“What Do You Do Again?” A PR Pro’s Holiday Cheat Sheet

The Holiday Dinner Question Every PR Pro Dreads (and How to Answer It)

Every PR and communications pro knows the moment. You’re sitting at holiday dinner, a relative asks what you do, and a familiar dread sets in.  

Somehow the answer never gets easier and arguably might be harder this holiday season with AI and a shifting media landscape in the mix. Early in my career, the full version made eyes glaze over within seconds, and the short version of “PR” just opened a can of worms.

Before the questions start this holiday season, here’s a cheat sheet for every version of “What do you do again?” you’re likely to hear.

The aunt who asks if you “do social media”

She means well, and is the right track, but not quite there. Social media is part of the job, but the post is usually the last thing anyone sees. Before it comes the media placement, the launch strategy, and plenty of work in between.

Try: Anyone can post. I’m more focused on what’s worth posting and making sure the right people see it.

The uncle who asks if PR is just sales

I once walked my uncle through my media pitching process, and his response was "So, you work in sales?". Of everyone at the table, he was the furthest off.

A pitch only becomes coverage when a reporter decides the story is worth telling, and that decision is always theirs. Earning coverage involves closely following each reporter’s beat and building relationships over time, so they trust we’ll bring them something worthwhile. Earned media is so valuable and credible for readers because no one paid for it.  

That said, there is some selling in PR. We regularly show clients and executives the impact of our work and how more investment could take it further. A lot of what we produce also helps our clients sell. A strong article or executive interview gives their sales team credibility with prospects and can help move a deal forward.

Try: I get my clients in the news, their sales team gets to show it off.

The teenager who asks if ChatGPT does your job now

In all fairness, everyone at the table can expect some version of this question. Lucky for us, AI still can’t take a reporter to coffee.

PR pros are using AI every day to help expedite research and create first drafts, but the most valuable work like building reporter relationships, client trust, and providing strategic consul still runs on people and years of experience.  

For a sassier response: When was the last time you did a homework assignment without AI?

Or the more serious alternative: AI is okay at writing and not great with people, so I think my job’s safe for a while.

The cousin who thinks PR means non-stop drama and scandal

They’ve seen enough movies and TV shows to picture PR as a fixer in a dark room, phone pressed to one ear, making a scandal vanish before the morning headlines. In all fairness, that’s what I pictured too before starting my career, but the reality is far less cinematic. Crisis work is a small, occasional part of the job. Most of what we do is proactive, which looks like finding the stories worth telling and getting them in front of the right people, not scrambling to bury bad news.

Try: Crisis makes good TV, but if my job looked like the movies, I’d be exhausted. Most days I’m helping clients tell stories people want to hear, not making bad news disappear.

The grandparent who asks if you write press releases

Grandma is probably picturing someone at a typewriter in 1975, licking stamps and mailing announcements to the newsroom. Swap the typewriter for a laptop and she’s not far off. She might even be surprised to hear that press releases matter more now than they did a few years ago.

This is because a lot of people get their answers from AI tools like ChatGPT, and those tools pull from what’s been published about a company. A press release is one of the clearest ways to tell that story, which is why we now write them for both reporters and AI.

The release is still only one piece of good PR. The bigger job is finding the right reporter, angle, and giving them a reason to care beyond the polished release everyone else is reading.

Try: I still write press releases, but now they have to convince a reporter and a robot.

The parent who’s heard it a hundred times and still doesn’t get it

They’re proud of you, and usually just tell their friends you work in marketing. At this point, it’s probably not your explanation.

Try: Just tell your friends I work in PR. They won’t know what it means either.

For the relative who wants the long answer

I couldn’t wrap this up without an answer for the relative who hits you with, “No, really, what do you do all day?”  

The honest answer is a little bit of everything. In a single week, we might shape a client’s messaging, turn a technical product update into a newsworthy story, prep an executive for a big interview, plan for a crisis that hopefully never happens, and measure whether any of it made a difference.

The range of responsibilities is what makes the job hard to explain, but also so rewarding. You end up knowing a little bit about a lot of things working in PR.

So this holiday season, pick your line and enjoy being the only person at the table who can talk about the very niche story you landed this year on turkey supply chain shortages, then turn around and give a well-informed take on the AI bubble and frontier lab IPOs.  

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