PRos in Training

Author: Kelli Matthews

  • What Makes a Good Internship?

    It’s internship season!

    As classes have wrapped up at the “semester schools,” and are quickly drawing to a close for those of us at the “quarter schools,” many of our students are preparing to embark on a variety of internships.

    If you’re in this group (or you are supervising an intern this summer), here are some tips for making it a good one. I asked this questions of my Twitter peeps, and I’m including some of their insights here, too.

    Communicate with your supervisor what your goals and expectations are for the internship.

    Working together with your internship supervisor to chart a clear path for your internship period will benefit both of you. You’ll have an opportunity share your ideas about particular tasks, clients, events or campaigns you’d like to be part of and the team you’re working with work with you to meet those objectives.

    Treat your internship as one big interview.

    Whether you want to be hired at the end of your internship or not, it’s important to use the time to act as a professional and demonstrate your drive, abilities and potential. You want to be able to use the experience to launch your career!

    Internships should provide practical experience.

    We know that PR people sometimes make copies, and get coffee for themselves colleagues, interns should do that no more than anyone else in the office. The work should resemble that of entry-level professionals and clerical and administrative duties should be at a minimum. (this was an important theme among the peeps)





    If you’re not sure, ask a faculty member, or a mentor for advice about a particular opportunity. For more a great student perspective, check out Alisha Levin’s post on PROpenMic.

    What do you think? Whether a supervisor or student… what makes a good internship?

  • Guest Post: Tips for a Great Portfolio Review

    This guest post is from senior Kaitlin Stewart. Winter term 2008, Kaitlin participated in portfolio reviews and had very positive evaluations from her reviewers. I asked her (and a few others) to share their tips.

    Top 5 Tips for Presenting Your Portfolio:

    1. Be yourself. The portfolio is a reflection of your work and your personality. Make sure reviewers can really see your work experience, skills and character traits.
    2. Be professional. Leave the “likes,” “ums” and other slang at the door.
    3. Be a storyteller. You need to really paint the reviewers a picture of the situation or event. Why does this press release matter? Why did you put this piece in among all other work you’ve done? Why did you respond the way you did to a situation or problem?
    4. Be enthusiastic. If you’re not excited about your work, how do you expect reviewers to be excited about seeing it? You put a lot of time and effort into your portfolio so be proud to show it.
    5. Practice. Present your portfolio to a friend or in front of a mirror. You will be amazed at how much better you will present your portfolio after a little practice.

  • Linky Love in the Summer Heat

    It is hot today in Western Oregon! Hopefully summer if finally coming. In the meantime, here’s your weekly dose of linky love.

    PR Bludgeons Itself Again (InfOpinions?) – this particular link is a lot of the PR news out there this week. Here’s a collection of links from Media Bullseye.

    5 New Social Media Turn-Ons For Me (Global Neighbourhoods)

    PR and the Chick Factor: What Kent State Learned About the Missing Men of Public Relations (Tough Sledding)

    Louis Vitton Gets Brand-Jacked, Collateral Damage in Anti-Genocide (Jeremiah Owyang)

    Bush Online Interview a Wake-Up Call for PR     (Catching Flack)

    Congressman Attacks Big Pharma Companies for Deceptive Marketing, Demands Policies Regulating “Manipulative Commercials” (Daily Dog)

    What Makes a Good PR/IMC Practitioner? (Les is More)

    I look forward to hearing what you think!

  • Survey of Young PR Agency Professionals

    If you’re working at a PR Agency full time and are younger than 26, please take minute to read the info below and respond to our survey (link at the bottom).

    *******
    Welcome to an exciting profession!

    As a member of the up and coming generation of public relations practitioners, we would like to ask for your help. Workplace expectations are changing with the new tide of public relations practitioners. Public relations employers are asking for help in understanding how to build strong relationships with your generation.

    If you work at a public relations agency, we hope you will help us by sharing your experiences with us. No scholarly public relations studies have been published that examine the perceptions of young practitioners in public relations agencies. We hope that you will confidentially share your experiences with us through a survey. Participation is voluntary.

    Opportunity to Make a Difference
    With your help, we would like to make a difference in the lives of new public relations practitioners who work at agencies. We want to make recommendations regarding how agencies can improve their relationships with young practitioners and how they can create an organizational culture that resonates with your generation. In addition, we would like to refine an existing model for ethical decision-making so that it will be useful to young agency practitioners.

    Compensation
    If you participate, we will add your name to a random drawing. The winner will receive his or her choice of either an iPod Nano or a $150 gift certificate to iTunes. A $50 gift certificate to Target will be given to two runners up, also randomly chosen. We expect the odds of winning one of the prizes to be about 3 in 500.

    At the end of the survey, you will have the opportunity to contact us to indicate whether you would like to participate in an interview or focus group. If you are selected to participate in these activities, you will receive financial compensation in exchange for your participation.

    Survey Completion
    Because the survey is online and the questions are about your experiences with your employer, please refrain from completing this survey at work. Your employer could otherwise intercept the data. Your participation is confidential.

    Sponsors
    We are grateful to the Public Relations Society of America Foundation and the University of Oregon for funding this study.

    Survey
    You can begin the survey here:

    Thank you for your help!

    Questions and Comments
    If you have questions or comments, you are welcome to contact us via phone or through e-mail from a personal email account (away from the workplace). You will find our contact information listed below.

    Sincerely,

    Pat Curtin
    University of Oregon
    (541) 346-3752
    pcurtin@uoregon.edu

    Tiffany Derville
    University of Oregon
    (541) 346-2035
    derville@uoregon.edu
    Blog: PR Post

    Kelli Matthews
    University of Oregon
    (541) 346-3744
    kmatthew@uoregon.edu
    Blog: PRos in Training

  • A Big Pile of Theses

    I’m honored to have been ask to serve on a whole slew of thesis committees this year. With the term coming to a rapid close (just 5 more weeks), defense season is in high gear.

    Over the next five weeks (plus), I’ll hear about a lot of interesting research. I hope to share more with you as the students finish. But in the meantime, here’s a glimpse and a link to the students’ blogs, twitter feeds, etc. so you can keep up with their work… if you’re so inclined. These are some pretty smart students – both grads and undergrads – and anyone would be lucky to have them as part their team.

    Leona Laurie: Blog and Twitter
    Leona’s master’s thesis for the School of Journalism and Communication looks at how Web 2.0 is changing traditional marketing and, specifically, the 4 Ps. She’s looking at two media companies – one more traditional and one less so – and how the marketing mix is changing. Leona is spoken for, by the way, so you’re too late to hire her. 🙂

    Lindsey Durrell: Blog and Twitter
    Lindsey is in our Honors College at the University of Oregon. Her thesis is looking at a specific case study of blogger relations; looking at the broader issues that are played out in the blogosphere and in public relations every day and then applying them to a particular case.

    Emily Tormey: Blog and Twitter
    Emily’s research is looking at how nonprofits can (or should) use special events to attract younger donors. Emily, also an Honors College student, is interested in event planning, but specifically wants to work with a nonprofit to plan events that really make a difference. I know this research will serve her well!

    Nick Cummings: Blog
    Nick, also an Honors College student, is looking at which uses and gratifications virtual worlds fulfill for their users. A gamer and resident of Second Life, Nick has a unique perspective and I’m looking forward to learning about his results.

    Windy Hovey
    Windy, a master’s student, focuses her research on how nonprofits can use social media to cultivate relationships. She’s looking at a particular nonprofit that uses blogging, video and Flickr and talking to people inside and outside the organization to learn how it works for them.

    So, as you can see by the time summer rolls around, I’ll be that much smarter. I’m looking forward to helping these students finish and learning a lot in the process.

  • Linky Love: Mid-Term Edition

    As usual, some great stuff this week… so we’ll get right to it!

    Dinner With a Millennial (Les is More)

    GNTV: How BuzzLogic Calculates Influence
    (Global Neighbourhoods)

    Is Your Consumer Using Social Media? (AdAge)

    Ten Ideas for Conversation (Conversation Agent)

    True Story of a Bogus Blog (AdWeek): The blow-by-blow of the not-so-real Ms. Heidi Cee at Hunter College.

    Is Jet Blue Using Twitter to Spy on Its Customers… Or Blow Their Mind?     (Awake at the Wheel)

    Five Thoughts on the Future of Public Relations (PR Squared)

    Papa Johns vs. Cleveland, A PR Tragedy (MarketingProfs): Heard on Twitter the line at Papa Johns was 200+ long in Cleveland at some locations.

    The Coming Backlash Over Green Marketing (Seth Godin)

  • Weekly Linky Love: It’s May!

    A lot of love for the social media posts this week. Some agency thinking and a little on current events. Enjoy.

    Some Differences Between Pitching Mainstream Press and Bloggers (Chris Brogan): Chris asked the Twitter-sphere what they thought and got some interesting results. The comments are also terrific. Bloggers are different and you have to understand the culture before you pitch them anything.

    Have You Lost that Loving Feeling (Unspun from SHIFT): An inside look at agency life. For those of you who have, or are, interning at an agency, how does this compare to your experience?

    Get Into Twitter or Get Outta PR (PR Squared): Todd Defren says that Twitter is necessary for PRos. I agree (and said so in the comments). What do you think?

    How To Get Placement on Blogs (Social Media Explorer): A new blog for me. I really liked this post and I think Jason does a great job of summing up blogger relations and even giving an example.

    Dinner With a Millennial (Les is More): Just an amazingly inspirational posts for those of us who work with millennials and those of you who are.

    Some posts on current events –
    Hannah Montana’s PR Crisis is Vanity’s Fair’s Treasure Trove (Daily Dog). Sarah Wurrey at Media Bullseye had a good article on the same topic.

    The Danger of the Soundbite (MarketingProfs): Commentary about the Reverend Wright and his potential damage to Obama’s campaign.

    Now I have a headache, so I’ll leave you with those!

  • Following Your Heart… And Other Lessons Learned in a Job Search

    Following Your Heart… And Other Lessons Learned in a Job Search

    I made a very difficult call today. I withdrew my name from consideration in a search for a job that seemed, on paper, to be the perfect fit for me. But let me back up a minute.

    About six months ago, I decided to pursue life outside of academia and go back to the “real” world. I began to wrap up client projects, complete contracts and stopped doing business development in anticipation of discontinuing my consulting work. I told my department chair and even talked to a lot of my students about it.

    A lot of things led to this decision. The frustration of balancing school, consulting and mommyhood mounted and I decided that I couldn’t keep it up and keep my sanity. A couple of difficult clients (one that decided they didn’t want to pay their bill) helped push me over the edge.

    I’ve applied for probably a dozen jobs. The job market for senior level folks in this neck of the woods is less than ideal – particularly for in-house positions. I assumed I’d have to move to Portland and was even considering Las Vegas (where my parents live).

    Ups and downs, cover letter after cover letter I have been at it very steadily for about 3 months.

    Then the fall teaching schedule began to circulate among the department. My heart sank. How could I give up teaching? I love it! Love, love, love it! At that point, I began bartering with myself… maybe I could still teach a class a term… maybe this or maybe that.

    Last night, I literally had an epiphany. It was the middle of the night, the toddler had decided that sleeping next to mom was the way to go, and I was wide awake.

    And that’s when I decided that I had to make the call.

    I followed my heart. I love my students, I love my department, I love consulting (for all it’s ebbs and flows), I love Eugene and… I love my family. And despite long hours and sometimes endless days, I can always be there for my son and my significant other. Always.

    I’ll post more soon about lessons learned and some things I’ve taken away from this process to bring myself back to center and feel excited about the possibilities going forward.

  • Why I (Now) Love World Comment Day


    Chris Brogan declared Monday, April 28th World Comment Day. Rather than blog today, he said, go be part of the conversation – comment on three other blogs. The suggestion picked up steam on Twitter. According to TweetScan, roughly 80 or 90 people retweeted. I saw it half a dozen times on my Twitter stream.

    I often talk about the benefits of commenting to students and clients alike. In fact, I require my Advanced PR Writing students to comment once a week on another blog. But, honestly, I don’t comment as much as I should. Or even as much as I’d like to.

    So, I took Chris’ edict and ran with it. It was hard! But, I had retweeted the announcement myself and even posted updates during the day about my progress, so I was determined to lead by example.

    When I finished my last comment, on Jason Fallis’ Social Media Explorer blog, I promptly (and proudly) send a reply to Chris proclaiming my success. I appreciated the nudge to comment today. Can’t talk the be-part-of-the-conversation talk without walking the be-part-of-the-conversation walk.


    Chris replied back and then tweeted the link to this blog… to his 7,000 followers. This might be bigger than the one time I had a post on Digg. 🙂

    So, now you know why I love World Comment Day. Declare your own and join the conversation.

  • To Do List Overwhelming? Prioritize!

    As we approach the end of the school year, everyone always has a seemingly overwhelming number of items on their to do list.

    Idea Sandbox has just launched its “Prioritizer” to help you get things in order.

    This. is. brilliant.

    It’s very simple. Just enter your tasks; be specific! Then click “next steps” and the prioritizer gets to work. Giving you the choice of two of the tasks on your list the Prioritizer will help you figure out which tasks have the higher priority for you.


    And it works. I put in a dozen or so tasks, went through the steps and ended up with a really clear to do list that ranks the tasks in priority order. Give it a try and maybe it’ll help you breathe just a little easier this week.

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