This week, our chapter spoke with University of Missouri alumnus, Steve Turner. During his time at MU, Steve was the sports director for an NPR radio station called KBIA. He graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
Today, Steve works as the owner of Solomon/Turner PR based in St. Louis Missouri. Solomon/Turner PR is a Public Relations firm that helps clients build their brand and take it to new heights. During his presentation, Steve gave us an overview of some campaigns his firm has worked on, taught us what successful PR can be and gave some advice to our chapter members on AI and careers in Public Relations.
Campaigns for Solomon/Turner PR:
The Million Dollar Baseball: In 1998, there was a Major League Baseball home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. A sports memorabilia company in Chicago wanted to get involved and offered a million dollars to the person who caught the ball that broke the record. The company reached out to Solomon/Turner PR for strategies which included recruiting high school athletes to wear their jerseys and gaining international and national coverage. Because of Solomon/Turner’s impact on this campaign, the news conference yielded thousands of dollars of earned media and opened doors for business in the industry.
The Original Jeeps: Solomon/Turner PR was invited to pitch a PR proposal for a book that details how the first Jeep was created for World War II. During this campaign, Steve had to figure out their audience and target markets where the Jeep had strong significance. Because of this, he helped become a thought leader in the jeep industry.
The big idea:
During his presentation, Steve gave us some insight on the big idea of what PR can be along with the trends and challenges of it. Successful PR professionals will add value by helping sort the maze with marketing and sales, assisting with staying on brand, media delivery, creating objectives that can be measured and creating a better return on investment.
What can PR be?
- Fun
- Sometimes glamorous
- Meeting important people
- Influencing the narrative
- Different every day
PR trends and challenges, less mass media more niche:
- Who are your customers?
- Where are your customers
- Positioning and communication are crucial
- Shrinking newsrooms, less reach
- Substack and smaller sized media to target audience grow in importance
- Social is important and leveraging traditional media on social should be mandatory
- Growth of video and video shorts
- How to grab people’s attention in relation to people’s attention span
Steve’s stance on AI:
When thinking about Artificial Intelligence and how it relates to PR, Steve believes that AI should be used to assist in the process, not to create it, as strategic thinking and creativity cannot be replaced. Here is his advice on how to navigate it:
- Avoid AI written news releases
- Use it to plan automate and tasks if necessary to become more efficient and focus on what matters.
- Program it for specific job tasks
- Use it to enhance your job, not replace it
Steve’s advice on getting started in PR careers:
- Internships
- Keeping Linkedin photo and information up to date
- Focus on writing skills
- Listing honors- stand out from the crowd
- Network where the fish are biting
- Have geographical flexibility
- Be able to problem solve
- Create a poise and comfort with clients
- Mentorship to have someone critique work
Steve ended his presentation by telling our chapter members that “we need PR and so does the world.”
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn, here
Alessia Klosterman-Lando is majoring in Journalism Strategic Communication, and Political Science. You can connect with Alessia here.