20 signs you’re failing at your PR job

A story about the 20 things a PR pro should know how to do got me thinking about the things PR professionals should not do—the things that will cause you to lose clients, fail to impress your boss, and generally stagnate in the industry.

Here are those things, broken into four categories:

Media Relations

1. Phone journalists when you know they’re on deadline.

2. Be unprepared for questions when pitching a reporter.

3. Miss a deadline.

4. Spam journalists with the same release, with no consideration of what they actually want.

5. Fail to provide interesting, exciting, and high-resolution images for stories.

Social Media

6. Delete negative comments on blog post or Facebook pages.

7. Focus on numbers, not engagement.

8. Not bother monitoring conversation.

9. Share nothing but links to offers and your own website.

10. Not familiarize yourself with analysis tools.