The MoPR Blog

Mobility PR’s own Melissa Burns was recently interviewed by PRSourceCode’s tech PR blog The Decoder, which highlights all things in tech PR, including the guys and gals that make the industry tick.

Melissa gave The Decoder insight into the tech PR world, how she achieved her professional goals working her way from account coordinator up the ranks to account director, before starting MoPR with three partners. The Decoder also revealed her pet peeves and her love for coffee (which I can safely say we share here at the Lake Oswego office).

Those starting out in PR should take specific note of Melissa’s response to the question “What is one thing that you know now that you wish you had known when you first started in PR?”

The people looking to hire you to do PR may not even know what public relations is or why they need it. This was startling to me when I first started out. In school you learn all about how to plan and execute PR programs and campaigns, but they don’t teach you how to sell the value of PR to a potential client who doesn’t know what PR is. Successfully articulating the value of a good PR program in terms that a potential client could understand was something I learned quickly and it made a big difference in my career. When I’m evaluating a potential hire for our agency I ask applicants to sell me on why a company needs PR. I’ve found that the best “PR salespersons” make the best employees because they are typically able to see the big picture; understanding not only how to do PR, but why to do it, and they understand that one size does not fit all. With this in mind they are able to make recommendations for strategies and tactics that are exactly what a specific client needs rather than what the client thinks they need.

Melissa has successfully launched numerous mobile technologies, from mobile browsers to in-flight Wi-Fi to VoIP apps, winning her recognition from the Business Marketing Association, League of American Communications Professionals, Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and the Public Relations Society of America, among others.

Perhaps I am biased but I feel very lucky to have such an inspiring and motivated mentor.

As always, keep an eye here for more from Melissa as well as the entire MoPR team. To read Melissa’s interview on The Decoder, please click here.

The work of PR professionals is changing dramatically, driven by rapid changes in how audiences (publics) are changing their media consumption. This presentation from Pew Research does an excellent job in explaining just what these changes look like, and provides a road map for intelligent PR practitioners to adjust how they approach the strategic communications:

Mobility Public Relations prides itself on its close relationship to people within the global mobility technology community. But one member of our team has been using her PR talents to promote causes important to our local community.

Stacy, our VP of Administration is the unsung heroine of our team, managing company finances, HR, facilities and all the day-to-day business items that keep a company operating. With her Ivy League degree in English, she’s also our Grammar Sheriff, managing the editorial review team that ensures all materials we produce are well-written and free from grammatical errors and typos. But when you work closely with your colleagues in fast-paced, hardworking agency, how can you not gain PR skills through osmosis?

This week Stacy managed PR for a school activity supporting the Lake Oswego School District Foundation, an organization that raises money for teacher salaries in our local school district. As her first ever PR outing, Stacy managed the whole process completely on her own: writing the press release, writing a contributed article, pitching the media, and getting reporters to the event. The event was not only well covered, organizers also said they benefited from the exposure which helped draw attention to the event, helping to raise thousands of dollars.

The event itself was brilliantly planned and executed by a team of well managed volunteers. But we’ll let the articles about the event tell that story.

• Oregon Live
• The Lake Oswego Review has yet to post the story online, but we’ll add a scan of it asap