Note from Carli: I always strive to discuss and learn about other's opinions both inside and outside the PR discipline. When the chance came to learn about PR in Bulgaria I thought I would allow others to learn too so invited Petya to write a guest post for my blog. Here, Petya N. Georgieva, a PR specialist and a blogger from Bulgaria gives her thoughts on what a young PR professional can bring to a business. You can check out her communications blog Higher & Higher or follow her on Twitter @pgeorgieva.
Young PR pros’ biggest assets: ideas, knowledge, initiative and passion
The PR profession is one of the most interesting jobs in the whole world.
I started discovering it in 2006 when I started my bachelor degree in Public Relations in Sofia University, Bulgaria. Considering that the PR profession has a pretty young history (no more than 15 years) in Bulgaria, it is interesting to think: Why did I choose PR in particular?
The truth is that I wanted to be a journalist since I was a child. With the time passing by, I noticed I was more interested in the process of “producing and creating” news rather than covering them. Communications and marketing are really interesting fields for me and after long research I realized that my career will be in the PR sector.
I was soon to discover that the PR skills are easier to understand in practice. I started working for PR agencies while I was in the first year at the university. It was a very useful experience. I was reading and studying at the university and practicing at work (which included experimenting, making mistakes, and working really hard).
As I’m from the young PR generation in my country and I’m following the international trends in PR, I regrettably notice that in Bulgaria traditional PR is still more often practiced than PR 2.0.
This can be easily explained, of course. As a former socialist country which is in addition pretty small as territory and population, Bulgaria’s market is small and young and in comparison to Europe, it is not so developed yet. It’s great to see that since 2001 things are rapidly changing and as a result the PR profession is becoming more popular. It’s nice to see also that some of the leading PR agencies in the state have already adopted the PR 2.0 tools and are providing highly professional services.
On the other hand, as a PR addict, I hope I will have the opportunity to explore the world of (international) public relations abroad, which means venturing out of my comfort zone. Moving away from one’s comfort zone is equal to gaining new knowledge. In addition, regarding the fact that the origins of the modern PR profession were in the USA and the UK, the both countries are my top two destinations for career development. At least, that’s my long-term vision on my future career moves. I’m sure that working for big markets is more different, offers different challenges for the PR pros and helps them learn different things. Here I should highlight that I know I’m aiming pretty high but ambition is what helps us to reach new horizons. Higher aims make us more ambitious and more constant in what we try to achieve. Higher aims lead to deeper knowledge and as consequence higher and higher achievements.#
Thankfully, social media channels are great supportive tools to get your name known no matter your current location or nationality. Just try to imagine the world without all these modern channels or without the tech revolution, which made it possible to present ourselves to wide groups of international publics and to stay constantly connected with them. And that’s my main message to all the young PR pros out there: your biggest assets are your ideas, knowledge, initiative and passion – and their power can be really amazing. And one of your biggest chances is to present your assets on the social web. This means: listening to the web, interaction, engagement, networking, etc. After all, it depends only on you to demonstrate your passion to communicate and ambition to learn more about PR. And if you can successfully promote yourself on the social web and build your own professional network of PR pros who know you and what you do, this will be your strongest point in your portfolio.
