It's not what you know; it's who you know!

Since beginning my internship I have really found the saying ‘’it’s who you know not what you know’’ to be true. I have always heard this notion thrown around in the business world but had not yet seen it put into practice. The slogan originated in Philadelphia in 1918 when shipyard workers along the Delaware River adopted a war slogan all of their own being ‘’It’s not what you know; it’s who you know’’.

The first time I encountered this saying was when I was applying for internships. After sending my resume out to a few Perth based PR consultancy firms I was disappointed when I had no replies. Then I remembered a contact I had made whilst on set for fashion shoot in Sydney last year. She owned a PR agency over east and had given me her email for future contact. I emailed her and got a reply straight away with the direct email addresses of PR agency owners in Melbourne along with a reference she had written for me. Within a few days I had a Placement at a top Melbourne PR Fashion and Lifestyle agency. This was all due to a contact I had made last year. It truly pays off to be friendly to all people you meet as you never know when you will need to call on their kindness at a later date.

Again I found this notion to be true when I was planning a large event for a client at my PR Consultancy. The party was very last minute and required a small number of influential people to attend a first birthday of a high end jewelry brand. Luckily everyone who worked in the office was connected to at least 1 influential person whether they were a blogger, journalist, photographer or socialite. I learnt these connections were made through various portals; friends of friends, neighbors, ex co workers and even through family friends. The party was a success and made the social pages of influential newspapers and magazines. This was all due to the personal relationships the girls in the office had with other influential people.

Public Relations is all about creating positive and memorable relationships and this is a key skill learnt whilst networking. Once communication has commenced in a relationship both participants can pull on that mutually beneficial relationship. Such is the relationship between PR practitioners and journalists. Both are able to help each other in creating both a successful article and a successful PR campaign.

So next time you interact with someone in the office, at an event or even sitting on a plane just remember to be friendly as you never know what could come from the relationship.