WHY COMMS SPECIALISTS ARE HEROES AND DESERVE TO BE CELEBRATED —By RIDWAN ADELAJA
Working in Comms is crazy. Here is why. You wake up like every other professional out there, and you are like… this is my to-do list. Yes, I am gonna smash it before evening.
But a minute later, you get about 4 notifications on your social mention/listening tools. Adrenaline rush. You take a quick look, and feel excited when they are excellent reviews. Excited, you take screenshots and share with your broader team to cheer them on.
“Guys, well done, we are doing good on paper.”
So, you continue with your day, but just when you are about to bury your head into your to-do, you get a call, or a text. Just in that split second, the world around you is on FIRE, and your attention is urgently needed.
YOUR NEW TO-DO: An unplanned press STATEMENT must be conceived and born in half a second. Yes. You can no longer continue with that breakfast you were having.
You swiftly dedicate a part of your head to understand the circumstance while the other half is already stitching words together for a response that journalists are wolf-waiting to consume because strong headlines must be pushed for traffic.
And, perhaps, because it is very urgent, you immediately reach for the last statement you issued and begin to modify it to fix for the new “fire on the mountain.”
For every line and sentence you construct, your phone beeps, “please send it NOWWWW. Let me see it. Are you done? How soon? It has to go right now. Call XYZ newspaper for placement.”
HAHAHAHAHA. Those of us that LIED in our CV that we could work under pressure would begin to tremble. Our poor to-do list is forgotten, and the war at hand becomes the almighty to-do.
Like the last time, you suddenly take the centre stage of the whole drama, carrying the weight of your organisation. Your shoulders literally ache, and you struggle to catch your breath under the load of responsibility.
With the torrent of calls and messages flooding your poor phone, you’re tempted to send the draft without sending to a copy editor for proofreading. But again, you remember “what is worth doing is worth doing well.”
You opt for something lesser, anyways. Your early experience in the newsroom kicks in. You try one of the self-editing skills your line editor taught you way back. You read out loud your draft, and hit SEND almost at the end of the last word.
Dear Comms specialists, hope you find time to celebrate yourself? May your anchor always hold. You’re a fire fighter, and your efforts deserve handsome rewards. So, keep “pressing.”
In pidgin, Public Relations sweet but na Crisis Management “keel” am. It can be overwhelming especially when you play in a large people-centred industry or sector.
But since it is the profession you have chosen, you should ordinarily anticipate the worst. And, this should be moderately reflected while planning your to-do for a day, week or month.
And, yes, you may also want to master the art of delegation, especially for responsibilities someone else on your team can fix. This way, you can free up spaces to accommodate emergencies.
So, yes, I celebrate you…
1. For every time your sleep was disturbed late into the night to respond to a breaking news story
2. For every weekend ruined by a crisis communications challenge,
3. For every holiday interrupted by a press enquiry, and
4. For every family dinner disrupted by a last-minute statement to draft.
Gentle men and ladies in PR, your dedication to keeping the narrative straight, the stakeholders informed, and the reputation intact doesn’t go unnoticed. If no one is celebrating you enough, I do.
_____________________
Culled from the linkedin page of Ridwan Adelaja
Ridwan Adelaja is a comms specialist and content strategist with over 7-years experience in PR and Advertising for government organisations, companies and African tech startups. His works can be found on Ventures Africa, Nairametrics, Ripples Nigeria, QuickNews Africa, Arbiterz, amongst others.
Ridwan currently serves as Media Aide to the Minister of Interior, Hon. (Dr.) Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
