Making Her Mark in PR

By Irma Negrete

On Wednesday, April 29, PRSSA had the pleasure of hosting guest speaker Shawn Smith, Director of Worldwide Public Relations for Warner Bros. Consumer Products. Shawn spoke to us about the importance of building relationships within our network and joining professional organizations.

At Warner Bros. Shawn manages many of the DC properties including Aquaman and Batman. Her most recent campaign was for the DC movie Birds of Prey. Before Shawn began working at Warner Bros., she worked as a news reporter. While reporting, Shawn began looking to take her career in a different direction. After expressing her interest in Public Relations to Pat Tobin during a chance encounter at an African American Film Festival, Shawn began her career in PR working at Tobin’s firm Tobin and Associates. Shawn worked at other multicultural agencies before she decided to work for in-house agencies.

She told us about her experiences when applying for jobs as well as some tips we could use when applying. She explained how she had contacted as many people within her network for any job opportunities and tailored each resume to the company position she was applying for. These steps helped Shawn land a job at Disney. During her nine years at Disney, she managed campaigns such as Disney’s animated movie Princess and the Frog.

Shawn explained to us that it’s important to join professional organizations like PRSA-LA because it gives you the opportunity to network with other professionals in the PR world. Shawn is not only a member of PRSA-LA but she was also the first African American president in the history of the organization. She also told us how she had brought back the National Black Public Relations Society chapter of LA and served as President for six years.

During the Q&A portion of the meeting, Shawn advised us how important it is to not only reach out to someone for networking opportunities but to also maintain relationships using tools like LinkedIn. She described different situations when people would contact her to connect with her but then they would never follow up after their initial introduction. Shawn also told us how important it is to be clear of what our intent and goals are when reaching out to mentors or PR professionals.