If you have the ability to write, writing articles is an excellent means to obtain publicity, exposure, and eventual job offers. The topic that you select to write about is important. It must be relevant to your work. It could be an opinion about the best way to do things, a special technique or some method you have developed or adopted, or even a survey pertaining to your field. Some journals prefer shorter articles, some more extensive ones. The following books in your library will give you a list of publications that may be interested in publishing an article written by you.
It is important here that you write for the correct audience. Therefore, you should read very closely the description each publication gives of its readership. You want to write for a group of executives who have the authority to hire you. Therefore, writing for a general or an academic publication usually will be of little help. It is also important that your article be slanted for this readership. Before you begin to write, it would be a good idea to obtain a copy of the magazine that you intend to target.
The biographical sketch of yourself that you send with your article should identify you with the company that you are currently working for. It should also include other items in your background that will establish your expertise for writing the article. Remember, these things may interest PEs as well.
Making Speeches and Giving Seminars
Making speeches in your area of expertise is an excellent way of becoming well known as an expert in your industry and specialty and as a potential high-powered performer for any company. It is also a very easy way to publicize yourself, since there are many more organizations that need speakers for their luncheon, supper, or other meetings than there are speakers available to do the job. If you line yourself up for only one speech a week, and even if the group you address numbers only 20 people, in a year you will have made over 1,000 contacts who will recognize you as an expert in your field.
What subject should you speak on? Choose a subject that can demonstrate your expertise and that will interest as large a group as possible. For example, if you are an accountant and have some expertise on a certain aspect of corporate accounting such as corporate tax laws or how to accomplish zero-base budgeting, this may be a good area to speak on. If you are an engineer and have knowledge about design engineering, quality control, or some other technical area, this too may be of great interest to various groups.
A third way to start giving seminars is to contact organizations that specifically give seminars to executives. One example of this is the American Management Associations, which conducts seminars and courses all over the country on a continuing basis. Write to American Management Associations, 135 West 50th Street, New York, New York 10020, and ask for the current course catalog. From this catalog you will see various types of courses that are available. You may then contact the person in charge of the specific functional area you are interested in and volunteer to give a course in the area noted.
Active Memberships in Organizations
Being an active member in a number of organizations is another great way to gain exposure for career contacts. However, active membership means exactly that. It means you cannot just join an organization, but should go to its functions and, if possible, become an officer. These organizations may be professional such as the American Marketing Association, which has local chapters all over the country.
They could be related to the college or university from which you graduated, or they could even be social organizations of one type or another. All these are outstanding opportunities to make contacts. Even in an athletic club it would be unusual not to make friends and to know who is doing what. If you have the opportunity to become an officer in the organization, you can then demonstrate your leadership and management skills. Whenever you may need a new position in the future, you have the contacts ready and waiting who are already aware of your abilities.
Initiating Your Own Publicity Releases
Every major firm and a number of knowledgeable smaller firms give publicity releases to newspapers, interested magazines, and other publications whenever they can. This publicity usually results in additional business for them.
In the same way, you can initiate your own publicity releases for whenever you do something. This will demonstrate your ability, make you look good to your present boss, and also get you noticed by others in your field, who may then regard you as an expert. Now, you may be thinking, how can I give a publicity release on anything if I am working for a company that handles publicity itself? Most companies have a publicity department or at least someone handling this task. You may be able to persuade your company's publicity department to do an occasional release. This helps the company as well. But remember, the company's purpose is different from yours. The company's objective is to publicize the company, not to provide the personal publicity you are going to use to help you get a great job. Therefore, you shouldn't depend on your company's publicity department entirely, but should send out your own releases whenever something happens to you or you have something to say that (1) demonstrates expertise and (2) may be of interest to someone and would therefore be published by a newspaper, magazine, or journal of your industry.
What might the topics of such publicity releases be? Well, for one thing, if you succeeded in publishing an article or giving a speech, you might want to publicize something you said or wrote about if it is of interest to other people in your industry. You can then indicate that this was said during such and such a speech or in such and such an article.
This publicity will expand your opportunities for additional speeches and articles, as well as expose you to opportunities for a superior job. If you are doing something outside of work which has nothing to do with your current job but which is in the same field, publicity here will help you also. Perhaps you are an engineer and have designed something outside of work that does not interest your own company. A publicity release under these circumstances is perfectly legitimate, and it will gain publicity not only for your invention, but also for your expertise. At the same time, it won't offend the company that you are currently working for.
Writing a publicity release is not difficult. You simply write at the top of the page "For Immediate Release" and then go on to describe whatever it is that has happened that you wish to have publicity on. If you have a photograph of yourself to include with the release, this can sometimes be printed as well and will definitely help to publicize you and make more people read the release.
If you wish, you may use a cover letter with the publicity release, addressed to the editor of the magazine or newspaper, or the editor of the department in which you are seeking publicity. However, this isn't strictly necessary. A publicity release by itself can extremely effective as a single enclosure.
How do you know where to send your publicity release? One excellent source is Standard Rate and Data Service (or SRDS), which publishes a number of different directories periodically and can be found in your library. These include directories of business magazines, consumer magazines, and newspapers. There are literally thousands of publications available, so, again, you must seek your target market and send the publicity release only to those that serve your target audience of PEs who may be interested in hiring you at some time in the future.
Presenting Papers at Professional Meetings
Even attendance at professional meetings can boost your career, since it in itself is a method of exposure and contact with others who may have the power to give you the great job that you seek. However, a far better way is to present a paper at such a meeting, since, again, this establishes your expertise and also exposes you to many more people through your presentation than you would meet in the normal course of events at a conference or professional meeting. This is both a long-range and a short-range proposition. In many cases you can actually meet contacts immediately interested in hiring you for various positions. For the long range, many executive recruiters use conference papers and lists of attendees as sources for potential candidates for positions they are seeking to fill.
In summary, advertising yourself should be only an adjunct to your main campaign. But such a campaign can be an effective adjunct if you follow the following advice:
- If you are going to advertise in media, advertise in media that your PEs are likely to read.
- Make your ad a display ad, in effect, a mini-sales letter.
- Use the AIDA formula to construct your ad.
- List the telephone number and/or a box number.
- Prepare for your search for a superior job by using all five long-term means of advertising: writing articles, making speeches and seminars, active memberships in organizations, initiating your own publicity releases, and presenting papers at professional meetings.
