{"id":114520,"date":"2018-04-25T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T11:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=114520"},"modified":"2018-04-25T12:33:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T12:33:10","slug":"mk-the-best-pr-blog-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/mk-the-best-pr-blog-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"MK: The Best PR Blog in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcel Klebba is MK, author of the eponymous blog that was crowned Best PR, Media & Communications Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. MK started his blog while studying at university and it provides a unique insight into a PR student turning pro.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We caught up with MK to talk about winning his award, the importance of mentors and reaching high profile people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your background?<\/strong> <\/span>
\nI\u2019m originally from Poland. Four years ago, I came to study PR and advertising at the University of Westminster and while I was studying I aimed to get as much work as experience as possible. In my final year, I started a blog, which became my playground to explore ideas, connect with likeminded people and learn more about the industry.<\/p>\n

You studied both advertising and PR, how did you choose one over the other?<\/strong> <\/span>
\nI don\u2019t think I would be the right fit for advertising. PR appealed more to me, because I\u2019ve always loved media and been surrounded by it growing up. I really appreciate the power of media and PR, and I wouldn\u2019t be exposed to that so much in advertising.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve interviewed some really high-profile journalists, is that thanks to you or the blog?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe blog is massively helpful when it comes to approaching people, because I can say: \u2018I\u2019ve got a platform and I want to interview you\/I want your opinion\/I want your quote \u2013 just for my blog\u2019. I think that\u2019s very enticing for people. Twitter is also a great place to chat with people, especially journalists. I don\u2019t think journalists like to be pitched to on Twitter but it\u2019s definitely a good place to build a rapport and relationship.<\/p>\n

Does connecting with people through the blog help you professionally?<\/strong> <\/span>
\nDefinitely. Whenever an email pops up in a journalist\u2019s inbox with my name, and they saw my name on Twitter the other day, it\u2019s probably more likely to be opened and read. And<\/em> they know I\u2019m not going to jeopardise the relationship we\u2019ve built with a bad pitch.<\/p>\n

It sounds like having a blog has helped you a lot, do you think other PRs should have their own blogs?<\/strong><\/span>
\nI don\u2019t think blogging is for everyone \u2013 it\u2019s a massive commitment. Blogging is a great idea for PR students, but there are so many sites that have been abandoned after a few posts. It\u2019s great from a career standpoint, but people should be aware that it\u2019s a responsibility, and a blog needs to be constantly updated and it needs attention.<\/p>\n

You mentioned students, and they make up some of your readers. How do you interact with your audience?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThrough Twitter mostly \u2013 it allows to see who is interacting with my blog and commenting on my posts. Also, I get feedback from PR students that enjoyed my blog, which is great, and other people in the industry including my colleagues.<\/p>\n

Talking of industry colleagues, I know how important mentors and mentorship is to you. What roles do they play in your development as a blogger and PR?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s huge. I started the blog because two people specifically \u2013 David Gallagher, then Ketchum but now Omnicom PR Group, and Stephen Waddington \u2013 told me I should be writing in order to have a great career. There always seems to be people around you that supply you with good advice, and it\u2019s always good if you\u2019ve got an issue or questions, to go to them directly. I wrote a blog post about mentorship<\/a>, and in that I wrote that it doesn\u2019t have to be one-to-one sessions, it can be reading something they\u2019ve written or listening to a podcast they\u2019ve made. In the digital world, mentorship can be more virtual and those people don\u2019t necessarily even need to know they\u2019re mentoring you.<\/p>\n

\"Marcel<\/p>\n

You\u2019re at the Vuelio Blog Awards, sitting with, among others, your mentor Stephen Waddington (pictured above), and you win the Best PR Blog award. What\u2019s that like?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>A little bit of imposter syndrome. It was huge, a highlight \u2013 I didn\u2019t believe it and I definitely wasn\u2019t expecting it. Now, I feel like I\u2019ve got a mission and I still need to plough through, even if there\u2019s difficult times or I\u2019m lacking inspiration. I need to think how I could bring value to the industry and tell people things they might find interesting or to engage people who are just starting out and are thinking about a career in PR.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the community of PR bloggers like?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>I think it\u2019s small, but everyone has their own speciality: Ella Minty<\/a> is all about reputation and the power of influence, Stephen Waddington<\/a> is all about the tech and professional practice, Scott Guthrie<\/a> covers influencers, PR Examples<\/a> covers stunts, and Richard Bailey is doing amazing work bringing everything together and supporting student communities with PR Place<\/a>. There are also some really remarkable student blogs, including my friend Orlagh Shanks\u2019<\/a>, Jessica Pardoe<\/a>\u2019s, as well as the community blog\u00a0Ulster PR students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your speciality?<\/strong><\/span>
\nCareers, starting out in the industry and documenting my journey.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re making a name for yourself in the PR world, what do you think has contributed to the opportunities?<\/strong><\/span>
\nBecause of the blog, I built relationships. I was recently on a panel with Women in PR about personal branding and the people from the panel knew that I wrote my dissertation on personal branding, and<\/em> I wrote about the dissertation on my blog. So, I think it\u2019s everything all together.<\/p>\n

The blog leads to so many opportunities. We are in a niche area \u2013 so I\u2019m not a beauty blogger and I\u2019m not getting free cosmetics \u2013 but the biggest benefit of having a blog is building relationships with likeminded people. In the last year, I\u2019ve been running the Four PR Questions<\/a> series, which is all about interviewing high profile leaders and I think this made me connect with other people and get my name in front of them.<\/p>\n

\"Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

What are your top tips for reaching high profile names for interviews?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe majority of people who are afraid of reaching out to the high-profile figures, think they are not reachable. They\u2019re afraid of failure. I was rejected loads of times and lots of people didn\u2019t respond, but there are plenty who did respond and let me interview them.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s a case of trying and not being afraid you\u2019ll be rejected, because rejection will happen. Also, high profile people are just human \u2013 and if there\u2019s someone junior approaching them \u2013 they will be impressed.<\/p>\n

What are your future plans?<\/strong><\/span>
\nObviously I want to remain in Vuelio\u2019s Top 10 PR Blogs<\/a>. Professionally, I want to stay in the agency side of things, and start managing people and thinking about strategy, and implementing digital. I want to keep learning and be challenged every day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marcel Klebba, MK, is listed on the Vuelio Database<\/a>, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcel Klebba is MK, author of the eponymous blog that was crowned Best PR, Media & Communications Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. We caught up with MK to talk about winning his award, the importance of mentors and reaching high profile people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":114521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,4038,6980,7223],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114525,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114520\/revisions\/114525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}