Eisen Marketing Group introduces UC Student into NexPhase Internship Program
Greater Cincinnati’s Largest Firm Continues Giving Back to College Community
Cincinnati, OH – September 9, 2009 – Eisen Marketing Group has selected University of Cincinnati senior communications student Brad Okel as the newest member of the NexPhase internship program.
As an intern at EMG, Brad will work with a variety of accounts and assist the client services team in such activities as media relations and publicity, social media, experiential and business development. Brad brings a youthful enthusiasm, fresh ideas, and a willingness to work hard and learn, according to EMG president Rodger Roeser.
“I am honored and excited to have an opportunity to work with a company as successful as EMG and to learn from such an experienced and knowledgeable staff,” Okel says. “I hope that I can walk away from this experience with an arsenal of knowledge and skills to jump start my professional career.”
Successful NexPhase interns have a powerful track record successfully securing public relations and marketing careers upon the completion of the NexPhase program, all with the knowledge and portfolio of work gained while at EMG, Roeser added.
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Editors Note: Okel Joins Eisen Marketing Group as Account Coordinator

iMedia Public Relations, a full-service strategic media relations firm based in Princeton, New Jersey is seeking a dedicated individual for the summer or fall months. The intern candidate will be introduced to the world of the public relations agency.  We are a start-up company in need of a self-starter that is willing to learn and contribute to client programs right away.  Candidate duties will include building and updating media databases, online search and blog outreach, client research, phone work and other basic office duties.  Candidates should be proficient in all Microsoft Office programs and have an active knowledge of social media tools.

Internships are for credit only. We will develop a working schedule that is amenable to your class hours. 

iMedia Public Relations is an equal opportunity employer.

Candidates interested in arranging an interview should email their resume to:

Tom Cosentino, President, iMedia Public Relations at  tcosentino@innovativemediapr.com.

I’m writing a four-part blog post on how to have a successful collegiate career for those interested in public relations. I’m basing this largely off my own experiences (a lot of what I’m including reflects what I wish I would have done during college, particularly in my early years) and those in my network. Please share and comment — with enough feedback, I may write another revised post.

You’ve made it to senior year! The most important thing to keep in mind about being a senior is to keep up the hard work throughout the entire year. Don’t get lazy, keep up the job search, join PRSA and enjoy your last year in college. Here are my tips for a successful senior year:

Maximize your PRSSA membership

Believe it or not, you can still genuinely benefit from a PRSSA membership during senior year. The most important thing to keep in mind, job or not, is that joining PRSA is the key to continuing your professional development. Keep that in mind as you go through the year and prepare to graduate. Here’s what I would do to maximize your PRSSA membership senior year:

• Continue to take on leadership roles on the executive board and on committees, but also make sure you are serving as a mentor to the younger students.
• Continue attending local, regional and national events. Even during senior year, attending National Conference, National Assembly and Regional Activities are still great ways to enhance your public relations knowledge and network with your future colleagues. If you’re lucky and serve as Chapter President, you’ll be able to attend the Leadership Rally and learn from students just like you.
• Apply for national awards — still. PRSSA has many scholarships and awards seniors qualify for and can help put you ahead of the game. Check them out here.
• Finally, join PRSA. Did you know that as a member of PRSSA, you can join PRSA as an associate member for up to two years for only $60 per year? How sweet is that?! More information here.

Tip: After years in PRSSA, the best thing to do is continue your professional development and join PRSA. Keep learning!

Don’t be afraid of post-graduate internships

Finishing up your senior year, you will probably looking for full time positions with your dream company. It’s important to be aware that you will probably have to intern with a company before you work for them. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but I wouldn’t count on you being the exception. Also, even though you might have had four or five internships in college, you still might be to intern with the company before a full time position. That’s OK, too.

The reason for this is simple economics: for any one open public relations entry level position, there will be a ton of applicants, so the employer can be more selective. That means they can have their top candidates “try out” for the position before hiring them on full time.

Tip: Don’t rule out post-graduate internships and don’t be surprised if you get offered one. This is the company’s way of making sure you’ll be a good fit and will do well full time.

Avoid senioritis like the plague

I’ll be honest: I think senioritis is the biggest crock of BS I’ve ever heard. It’s a state of mind and you will only get this “disease” if you let it happen. So, to make sure you have a productive year, surround yourself with highly motivated and hard working folks. Make sure you remember that just because you’re a senior doesn’t mean you can stop trying.

Tip: Don’t get lazy and pride yourself on the work you accomplish senior year.

Understand strategy and work a campaign from start to finish

One of the biggest differentiators between a tactical PR professional and a strategic PR professional is their understanding of “why.” That said, working a campaign from start to finish can be one of the most beneficial things a student can experience.

There are a couple different ways to get this kind of experience. One way is to participate in the Bateman competition through PRSSA. Another way is to stay in an internship for more than a semester. Even if you can’t take part in these above experiences, you can learn about strategy simply by asking your supervisor “why.” Why is a press release going out after the media advisory? Why write three blog posts per week instead of five? Why target this audience? These are all questions you can be asking those you work with in order to better understand public relations strategy.

Tip: Enhance internships and other PR activities by understanding and taking part in public relations strategy.

Know how to network

I mentioned this in one of the previous posts and I hope you listened! The best kind of network is one that you don’t need at that moment, so if you have been building a solid network for the past couple of years, the job search process shouldn’t be long and painful. Remember that networking is not about how someone else can help you; it’s about how you can help someone else. If you help a professional with a freelance project, or volunteered some time to help, that’s what real networking is all about. Continue to build a strong network, even if you’re planning on leaving the area. The PR community is smaller than you think, and local professionals might be able to help you in other areas.

Tip: Hopefully you have been building a strong network for the past several years so you can get advice from mentors and look in the right places during the job search.

Patience, grasshopper

In case you didn’t know, the public relations industry is not really like other industries. Companies usually don’t consistently recruit a certain number of graduates each year. Also unique to the public relations industry is you probably can’t show up to a career fair without knowing anyone and land an internship after. Getting a job in public relations takes a lot of time and work, and chances are you probably won’t find a job before you graduate. The key here is patience — don’t let the job search distract you from finishing up the year strong.

Tip: During the job search, keep your chin up, don’t get too discouraged and know that something will find you.

And for this last post, here is what my Twitter network had to say:

@MelissaHackett (she cheated and wrote three!): Well, I will be a PR senior next year and I think it’s important to realize that it is your LAST year in college. If you haven’t been, become very active in organizations. Soak in as much experience as possible before graduating. In this economy, you need more than a degree. You need skills, and you get those through experience.

@beckyjohns Reach out to people in your network that can be professional mentors. Having a sounding board is so helpful in a job search. Try to involve yourself with as many different types of PR as possible. Use the skills you’ve developed to become well-rounded.

@rossmanmckinney Learn to write w/3 c’s: be crisp, clear, concise. Be curious, ask questions. work ur butt off. do everything!

@kellee_m Start sending out resumes early in the year so agencies have you on their radar. Apply again when you graduate.

@FrancoPRGroup Graduating PR seniors MUST have great writing skills! also need to find a way to distinguish themselves..what makes them unique?

@samemac Work harder than you ever have before. Try something new and dream big.

@heatherhuhman Apply for internships and entry-level jobs simultaneously. You never know what opportunities you might uncover.

I attended a presentation last week given by Dr. Richard Cole and Andy Corner, APR. Dr. Cole is the Department Chair of APRR at MSU and Andy is an instructor in the department. They have been working on some research about the level of writing skills associated with entry-level public relations practitioners.

Dr. Cole blogged about the specific findings here, but here is a quick summary. The survey reflects the views of 848 PR practitioners from PRSA.

• Only 14 percent of PR supervisors think their subordinates are good writers
• Writing for the media amounts to around 20 percent of the entry-level PR practitioner’s time spent in the day
• Supervisors graded their subordinates less than 3 out of 5
• Nearly half the respondents have been reducing expectations of entry-level writing skills

Basically, we need to get our act together.

I think there’s a lot of reasons why this is occurring. First, if you look at the more seasoned professionals, many of them have degrees in journalism and/or worked at a newspapers. Now, many schools have a public relations major and that’s where much of the PR industry is recruiting from. Another reason. While I don’t have any research or stats to back this one up, it’s something I have noticed. Shannon Paul once told me that the future of the public relations industry will need to be able to balance new media with traditional practices, and I think that’s the best approach a student can take.

If  you’re not a journalism major, you can still saturate your degree with writing courses. I’ve found that my political science, English and foreign language courses to be the most useful now that I’m learning a different form of writing. I studied French all four years in high school and that taught me more about grammar than I ever learned in any English class (sadly). At least within my circle of PR students, many of us are intimidated by a “low grade” in a writing class, but sometimes we have to bite the bullet to make the most of your degree.

Here are some resources to improve your writing in addition to your classes:

• Copyblogger. Read it. No questions asked.
• Various AP Style exercises: Newsroom 101, Platform Magazine, OK Cupid.
• Your internship experience should include not only agency and corporate components, but a writing component as well. Work at your college newspaper, write for various departments and offices in the university.. anything. Just make sure you have a supervisor who is willing to make your projects bleed.
• Join the conversation on-line. Writing a blog will let you make those embarrassing mistakes that lead to you being called out. Just make the mistake and learn from it.
• Proofing your work. Honestly, I used to never read my work (shame, shame) and I learned the hard way that this really is essential. By printing off your column or release and reading it over, I’ve learned some valuable lessons about proofing and writing.

The bottom line is that you need to be a good writer to be a solid public relations professional. That doesn’t mean you need to write a certain number of press releases, opinion editorials, etc. Remember when I talked about being a strategist rather than a tactician? Learning to be a good writer should be part of your career strategy.

How else can students improve their writing? Can writing only be improved through classes? Are there any other resources we should know about to help improve writing?

Photo by churl on Flickr.

My blog has been hanging around about five to 12 views daily since I don’t post as regularly anymore. But yesterday it jumped to 38! I thought that was pretty interesting.

Agency work sounds so exciting and I’ve really enjoyed reading Time Well Spent, an article in PR Tactics and The Strategist Online written by an intern about her PR firm internship experience.

I really would like to get some agency experience. Ever since my first PRSSA Spring Conference when I heard about Franco Public Relations Group, I have wanted to work at an agency. Then, last fall, I job shadowed two CMU alumna that work there (check out Lauren and Nikki). They were fantastic and really got me excited about agency work. My post about their session relating to agency work at the CMU PRSSA Spring Conference has received more hits than any other post on my blog.

I think that even if I decided I didn’t want to work at an agency for the rest of my career, the experience would be priceless. The experience of multiple clients and projects would teach me a lot.

I do really like my publications internship with CMU Public Relations and Marketing though. I think CMU is a great school and I like the publications area. I do a lot of writing! But ever since I was in junior high, I have been saying I wanted to be the editor of my own magazine. I think my experience with publications might help me with that dream. But I think all the experiences with CMU PRM will help me in the future.

Yesterday I came in to finish the diversity web text and the Upward Bound article.

Since I was mostly in need of quotes, I had to wait for a few people to get back with me. I think that is the most frustrating part of the job. I’m always connected – whether it be carrying my cell phone wherever I go, or checking my e-mail more times a day than I can count.

Since I had done the adviser interview Friday, I worked on that while I waited. That interview had gone very well and I had already written part of the article.

I was also able to finish the spreadsheet project given to me by Mark. I also took the time to organize the paperwork. Once I had them numerically in order, I was able to enter data more quickly because I didn’t have to flip back if I thought I had found a duplicate.

Since I had class Monday, I went home at 3 p.m. I then finally got a hold of the girl for the Upward Bound article. I interviewed her, took notes and then put it into the article. I was slightly annoyed while interviewing because there was a lot of noise in the background and that made it more difficult to understand her.

Lesson of the Day: Over the phone interviews can be a pain. Be patient and ask the person to repeat if you think it was pertinent information.

I really hate it when I get comments that have no relation to anything on my blog. I love getting comments, but when someone posts something like “Busy time,” it gets on my nerves. What did that have to do with anything? Now if they were posting about PR or internships in any field, or even saying something directly to me, it would be cool. Enough ranting.

Thursday I worked on the excel spreadsheet that Mark sent to me. It’s really simple and kind of mindless, but it doesn’t bother me. It will give me something to do when I am waiting to hear back from people or if I get writer’s block.

I have two assignments that are high priority – the Upward Bound one and the diversity poster one. I would have come in today to work on them and get them finished, but I was planning to go to Dow Gardens with someone. She flaked out and never called me back, so I feel like a whole day was wasted, other than the fact that I got my interview done with the academic adviser that had won an award.

Thats fine though because I offered to go in on Monday (and I was sick earlier today anyway and would have had to call in if I had worked today).

Anyway, I better finish packing. I’m heading home for the weekend (where there is air conditioning – it will feel like Alaska compared to my 90-degree apartment!)

Lesson of the Day: Go to my other blog and read this post – I’m sure the guides could teach you a lesson.

Yesterday I spent the half the of the day at the second half of the project management workshop. I think I picked up a lot that I can use, especially when I begin planning the Parents Brunch this fall for PRSSA.

Although there were parts of the workshop that didn’t apply to me, I still learned quite a bit. I’ll post more soon, but one of the main ideas is that you need to take time at the beginning of a project to plan out everything ahead of time (or else there will be the “hassle curve”); figure out how long it will take, who needs to be involved, who is accountable for what, etc.

I got a press release in my mailbox relating to the one new article I have to write for CMUWY, so I pulled what I could out of that. I also did a little bit of research pertaining the event I will be attending June 14. I will be writing an article for Reference Point on the event.

I also proofread the PBS ad that I worked on. When I returned the file to Dan, he and Mark (the director of publications) explained a new project to me. For a new web page I had to write some copy. I will be working with Ryan in Marketing on this project. The page is especially for new students of the second summer session. 

Not only am I excited that I will be working on another project, but I also am going to get more hours (much needed since purchasing my car!!). 

Yesterday I researched it and figured out more about the links that I had to write a short explanation for. There were about seven main pages, with several other links to go with it. 

Lesson of the Day: Before starting a big project, do three things: Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead

Yesterday, I mostly worked on CMU Welcomes You. With any new information I had, I finished up a few articles and sent them to be approved. With any approvals I received, I changed any information that needed to be changed. This morning I received several more approvals. I think that the publication materials are coming along pretty well.

I also typed up some copy for an ad going into the PBS booklet. It was fairly simple to do. The only thing I missed was to italicize the title of the exhibit at Clarke Historical Library.

I’m excited about this upcoming Friday because I will be going to a project management workshop. I won’t be paid for the time I will be there, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m sure it will be well worth it. I think I will learn a lot.

I do have some bad news. Originally, I was going to be taking a second class this summer that teaches you how to use Adobe InDesign. After purchasing a car this past weekend (and spending more than I had planned), I had to drop the class. The class fills up quickly every semester, so I will have to wait and see when I can take it next.

I do plan on teaching myself more about Adobe InDesign. There are several books about InDesign at the library that I plan to check out soon. Dan has already taught me the basics, so I know I can learn a lot by myself.

Lesson of the Day: You don’t have to take a class if you want to learn. You just need ambition and a good library book.

Last Friday I received a phone call. I was offered an internship at Central Michigan University’s Public Relations & Marketing in the Publishing department.

I was ecstatic! I will be starting sometime next week.

I also have more good news. My elbow is feeling much better now. I’m not wearing a sling anymore. But, I can’t straighten it out completely and can only bend it to a certain extent. I am also DONE with final exams. It is such a relief!

Now that I can type without extreme pain, finals are over, and I have a couple of week before summer classes begin, you’ll be seeing a lot more of me!

I currently have had 405 “steps ahead” (hits) on this blog. I’d like to get 100 more in the next week.

Does anyone else make blog goals like me?

I was offered an internship over spring break at the Resource Center in Flint, Michigan.

I would be working on their newsletter and annual report, as well as writing press releases.