PR is both art and science. Are you a strong communicator, a great storyteller and a critical thinker in nature? If so, you have the potential to excel in the profession. In addition to these abilities, the best PR people know how to build relationships, have emotional intelligence and genuine interest to interact with other people. If you want to become better in PR and build a great career, these four tips derived from our own experience will help you do that:

Be curious and never stop learning

To learn more about your area of expertise is great but this is not enough if you would like to work in PR. PR experts should interact constantly with media and other stakeholders and it is critical to be able to start a conversation on different topics. Learning things outside of your interest will help you expand not only your knowledge but also the way you think and generate ideas. Talk to your customers, learn what they are interested in, experience for a couple of days their life. This will break your thinking patterns and put you in a different perspective.

Challenge your boundaries

All of us feel good when they play the “safe” game and take tasks which they are good at. However, to grow your skills sometimes you need to push yourself beyond the limits you defined. This includes, for example, conducting a presentation in front of hundreds of people, being interviewed on a TV show or other tasks that bring you out of your comfort zone. You will realize that when you overcome your fear, everything else will look easier and possible to achieve. This principle is valid for both PR and life and will definitely guarantee you a career success.

Have a story to tell

If there is one word to tell which is most relevant to describe the PR field, it is storytelling. In this very competitive market customers are not interested to hear about functionalities of products or how great your service is. They are interested to know how you managed to change and transform other people’s lives. As a PR expert, you will be responsible to engage people in your business by sharing interesting and relevant stories. This is a very successful strategy for not only selling your products/services but also for selling yourself.  The best candidates for PR positions are those who are able to impress others by showing their skills with concrete stories and experiences. All of us will choose to hire these people, right?

Communicate with colleagues from different departments

If you want to be good at PR, be ready to apply your communication skills every day. Knowing better the colleagues you are working with in your company is very important because you never know how you can utilize these relationships. Hence, go to lunch with different people from your organization at least once a month and learn more about what is happening in your company from the perspective of the others. People are willing to share information when they know you better. When you manage to achieve easy communication at all levels, your work as a PR expert will be improved significantly as well.

Read more tips and guidelines for your career here.