Digital Wandering

Public relations is a skill that not only applies to the media, it applies to social situations?especially at networking events where your image is everything.I attended a local networking event a few nights ago and, like every other entrepreneur, I went there to mix, mingle, find leads, make sales, and create new money. Effective PR is the driving force behind every successful entrepreneur or business owner. The quicker you master these skills, the faster your business grows.Roughly 150 people were at this NYC event. I’ve been to hundreds of journalism and PR mixers, but this business crowd was different. Unlike journalism conventions?where reporters sit back and observe?this Chamber of Commerce mixer was packed with Type-A personalities. Every man and woman was focused and self-aware. No one waited for the right moment. Eve stop balding ryone seized even the smallest of openings.But the longer I mingled with the city’s entrepreneurs, the more I realized how image matters in business?and not just on TV or in the papers.As a former executive producer with WNBC and senior producer with CBS, I have more than a decade of experience working with publicists from all over the country. But you don’t need a lofty title to understand how some publicists get it, while others need a new career. Every journalist will tell you a good publicist makes his job easier. A bad publicist turns every interview into a laborious task.It was no different at this Chamber of Commerce networking event. The best entrepreneurs made the art of networking seem easy. The more awkward leaders made the event painful.It got me to thinking: Public relations skills also apply to networking events.