A Glimpse into the World of a Publicist
As a Public Relations Specialist, the duties far exceeds that of a Publicist. However, specifically I’m going to share my day as a Publicist with everyone. I’m doing this because many people don’t know what a Publicist does, but most importantly do not know why they need a Publicist. The question of the day is…..
Are you ready for a Publicist?
Before I begin, this is what I do always ONLY at the beginning of each week. This sets the tone for the days ahead with strategic planning of projects, products, and so forth and to execute those plans of actions.
8:30 am ~ My client (Artist) calls me. We discuss what I need via song mp3’s for his upcoming campaigns. We briefly discuss what we need to do today when we follow up for a later call because we both need time to figure out our strategy and like to hear each others ideas and then we come up with an execution plan. I listen to the music he sends me so I can review it, provide my feedback and for use. I receive both versions…original and the radio-edited because he knows that I need both.
9:06 am ~ My same client contacts me to ask me a quick question before sending me more music. While I was in the middle of checking all of my business emails. (I have several because each email reaches the max in such a short time.)
9:15 am – I decided to do a blog about my day and so, here I am.
9:18 am – Designing the image for this blog post.
11:00 am – Checking all of my social media networking accounts for any engagement & to stay up to date on the specific industries, such as music, book publishing, and film. I respond back or take notes for future response.
11:06am – I see that my client responded back to me in regards to his BIO. I immediately stop what I’m doing to inform him that I have received his BIO headline (which I loved) – Sometimes my clients would like to use their own which is actually better for me. Coming up with creative headlines is never easy. LOL! I told the Artist Manager that I will do it now. I pull up his BIO, logged onto our Project Management Database and start the timer, make the change, and upload to Project Management to submit to him. The time is recorded, but this time is unmarked on the billable box because it took me less than 5 minutes to make the quick change, but still documented as making the change. It will show up under non-billable time. The rest of the content has already been completed, reviewed, and he is satisfied with my work and the creative direction that I took with it. We had minor edits, but nevertheless, the BIO is done and ready for use since the headline is changed. However, my client will still review the BIO in its entirety to check for any minor edits and, if not, I will receive confirmation that it is good to go. I informed him that I have just submitted the updated BIO to him. Now back to where I left off in going through all of my social media accounts as well as my clients. I have access to all accounts in order to run their campaigns, branding and image purposes.
A R&B artist that I have known for over 6+ years or close to it via in the past I hooked him up with a live radio show interview out of his city and this was actually the very first live radio show interview. We went to the location. He even had the chance to sing his newest song a Capella style and he nailed it! The radio show hosts absolutely loved him and wanted him to come back on their show. It’s one of those moments that artists do not forget and are grateful and appreciative for making it happen for them. Then years later in 2016 (or 2017, I forget) we reunited at an event in VA at a mansion for an artist showcase. I was invited as media to provide coverage and he was one of the performers with his rap partner. Their performance was HOT!!! Very creative, I must say! Well, getting to the point….he always sends me flyers to where he will be performing. i just found out the he is a featuring performer on an event coming up on the 30th of this month. All I can do is let him know that I received it, but not sure if I will be available to make it or not, but will keep him posted.
It’s awesome to see my client’s book is getting major feedback from her fans…via I’m connected to her new Facebook Author group page where she shared what her fan wrote! It was awesome, now her fan has me wondering….is my client going to write more books to keep the story going with the two main characters??? That remains to be seen so stay tune with that one. I download the fan image so I can share via social media from my end. I love when I see my clients are getting fan engagement from the work that they have done on their own. For now, I will quickly share on my Facebook personal page. I scroll down her group page back dated one week to see what she is promoting so I can piggy back it so to speak. Social Media informs me a lot on what my client’s are doing for their projects. I start taking notes on what I need to promote and I download the images for promo. (It is now 12pm) While doing so, I do a quick share to my personal Facebook page. I also post on my Facebook Group that I started for writers, authors, screenwriters, and filmmakers. She is promoting a prequel to her book, that was published at the end of August. I check the SEO to see where the book stands online so that I can know what needs to be done to get more exposure for the book through publicity. I jot down what I plan to do so later I can strategically do a roll out plan and execute it. Not to mention, she has a group on Facebook that needs to be promoted in order to gain more members. I’m sharing 2 clients with major videos and images real quick so I can keep tract on the up to date promo they are doing. So I’m doing a lot of downloading, saving, taking notes, sharing, etc so I can make sure I include during their campaigns.
2:20 pm – As I’m still going through my social media, I have a prospect who is a published author and has a few more questions in regards to the proposal I sent her. (By the way….I look forward to working with her:) Once she signs the proposal to give me permission to do the services, I draft and send an agreement for review and signing and then send the monthly retainer invoice via PayPal. Then we begin our client relationship and get to work!!!
2:53 pm – I’m finally done going through my Facebook accounts and my client’s Facebook accounts. I’m still not done. There’s more major social media sites to tackle.
4:30 pm – A local person from a referral reached out to me. I received images of a local studio. I’m not sure if he is only a Artist or a Artist & Producer. I’m not sure how he wants me to assist him, but he does. I tried calling back, but had to leave a message on his voicemail because I didn’t catch him in time before he went to the studio. So we’ll try again so I can have a better idea on what he needs done.
6:54 pm – Checking my Twitter accounts and my client’s twitter accounts. Still haven’t finished up with going through all of the social media to see what is what with my clients, as well as my business.
7:05pm – I have a newspaper called, Celestial Caring Enterprise, LLC World Daily News Features and today I’m featuring Chris Brown that was shared by K-WAVE 104.3 and the featured placement is located on Hush! Magazine. I plan to screenshot so I can do promo on this feature.
7:31 pm – I just finished going on a Twitter ReTweet Binge. One of my client’s Book Publishing Company is preparing for a Review Tour for her upcoming new book release to secure a few dates in October. Now jotting down notes because I need to do promo and reach out to bloggers directly. I ran across a great writing tip to share to my Facebook Group listed above. It was about Show n Tell and A LOT of writers and authors fight with that on a daily basis during their writing time. My client’s upcoming book is going to be her seventh book released!!! I obtained a YouTube video that I can use in one of the other promotions that we are currently doing for her other book that has the chance to turn into a movie. I went on a retweeting binge again. Then ran across some AMAZING news. My client’s book is officially an International Bestseller #1 in the USA and UK #32 Canada Top 100 in Australia and Germany. More great news for publicity.
9:23 pm – Reviewing my Instagrams, my client Instagrams, and other Instagrams via if I need to be updated on what anyone else is doing for my client. Specifically I have one client whose music is going to be played on a major radio show hosted my major folks in the music industry. Updates on the radio show are listed via a nice flyer promo. I’m back to taking notes. My clients have images with heavy hitters. This is important for publicity. I have another client who has A LOT of teasers that I can use for publicity with her books.
9:44 pm – I have other clients and projects that I don’t need to review any updates from their social media, but instead go through all of my notes to find out where we are in the process of what needs to be done. I review all 3 of my client notebooks from current to previous. So here we go.
- I have to do a Social Media Campaign for an upcoming out-of-state event. (Time is ticking so I would prepare tomorrow. )
- I have to put a PR Package Deal together for an upcoming event. (I can hold off on this for right now.) These 2 items above are very important because I’m one of the Sponsors.
- I already have notes on what I plan to publicize later, so I can move forward to other tasks.
- Re-reading a Press Release that I previously did for a client, but yet to release. Now, its time to release the Press Release, but I have to come up with a different angle for the artist because I would like to launch his Regional PR Campaign. I’m trying to come up with a catchy headline for his Press Release. Whew, I found a catchy headline which ties into everything that is going on right now in the world with specifics. Now, time for me to rewrite the Press Release. Time is now 11:24 pm.
Now that it is after midnight. I’m ready to go to bed.
Thanks for reading about my day in the life of a Publicist. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks!
Day Two
7:20pm – (Preparing for my client’s Regional PR Campaign) Listening to my client’s songs to determine which one I suggest we drop this week because he has so many songs and we have to also be strategic about how we roll out all of his singles leading up to his album release.
12/10/2018 >>> I just went to my website backoffice and saw that this blog post was never posted. SMH! So I’m going to post it right now. I’ll do another one again soon! 🙂
