Hi there,
It’s the fifth issue of Work in PRogress and I’ve realised, that in all the pandemic-related madness, I have not even told you guys what being a work in progress means to me.
Being a work in progress, for me, is all about making continual, little steps to improving myself – whether that be trying to learn more about SEO or management skills to be better at my job, or working on how to be kinder to myself. But ultimately, I feel that being a work in progress, is about feeling comfortable in the fact that I’m never quite the finished product.
When I started in my first job after leaving university, I realised I was feeling completely insecure, obsessed with claiming my own work in order to make a good impression. I was panicking, because unlike my life up until that point, there was no set path, metrics, or grades for me to mark my progress against.
However what I’ve learned in the last year or so, is that if I strive to build the happiest life I could possibly have, and build goals that aim to serve that happiness, then the rest is usually going to follow.
This is because using a list of generic tick boxes to measure my success (eg. pay rise, promotion, money and fame), without thinking about what this actually meant for me and what I want, was never going to leave me feeling fulfilled. I would’ve always been chasing that next tick in the box, without even considering why it was on the list in the first place.
These days, I base my measures of success around my personal happiness. I have a job that I love and feel super fulfilled by, yet I know that there’s loads of room for more learning and improvements – something I love as someone who thrives on being challenged, and has a serious penchant for personal development and mindset books.
And so, to me, being a work in progress is being happy with what you’ve got, while knowing there are always little tweaks to be made. I will always have goals that push me out of my comfort zone, and give me something to work towards, but actually, if you took these goals away, I’d be pretty happy with what I’ve got right now.
So there you have it, that is what being a work in progress means to me. Cheesy, life story speech over – now on to the campaigns!
Stay safe and enjoy this issue!
Abi x
Issue #5 – Fave PR Campaigns
My fave PR campaigns from the last two weeks…
- IKEA never disappoints with their marketing, and they’ve done it again with a really simple, but effective content campaign in which they share easy-to-follow instructions on how to build furniture forts at home.
- I LOVED this in-genius concept and brilliant design by Kirsten King at Buzzfeed, which depicts what the dating profile of Disney princesses would look like. (Side note: The news of the closure of BuzzFeed UK is tremendously sad, and the journalism from the team will be sorely missed.)
- So I might be biased here because this coverage was secured by Team Digitaloft (you gotta back yourself right?), but I loved diving into the search data last week to see how much a range of search terms including ‘mens neck chains’ have increased since Connell’s silver chain graced our screens, our hearts and the internet. Love Connell, love the neck chain, love the quick-thinking reactive piece from our team!
- With everyone going mad for ‘Animal Crossing’ (and me considering buying a Nintendo Switch every single day), I thought this campaign by ‘Olivia’s’ in which people can hire interior designers to transform their virtual home in Animal Crossing was super topical (and probably received a lot of genuine interest!).
- Speaking of topical, I also really enjoyed this campaign by Kaizen, which compares the different film and TV streaming services and breaks them down by number of titles and genres available, as well as looking at the impact COVID-19 has had on streaming.
- Finally, I loved this visualisation of movies in one figure shard by Gisele Navarro. The design is so gorgeous, and I love the concept of this.
Develop your skills..
Learn something new and discover useful resources this Friday morn with my fave tips, tricks and informative articles from the last fortnight:
- A really great thread from Chloe Hutch which includes some top tips from a whole boat load of digital PRs, on how to write a killer press release and/or pitch e-mail.
- A seasoned pro at consistently landing top tier coverage using reactive PR, Will Hobson shares his top tips on how to build links via news-jacking.
- I loved this article, shared by Shannon McGuirk which is a really relatable and useful guide on weathering the emotional storms of a crisis. A great read for both individuals and team leaders.
- I loved Jessica Pardoe’s ever-astute blog on whether TikTok will be the next big thing in influencer marketing, as someone who is completely in awe of how much the app has exploded since lockdown, and partial to an hour (or five) of TikTok watching on the weekends…
- Having really enjoyed the last couple of JBH webinars, I wanted to share this page, which details some upcoming digital PR webinars hosted by Jane Hunt – the next one is taking place next Tuesday where Jane will be speaking to Ashley Kirk, Senior Data Journalist at The Telegraph.
This issue’s Work in PRogress – Ruth Barrett
This week’s Work in PRogress is the wonderful Ruth Barrett, Senior Digital PR Manager at Evolved Search. Read the full interview with Ruth on my blog, linked below.
And that’s it!
Please direct all feedback, suggestions and any events, training courses or campaigns you think should be included in this newsletter to:
📩 abigailebennetts@gmail.com 📩
And catch up on other issues of Work in PRogress here.
Abigail Emily Bennetts 