A sports public relations rep is an individual who works specifically to ensure that the athlete, club, franchise, or organization that they work for is well represented at all times. It’s a tough industry to crack into and it’s an incredibly difficult one to find success in, but, with a lot of hard work, a professional in sports PR could stand to make themselves a lot of money.
If you want to get into this field of public relations, then you should take the advice laid out below.
Keep your finger on the pulse of your sport
If you want to represent your clients in the best and most fruitful way possible, you need to know their sport. You have to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening elsewhere in the world and the profession that they immersed in. You should know how other athletes are being represented, how much other PR professionals are being paid, and what other franchises are doing to promote themselves.
One of the best ways to remain up-to-date with your sport is to keep a constant watch on the young talent. By keeping up with what is happening at college and youth level and by knowing the best talent currently coming through the ranks, you’ll set yourself up for success in the future. You will do so because you will always have the upper hand when it comes to both sourcing and then snapping up the very best clients. Companies such as www.asmscholarships.com allow you to search for available athletes that need scholarships and representation.
Build your writing portfolio
A lot of your job as a sports PR professional will be centered around writing, which is why you need to work on that particular kind of portfolio. While you intern at a sports team, you should take it upon yourself to write for the sports sections of newspapers and magazines. Whether you get paid for your work or not, this will help you to build some sporting authority for yourself. Furthermore, have an online portfolio as well as a physical copy, as many people rely on the internet these days.
Follow your head, not your heart
Sport is something that evokes a lot of passion from a lot of people. If you were to allow your own passion for sport to guide you when it comes to your PR decision making, you would make finding success in your career to be a difficult task. You’d find yourself forging unhealthy connections with your clients—it’s good to have a connection with them, but not to the point where you are willing to do absolutely everything for them due to an infatuation you have with them or their team. Quite simply, passion, and the risk, anger, and frustration that it breeds, have no place in the world of sports PR.
The business of sport is tough. With so many variables and unforeseen complications, such as athlete injuries or club financial meltdowns, as a professional in sports PR, you have to keep your options open at all times. More importantly, you have to take the above advice.
