Today is a bit of a quiet day…and after the onslaught of last week, I am actually a bit grateful for this. I find that in PR and marketing, there are ebbs and tides (inextricably linked to publication deadlines), so this is most likely the calm before the inevitable storm.

This got me thinking about what PR people do on those ‘quiet’ days…and how to get oneself motivated and productive without the pressure of deadlines or impending doom.

I often think that the quiet times are the best times to make yourself busy – because you’re less distracted by phone calls and emails and deadlines, and can actually put some real thought into the work you’re doing. Quite possibly this is why so many creative types work into the wee hours of the morning.

So this led me to making a giant list (one of my favourite things to do) of productive PR activities one could do on a quiet day.

1. Update contact lists. Yes there are services you can subscribe to that do this for you, but they are never 100% accurate. Creating your own personalized contact list of media/other contacts and knowing exactly who everyone is, is far more effective in my opinion

2. Do some research on a new publication/news website/radio station etc and find out about the journalists or producers who work for it. Find out what sorts of topics they are interested in, and contact them to introduce yourself – without the pitch in mind. Let them know what sorts of clients you have, and say you’ll be in touch once you have something they might be interested in.

3. Start a blog, if you haven’t already got one. Blogs are a create way of optimizing your website for search engines, hence driving traffic to your website. Write posts that are relevant. Go and see the good people/machines at Word Press; they have very nice blogs (which can conveniently double as websites, i.e. this site).

4. Have a think about obscure angles and press release topics. Visit news sites for inspiration on what’s current. Pitch ideas to civilians (i.e. friends/family/strangers – those with no real link to your business/client/product) and see how they react. If they think it’s shit, it probably is.

5. Write some ‘rainy day’ blog posts, on topics that, unlike wet look leggings, age well. That way you can use them in a week or a month when you have a day when you really can’t think of anything to write about. I know one particularly savvy corporate blogger who does this very well, and has a highly read blog because she manages to keep it constantly updated regardless of how busy she is. Cheating? A bit. Effective? Very.

6. Get more people reading your blog. Seth Godin has some very good tips here. Blogstalk people – i.e go and visit other blogs and try to make some intelligent comments on them, and they might visit yours. I recently visited Dynamic Business Blogs which were a great read. Now some of their bloggers are reading my blog. Hah!

7. Research (i.e. google) someone bigger, better and altogether more formidable than yourself, in the same profession as you. I find this depressing and inspiring in equal measures. It’s good to know what the competition is doing if you are trying to overtake them.

8. Google someone you would like to have as your client, and their company, and find out all about them. This is an obvious step to take in making them your client. Google fancy business acronyms that you don’t know the meaning of (but try to refrain from using them excessively the next day, or you’ll sound like a dick).

9. Twitter, Tweet, Chirp etc. But not about boring day-today crap like what you had for breakfast (unless you are a celebrity; in which case it is somehow excusable). More about stuff that’s relevant to your business and that other people might actually find interesting. Find people and organizations (including potential clients) in your industry and follow them to see what they’re tweeting about.

10. Make giant lists of PR activities you could do, if you weren’t so busy making giant lists.

What do you have on your list for a ‘quiet day’? I’d love to know.