Yesterday in PR Tactics II, Steve Staedler of LePoidevin Marketing talked to our class about B2B PR, Cision, and life as a PR professional. Steve works as a Senior Account Executive/Public Relations at LePoideven in Brookfield, Wisconsin. LePoideven is known for their work in the B2B marketing field. They to a lot of work with conveyor systems and animal health care. One of their top clients is Snap-On Tools.
Steve started off the presentation telling us about Cision: a software platform that, in summary, makes a PR professional's job a whole lot easier. CisionPoint finds Facebook outlets, magazines, and news outlets to help build media lists (like an online news room). You can also track the coverage of your stories using this software-- how cool!
Another tool useful in the PR world that he informed us of was Google Alerts. Google Alerts allow you to set up a profile on topics you want to be alerted of when there is activity. Steve sets up alerts for his clients, allowing him to monitor them.
One thing that I took away from Steve's presentation is the importance of being a good writer in the field of PR. With news releases, fact sheets, social media, white papers, speeches and copywriting being ever present, writing is a skill that will always be needed. He encouraged us to go out and get real world experience as a writer as a freelance writer, intern, or even volunteer to write an article at our school newspaper(The Royal Purple).
Altogether, Steve's presentation was very informational and personable. He truly was interested in our success and even offered us to connect with him for advice whenever we needed it. Thank you, Steve! I look forward to your help and advice in the future.
