began at 8am with reading daily business and media newsletters followed by scheduling emails to journalists with the news release from a client about their latest achievement. Knowing who to send certain stories to, when and what time of day is vital tacit knowledge people who understand the value of professional Public Relations are happy to pay for because of the better outcomes it provides than the ‘spray and pray’ (sending to everyone) I see journalists complaining about on social media when they’re sent something irrelevant to their patch, subject, title, or all of those. They get literally 100s of PR emails a day, so ensuring mine are always relevant to their audience and sent at a good time for them builds a strong relationship – so they’ll always at least read my pitches.

Every time I take a break between activities I’m checking the latest news.

Lunch (accompanied by the latest news on radio) is followed by sharing any client posts on X or LinkedIn, another 30-minute walk, news and email check and on to the afternoon’s activities.

If client work allows, I look to do at least an hour’s CPD every week to keep up to date with latest best practice and tools to help me maximise the benefit of my work to clients.

As a CIPR Accredited Practitioner I have to do enough every year to retain that status, but I always do more and use a combination of the CIPR’s high-quality learning resources and those provided by other organisations such as Google and PR service providers to augment the knowledge I gained on my CIPR Professional PR Certificate qualification.

Fact: only just over a third of people doing PR in the UK have a qualification in it – the rest have learned on-the-job from someone senior to them who may also not have been qualified. So there’s guarantee their practice is based on the evidence-based professional best practice taught on CIPR courses.

The afternoon ends with some engagement on LinkedIn (read and engage as well as posting is a good guide for all social – to build virtual relationships) and a trawl through the rest of the day’s emails for business, media and social media news to share on my social and send useful information to clients.

After Dinner (accompanied by the 6pm news on Radio 4), I check for client posts on X to share, engage with others on there, Threads, Instagram and Bluesky and then settle down for some relaxation over recorded TV shows with my wife.

The day ended, as it always does, with checking the latest news and, after 9.30pm, checking the following day’s national and regional front pages posted on X by a BBC News team with the hashtag #TomorrowsPapersToday for reactive PR opportunities for clients.

Tuesday

After the usual morning routine, the work day began with the Evaluation phase of media relations done for a client a month before.

Global best practice since 2010 says every piece of communication should have SMART Business and Communication Objectives – what you want to happen as a result of it. They should be agreed with whoever is paying for the activity and then measured at least at the end – to see if the work achieved the Objectives set.

They should be things the business or organisation targets and measures itself, not just communication Outputs such as media coverage or social media post Views or Impressions and be measured with relevant metrics compliant with Barcelona 3.0 Principles - the global gold standard for communication measurement and evaluation of communication.

One of the ways I often do this is by analysing the data in the Google Analytics for the client’s website for the period after some media relations was published – to see if it led to desired activity there and if it can be attributed to the work I did. Other Business Objectives often include sales enquiries or actual sales, which I get data on from the client.

After a break and quick news check, I drafted a news release for a client based on the information they’ve sent in reply to my questions.

News writing is very formulaic, but one of the keys to media relations is understanding whether and why your client’s thing will be of interest to their target audiences and therefore of interest and relevant to the media the audiences consume.

Ensuring the release communicates the key messages to achieve the Communication Objectives and will drive the action in the audiences you want to achieve the Business Objectives agreed - e.g. website visit or book for the event – without it reading like a sales pitch is a subtle skill. Done well, journalists should be able to copy and paste your release and have readers think they wrote it. Win-win. 23 years as a journalist and 13 in PR helps.

Final job of the day was a monthly catch-up call with a client – to talk about how they and their business are doing, the progress of potential media or social stories we’ve identified in previous calls and anything new. I often suggest things they can do themselves or contribute to ideas for marketing they’ll do in-house as my role is to give best advice, not just that I can profit from.

Wednesday

Wednesday started earlier than normal as I had media coverage to check for and collate into the first Coverage report for a client – listing the coverage across Print, Web, Social, Email and Broadcast.

If I’m expecting local radio news coverage, this starts with checking the 7am news bulletin before using tools to check for print and online media coverage and then check their social channels and email newsletters, reporting on it all with figures for actual and potential Reach. I aim to send the client the first report by 9am and advise them on sharing it on their Social so as to gain maximum benefit towards the Objectives set.

After lunch and my usual walk I check for more online coverage (many titles publish planned stories through the day) and associated Social and send the client an updated report. In a month’s time I’ll then do the ‘Summative’ (final) Measurement and Evaluation against the Objectives set and report on what was achieved.

Each day is usually a mix of projects at different stages and it’s always satisfying when a client reports that work I’ve done has made a big difference to their business. Adding another client Recommendation to my 29 to date on LinkedIn is the cherry on the cake when that happens.

Thursday

Thursday’s work often starts with reading the Angus County Press and Fife Free Press to keep in touch with local news and coming things in these counties where many of my clients are based.

Although they aren’t typically read by as many people as regional newspapers, local papers can still play a valuable role in your marketing and PR and I subscribe to them to support them because I spent four years in leadership roles in local papers as well as gain professional benefit from them.

It also allows me to keep track of staff holidays or changes – churn in media is higher than it used to be – so next time I’m pitching them I can send to the right person. It also lets me see what content changes they’ve made and if they open up new opportunities for clients.

The rest of the morning was spent writing a blog for a client. Many of them are too busy running their business to do it themselves, but if they give me the topic, key messages and their take on them I can draft it for them, saving them time and ensuring it’s as readable for their target audience as possible, while also reflecting their wider business messages.

After lunch, I went to a client’s premises to take a photo for an upcoming news story. I’ve always taken my own pictures as I’ve been a passionate photographer since I was a teenager and know from my 23 years working in papers what kind of images get their attention and prominence and how to take them with my professional-spec gear – to ensure high-quality images to represent their brand better than a phone pic. I also shoot broadcast-quality news-style video if their target media would use it for the story concerned.

One of the ways I use AI tools ethically and safely in my work is to generate an image of a proposed PR shot for a client – to get their approval for the idea in advance and any feedback which would improve the shot we take.

Once I got home I picked the best shots, optimised them in Adobe Lightroom and added captions, keywords and copyright information into the relevant IPTC metadata fields – so when media drop the ones they want into their content management systems they have all the information they need and the pictures will be archived correctly for future reuse.

Friday

Friday started with The St Andrews Citizen and news emails before another client monthly catch-up call. I avoid going out on a Friday in case a client has any urgent unexpected work for me to do before the end of the day.

If I haven’t any other client tasks to do, I try to get my weekly admin done before lunch.

In the afternoon, I curate potential social media content from that day’s emails and schedule the next week’s planned posts across LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook and Instagram. At least half of my weekly Facebook posts are sharing clients’ posts to improve their reach, which I don’t charge for as I see it as part of the relationship and a thank you for their business as well as boosting their reach.

I always include #ad to comply with the law and CIPR guidance – to flag that I have a “value exchange” with the person or organisation whose post I’m sharing. Professional ethics is part of being a professional and doing the right thing is a personal value too.

Saturday and Sunday

While I don’t normally work at the weekend, it’s in the nature of my work as an event photographer that I have to sometimes. And process and deliver the images as soon as they need them, often by the next day or two.

Also, if a client has media coverage in a weekend publication, I’ll collate and report on it in the usual way – because they, quite rightly, will want to see it ASAP.

Apart from chores and family things, I often listen to educational podcasts as I’m doing low-concentration tasks to develop myself and my practice. As well as comedy ones – I am human!