3 Pearls of Wisdom from HubSpot’s Rachel Sprung
This a post from our weekly series, Mentorship Month, where BUPRSSA students interview mentors in the PR field.
I recently had the chance to speak with Rachel Sprung, a BU PRSSA alum, who is an Events Coordinator working in the Brand and Buzz team in the Marketing department at HubSpot. Her responsibilities include creating and managing HubSpot’s presence and planning the local and national Hubspot Summits, Hubspot’s two big annual events for its customers.
The Falsified Definition of a ‘PR Girl’
This article is an opinion piece in response to the PR Week article The New Face of ‘PR Girls’.
The stigma the media gives to ‘PR Girls’ completely overlooks the vast majority of female PR professionals and aspiring professionals in today’s corporate world.
I can admit that while trying to figure out what I wanted to major in at the collegiate level, I chose to major in public relations because I wanted to live the glamorous life of Samantha Jones. Let’s face it, what 17-year-old girl wouldn’t want to live in New York City and live the glamorous life she had?
However, after I entered Boston University, I quickly learned that the media has painted a falsified picture of working as a successful public relations woman. While there are many women who work and live like Samantha Jones, the majority of female PR professionals are not uppity and materialistic–they are incredibly passionate about what they do.
PR Week recently came out with an article titled The New Face of ‘PR Girls’, that touches upon the fact that the portrayal of ‘PR Girls’ is far from accurate. Author Audrianna Giulani said “the ‘PR girls’ that rule today are more likely to worship hashtags than shoes.” Giulani very accurately points out that, ‘PR girls’ of today thrive off of tweeting about the latest and greatest thing.
The ‘PR Girl’ I now respect is a woman who has made herself into a brand. She tweets about things she is passionate about and is up-to-date with the majority of PR and social media trends. I feel that the stigma placed upon ‘PR Girls’ undermines the talents that we have. The phrase ‘ PR girl’ devalues the hard work that women in the public relations field do. PR women are those who work hard to produce the best best results they possibly can–not ‘PR girls’.
Although I have yet to enter the work force, I know that the falsified image of ‘PR girls’ that is depicted in media is not who I am. As I continue to further my endeavors in public relations I look forward to making a brand out of my name, which is in my mind much more important than living the glamorous “Samantha Jones”-lifestyle.
Do you believe that there is a false stereotype of a typical PR girl?
Unleashed PR presents Of Rags (OR)
Some of you have seen the mysterious ‘OR’ black and white stickers all over campus. They’re pretty much sneaking all over campus. But what exactly does OR stand for and what does it have to do with PRSSA?
‘OR’ stands for Of Rags – a fair trade fashion cooperative that has asked Boston University’s PRSSA Unleashed PR team to help them spread the word about OR. Working with Of Rags has been exciting and informative as the BU team and the OR team merged together to learn, exchange ideas, and motivate one another.
Not only did we learn a lot about PR in general, but we also worked on letting others know about Of Rag’s dream – a dream for future generations to make informed, valuable choices.
Here are 5 steps we took to help make the Of Rags campaign a success this semester:
- Define your client. After weeks of gathering everyone’s ideas and goals we came up with a mission statement: “We educate people through fashion. We believe that fashion influences the choices you make. Of Rags runs a peer education program about public health in the same community where we produce our clothes under fair trade conditions. This process is not one-sided. We choose to fashion a new lifestyle by questioning values. Wear the difference. –OR”
- Social media presence. Having a clear mission empowered the team to refine OR’s social media pages – making Of Rag’s goals tangible and quick to understand helped attract Facebook and Twitter followers while catching the attention of many BU students.
- Long-Term. We also worked together to craft some future, long-term ideas for Of Rags, including establishing campus ambassadors for various universities, starting with BU.
- Video content. We even worked on a video for the upcoming ‘OR’ college campaign – coming soon to a campus near you! We learned some PR basics when crafting a media kit for Of Rag’s Circle Connection school tour. The Circle Connection is just one of the many things Of Rags does to bring people together. In this case, children from different schools made shirts and sent them to Ghana along with a video. Ghanian children would then do the same all in ‘circle’ fashion.
- Event planning. Finally, our big break will show in an event held next semester where OR will be formally introduced to the BU student body.
The Unleashed PR team and the Of Rags have worked well together to promote inspiring dreams and a worthwhile cause. Working in Unleashed PR for BUPRSSA is a great way to hone your public relations skills before you get in the work world. If you’re not a member yet, you can learn more about joining here.
If you are really interested in Fashion PR…
There are plenty of students, who are interested in fashion PR at Boston University. However, if you are really interested in fashion public relations, there are certain things you should keep in mind.
You should be:
1. Prepared for long days and many hours. When starting off in the industry you will be expected to do a wide range of tasks for little pay. Many experts believe you can only learn the biz by jumping right in it. Be ready for anything and be able to adapt. If you survive this you should survive in the industry.
2. Looking for internships. Perhaps best would be an internship with Fashion Week. Internships will teach you things you cannot learn in school. Fashion PR expert, Kelly Cutrone, says “If you can cut it during fashion week, you can survive in the industry”.
3. Prepared to intern and gain experience from both agency and in-house PR. In-house PR is working for a single brand, in contrast to PR agencies who represents numerous brands. Both give you great exposure to the industy.
…And Understand: Read the rest of this entry
