‘The best advice I’ve received about PR’

Thirty-five public relations professionals share the most useful or inspiring professional advice they’ve received over the years.

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The best piece of advice I received—and one that I still reference—came when I was fresh out of college and working at Edelman in Washington, D.C. The advice: “Public relations is a marathon, and not a sprint.”

That advice holds true today, but with the introduction of social media into our daily PR lives, the pace of the marathon has kicked up a notch. So maybe now we are running a 5K.

I was curious about the advice that has helped guide the careers of other PR practitioners, so I asked some of my industry peers to identify the best public relations advice they received and, if they met a new graduate who is about to do a cannonball into the PR pool, what would they tell them.

Here are 35 great pieces of advice—some I’ve heard, many I haven’t, most I’ll repeat:

1. “The best advice I ever got was from one of my college professors and I’ve carried it with me into my career: KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid.” – Elyse Petroni

2. “Unless you have a weekend event, or want to purposely bury a story, never pitch the press or send out a press release on a Friday.” – Kathleen G. Berzon

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