It would seem totally normal if I say that I have always been interested in public relations. In 2020, I had just completed the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) diploma and was enthusiastic about joining the PR industry.
My journey at BHM began with a friendly conversation at The Comms Avenue, a pan-African gathering of PR experts. A friend stated I should shoot my shot to the organisation and without any hesitation, I did.
The concept of Public relations intrigued me. I wanted to know more about the strategies used to help brands tell their stories and how BHM UK was playing its role as a nexus between the UK and Africa.
I went through quite a long interview process, I had to analyse Ukraine and the Russian situation and finally, there was a resumption date.
April 1, 2022, came and it was a Friday. I had lots of jitters and just like I thought, the tasks were overwhelming. It felt like I was being thrown into the deep end, on the first day. It took me a couple of days to get some sort of grasp on everything.
Thankfully, my team lead, Enitan came to my rescue. There are days when I still feel overwhelmed but I am grateful for the supportive team I have.
An experience that stood out to me on arrival, was creating and distributing content for one of our clients. This was as regards the announcement of the winners of the Make Reality Challenge. It was interesting to see four young African students beat 10,000 others from across the globe to win a competition hinged on providing solutions to solve the world’s biggest problems.
The project had started before my arrival and I was tasked with evaluating the success of the campaign. While I knew the importance of the effectiveness of evaluating each PR activity, it felt strange to measure and evaluate the media coverage against the client’s expected goals. I finally got what was taught in the paperback lectures of NIPR, every piece of media coverage is a drop in the pool of brand awareness.
I am relatively new at BHM, however, I have learned a lot about client engagement, growing and maintaining social media communities, and pitching the media among others.
One of my core values is continuous improvement. At BHM UK, there is always something new to learn and engage with. Working with BHM UK would help enhance my vision to help the brands tell stories and experiences in a way that people see brands humanized and consisting of people who look, act, and experience life like them.
Overall, I hope to continue providing value to the PR industry and would continue to move forward in putting African communications on a global pedestal. I look forward to the rest of my time here at BHM UK, as I know I will keep learning and unlearning some of the guiding principles of public relations.