Beginning to study Public Relations as a new profession does get challenging; it only gets easier with understanding, passion and inclination towards the subject. Whatever career you choose, first studying the profession and eventually experiencing it will help you to grow. Similarly studying Public Relations is not about just taking notes and giving exams, it asks for a lot of practice and practical experience.

Follow these 8 practices to make studying public relations easy and become the best PR professional  –

1. Get the basics right

Studying PR starts by first getting the basics of the subject right. One should know the basics about Public Relations, PR terminologies, scope of PR, challenges, importance, strategy and more. Refer to good textbooks and other books on Public Relations that help you with the basics. Being familiar with the basics will make the PR journey further easier. Knowing the PR lingos and definitions, and having a clear understanding about the subject will give you confidence to further communicate and build connections in industry.

2. Campaigns and case studies

Learning from others is the best way of learning. Case studies are the in-depth analysis of the events. It helps you to understand how a problem is solved under a particular situation, what are the challenges, etc. Studying the case studies broader your understanding about the concepts and teaches you how to think and act in particular situations or crises. So one must read about the work done by others in the Public Relations field to learn from it.

3. Write blogs

A PR professional is expected to be really good in written and verbal communications. So practicing writing is a must. PR professionals understand the power of rich vocabulary. But this comes with only practicing. Hence, while you are studying PR, it is a must for you to build a habit of writing every week and eventually every day. Writing also helps you to refine your thought process, share your opinion and sharpen your communications.

4. Reading habit

For starters, reading helps you to open your mind and gives you more ideas. Like writing, this also helps you with increasing your vocabulary, understanding the subject and more. But most importantly for a PR Student reading helps you gain knowledge and understanding about media. Read newspapers, books, blogs articles; to know what kind of news and articles gets covered by what media. To study the behaviour of the media and journalists it’s important to keep reading. This knowledge further will help you to get right coverage for your clients.

5. Join a online PR community or group

At student level one should join such groups to get career guidance from experts, knowledge, early exposure and experience. Other benefits of being a part of such groups are that you can meet or be friends with like minded people who are on the same journey as you are, at the start of your career you get focused, build a network, get a chance to interact with the experts of PR and much more.

6. Start with doing your PR first

To learn something faster, one must begin with self. In this digital age it is easy to put yourself out there. This can be done by – being actively present on social media, sharing your opinions and ideas on blogs, connecting with PR fraternity on social media and more. In short you should first build your own reputation with the use of different available platforms.

7. Learn required skill sets to stay updated

You can not grow by just knowing what Public Relations is. There are a number of skill sets that you must learn and practice along with studying Public Relations. These skill sets will be – communications, Research, creative thinking, digital know how, social media, interpersonal skills and more. These skills have to be adopted while you study Public Relations.

8. Take internship experience

Gaining work experience not only increases your employability but also gives you immense confidence to implement what you have learned. It also gives you an understanding of how the PR industry works, the ecosystem of the organization and more. 

So if you are a PR student or someone who wants to study Public Relations, you must follow these 8 practices that will make studying public relations easy. This will give you an edge over other students.

Happy learning!