4 PR Tips from NASA’s Lisa Malone
UF PRSSA was honored to have guest speaker Lisa Malone, the director of public affairs at NASA, speak about her experiences and share some of her wisdom. Malone spreads awareness across the country of NASA’s latest projects, launches, live shots and more through both traditional and social media. Malone was a journalism major and wrote for her university’s newspaper, started as an intern for NASA and got hired afterwards.
Here are 4 public relations tips that Malone suggested for college students entering the real world:
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Internships. Internships. Internships!
Launch your college career with an internship; it’s all about the real-life experiences you have rather than learning something in a classroom. Recruiters want to see that you can apply what you learned in a professional setting.
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Always come prepared.
Anytime you have a meeting during an internship or a job always come prepared! Be ready to deliver the right answers and ask the right questions.
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Be professional and don’t lose your cool.
When working with the media, everyone has some deadline whether it’s at noon or midnight. There are times when you will be asked the same question multiple times as well as questions that may be out of line. Having patience is crucial to working in such a fast paced environment like this as well as acting professionally.
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Establish a rapport with the media and develop a good list.
Get to know the fellow reporters, bloggers etc. Find out who they are and be sure to keep in touch with them by responding to their emails or phone calls. When they call up to ask to get an interview, interview THEM.
- Who do they want to talk to?
- What’s their angle?
- Do they need any press release information or photos?
It’s always a good thing to establish solid relationships with professionals you’ll be working with in the future.
Be sure to check out NASA’s upcoming unmanned flight test for spacecraft Orion on December 4th 2014.