PR-Bridge

One of my top students graduated with a 4.0 grade point average and a list of accomplishments longer than his arm. He moved away from Tampa and landed a job with one of the biggest PR firms in the world. By all accounts, he is a future superstar and leader of this industry.

I spoke to him recently, after he logged about six months on the job, and asked a simple question, “What did we not teach you or not teach you well enough?” The answer (right on the money): how to pitch.

My former student is an insightful guy. How to teach pitching is one of those topics that professors agonize about. Personally, I spend way too much time trying to think through the subject and come up with a way to impart that knowledge to students. In some ways, I think that the only good way to do so might be by having students make pretend pitch calls. However, that would be difficult, given the number of students and existing resources.

As a result, I try to explain pitching as relationship building and urge students to find internship/practicum experience where they will get pitching experience. The classroom aspect focuses on how to interact with journalists, how to manage the relationship, what a practitioner should and should not say, and other kinds of skeletal info about the process. Luckily, there are usually at least two to four students in the class (out of 18) who have pitched and by drawing their stories out of them, a good discussion ensues.

In the end, if I can get students to understand the relationship building aspect of pitching and help them see that this is one of two ways (the other writing) that they will immediately be judged/evaluated on the job, then I feel I have added value. However, that internship exerience is crucial and I let them know that right up front.

I think a broader discussion of how to teach pitching — from both the professional and academic points of view — would help us all understand a bit better. Please share your thoughts…