First World PR Problems

Alex By Alex

I’ve been working in technology PR for quite a while now (I could say I have got the grey hairs to match, but I’ll blame that on my young children), and each working day continues to be different from the next. However, many of the problems or dilemmas we face as PRs remain the same. With that in mind here is a light-hearted look at some of today’s ‘First World PR Problems’.

Being a victim of your own success – to this day nothing beats getting a load of media coverage for a client and as our regular Coverage Cup updates show it is an area where we excel here at Spark. The obvious downside to this is that is can lead to more coverage reporting, which is often the Family Fortunes ‘top answer’ when it comes to being asked “what do you least like doing in PR?”

When 280 characters is too many – for years you have managed to hone your social media skills to distil the most complicated message into 140 characters, only for Twitter to then extend its character limit to 280. Not hitting the new character limit now feels almost a waste (to this very day I still haven’t managed to hit 280).

What to wear? – it is fair to say that at Spark we are pretty liberal when it comes to what to wear to work (respectable pics can be found here), with us having ‘dress up’ rather than ‘dress down’ days. That is not to say when it is the day of a client meeting or event there isn’t much debate on what to wear. Shoes or trainers? Jeans or trousers? Dress or skirt? Tie or no tie? There is nothing worse than going to a meeting to find a client is dressed down only for you to be suited and booted – we’ve all been there!

Too much food and drink at Christmas – a hardship I know, but Christmas more than any other time of the year is hard work on the stomach and liver. So many client and journalist lunch/drinks, but so little time – the same day lunch and dinner combo is one that still fills me with dread (and food & drink).

Explaining what you do – you’d expect working in the communications industry we’d have a slick answer when asked “what do you do?”, but then often what comes out is “something in the media”. Either that or people have a preconceived idea of PR that is based on Absolutely Fabulous or The Thick of It. Generally, B2B tech PR isn’t daily champagne and spin doctoring – well not most of the time anyway!

This is only a selection and I did have to edit out a few of the more ranty suggestions from the Spark office. Yes, the price of London beer is more expensive and yes, the quality of celebrities turning on the Oxford Street Xmas lights is progressively worse. However, it would be great to hear your ‘First World PR Problems’.