The Ultimate Last Day!

I was really busy this morning. As soon as I got of the subway, I went to FedEx Kinkos to drop off our clip report to be printed. Thankfully yesterday I was able to email the draft press materials to the not-for-profit organization and the event producers. I got their feedback first thing in the morning and made all the edits. I created a media list and sent out the calendar listing. My boss says she will send out my press release closer to the event date in October. I sent out the distribution notice to the not-for-profit founder and the producers of the event. Then I burned a video from a DVD onto the office computer for my boss in regards to client 6.

The rest of the day I did not do anything pertaining to work, but it was fun. My boss took me and her associate out to lunch. Unfortunately my boss had to leave for a meeting before we even got the appetizer. The associate and I had lunch and chatted. She gave me a gift! I was surprised. It was a Burton Chicago tshirt and a Burton shot glass for my 21st birthday. It was so nice of her. Then in my email inbox, I noticed my boss has sent me a Lettuce Entertain You gift card. They both gave me gifts when they gave me the internship! I'm going to send them both a thank you card and something nice. Even though I didn't get a lot of experience in advertising or even public relations, they were all really nice to me and I enjoyed getting to know them. My boss said I can put her as a reference and her associate too. I hope to keep in touch with them.

I know I knocked down this internship a lot, but I guess you can't expect to get full responsibility as an intern. I was given a lot of small office jobs that help my boss and her associate do what they need to do. Though I wish I got to be more involved with the clients, and work on press material and media relations, I got to see what happens in a public relations firm. I did conclude from this internship that I don't think I want to continue with public relations, but I understand the concept and purpose of this profession.

2nd to last day

WFTV did a television spot and article on client 6, but they unfortunately spelled the product and our client's expert's name wrong. I had to call the website programmer to get the spelling errors changed and also to ask for permission to post the video on our client's website. He said we can link the video, but it has to direct the person who clicks on it to the WFTV website. Reasonable enough. Due to the new clip, I had to once more update the clip report.

I signed up the associate for econtrol enewsletter. I signed myself up for a Twitter 201 webinar. It's on August 4th. Even though my internship will be over by then, I'm so going to attend. I have an obsession with Twitter and utilizing it to get my name out to advertising/marketing companies.

I reworked my non-for-profit calendar listing and press release. Hopefully I can get it to the organization and the producers of the event by the end of today. Waiting on my boss... of course.

I created a NPR national media list for my boss and her associate. I'm not sure what it is for, but they asked me to so I did it.

Pretty Boring Wednesday

I had to fix the associate's email this morning. For some reason the server was saving all her emails, so it wasn't receiving any incoming email because she had met her quota on emails. I just went on the server and deleted all the emails and she started receiving her incoming emails.

Then I updated client 6's clip report hopefully for the last time and sent out a press release to SecurityInfoWatch.com for client 7. Then I looked up flights for my boss to go to New York City and back to Chicago. Also, I looked up a flight from Chicago to Atlanta to Orange County and back to Chicago for her. I even had to look up a flight for her daughter... is she part of the PR firm? Anywho, I was about to rant, but I won't.

I found out the advertising value and number of visitors to triblocal.com because client 9 had an article about them posted there.

For the rest of the day I just read the news. I'm still waiting on my boss to review my press materials for the non-for-profit organization. Can't wait for Friday! Last day!

Boring busy work

First thing this morning, I updated client 6's May-July clip report. I think I'm going to be printing the clip report off before the end of the week... Not positive yet. I had to cancel our PR firm's subscription to Northbrook Star newspaper since we are no longer working with client 10, who were located in Northbrook, Illinois. I did some press kit inventory on client 1 and client 3. I figured out what materials we had, what we needed to get approved and if there was anything we needed to write. Also, as I was doing that, client 1 sent us a box of company folders, brochures and letterhead. I reread my non-for-profit press release and sent another email to my boss asking her to review it. I'm not allowed to send anything out to the media until she stamps an approval on it. I looked up local access television in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Not to my surprise, there are no shows located there. We just need to contact Chicago television to get suburban coverage. My boss had me research Corrections Forum Magazine and add them to our security publications media list. Throughout the day I added and subtracted security publications to an invited list for a security convention happening out in California.

Lots of busy work today.

Last week of the Internship!

Is it sad that I am excited that this is my last week at this PR internship? This internship has shown me that public relations is not my choice of career. Sitting in a silent office all day, emailing and answer phones feels extremely unproductive and unfulfilling. I definitely prefer doing creatives or media planning for advertising. It turns out the internship I could of had at DiMeo in Chicago (an advertising firm that I had to decline because they offered it the day after I accepted my PR internship) would have given me tons of experience. A girl who took their internship last year (she is an SIUC alumni), said she got a lot of graphic design experience and has a decent sized portfolio now. I feel, here at this PR firm, that I have not got a lot of experience and have not expanded my portfolio at all, and I have been here for two months and half! Oh well... things happen for a reason... right?

I updated the publicity clip report for client 6 and the advertising value report for client 8. We had our Monday internal staff meeting via conference call due to the fact my boss is working from home. After our staff meeting, I retrieved broadcast media contact information for Orlando, Florida area for the associate in the office.

Following lunch-time, we had a conference call with client 1. We are still working on their press kit, which has been an on-going event since the end of May. They are very non-descriptive clients and we were trying to get more information out of them today in order to make a better press release and boiler plate that will make them happy. I love how their comments about our press kit material is that it is not descriptive and broad, but we pulled it all from their website... All I can say is "frustrating." I made a bulleted memo of all the information we discussed in the meeting sent it to the associate.

For the rest of the day I worked on a press release for the non-profit organization's event I'm doing pro-bono. I'm still waiting on my boss for her advisement on the calendar listing I already wrote. Hopefully she gets back to me tomorrow, so I actually have things to do.

A slooooow day

My boss was leaving as soon as I walked into work this morning. She said she will be working out of the office today.

I sent out two different press releases. One was for client 6 and the other was for client 7. That is all I've done for my PR firm today. The phone has not rang since 10:00 am and it is now 2:00 pm. No emails have come through either. To make it all more unbearable, it is a slow news day to boot. Clawing my eyes out slowly.

Can't wait for 6:30 pm! Meeting my internship coordinator and other Chicago interns at Giordano's on Belmont Ave.

Very Busy Day

I did a lot of work as soon as I got into the office today. I found Chicago sports editors' contact information, added Retail Traffic Magazine to client 1's media list, added Fred Mitchell from the Chicago Tribune to our Chicago media list, and tried to find contact information for 103.5 KISSFM. I did not get lucky finding KISSFM's contact information... very secretive.

Then we had a staff internal meeting to just get updated on all the happening this week. Right after the meeting, the associate found a listing in Crain's Chicago Business of client 9's event. Then I found an article in TribLocal for another event client 9 is doing. Very exciting day for client 9 and our PR firm.

I sent out more calendar listings for client 2, just deleted the old dates in the listing and left August and September dates. After that I took an engaging in social media webinar through Cision. It was interesting. They gave types on listening, engaging and creating in social media.

Then I sent out a new appointment release for client 6. We just found out after I sent the release to all national security magazines, Chicago business editors and Washington DC business editors, that there was an error in client 6's internal announcement about the person in the new appointment release. Now we have to wait for our boss to tell us to either resend the release, send an edit note to the editors or just send a retraction after it's published. Oops! It's not our fault though. Client 6 had the final okay on the press release before sending it and they gave it the two thumbs up. Finally, I got a media list started and finished for business and technology editors in New York.

Extremely busy day!

Hump Day

I emailed back and forth with the producers of the non-for-profit event and the non-for-profit organization who is benefiting from the event this morning. I finished my first draft of the calendar listing for this event. Now I am just waiting on my boss to review and advise me on it.

I updated the ad value report for client 8 and the clip report for client 6. I made edits to a press release for client 1. Client 1 has been a hard client to please. Every time we send them press kit material, they send it back covered in edits. I think they have revised every piece of press kit matrial at least a half a dozen times. Then I made a detailed media contact list for client 6.

I had a lot of downtime today. Sometimes interning means twiddling your thumbs and pretending you're being productive.

Actually working! Yeah!

I revised a pitch letter for client 6 on school apprehensions in the Orlando, Florida area for the associate. Then I updated client 6's clip report. We found two television news reports and two print publication articles on them. Then I updated the advertisement value report for client 8. Also my boss had me watch a news video on Chicago Business News about retail vacancy, write up bulleted information about it and email her back. It was interesting how much the vacancy rate has gone up and how it will continue to rise as long as the recession persists. I really hope this recession ends soon.

Then I had a meeting with my boss on the non-for-profit event I'm going to be working on. I started by emailing my questions about the event to the producers of it. They responded fairly quick, but then I had a couple more questions in response. I'm guessing I won't hear anything back until tomorrow. I started my rough draft of the calendar listing for the event. Though, I cannot have my boss review it until I get all the information from the producers, but it is a good start.

I'm excited and happy I have my own little project to work on!

Media list building today

Today, a new girl started working with us. I guess she worked here last summer, but has been abroad for the past six months. She is really nice and I think I can learn from her. It's kind of sad she is starting when I only have two weeks left, but I'll take advantage of the possibility of learning from her.

We had are beginning of the week internal meeting. Seems like my boss realized that I haven't done much press work other than internal things, like media list building, distributing pre-written press releases, etc. So before I leave, I'm going to write a press release for a non-profit organization(pro-bono case) and make calls to the media. I'm excited that I'll get this experience before I leave.

I research NACAS for my boss today. It is a non-profit organization (not the non-profit organization I was talking about earlier) that helps students in college and business professionals network. Then, I had to look up radio and television contacts in the Orlando area. Extremely hard surprisingly. There are not many radio or television stations in Orlando that cover business or technology.

I finally finished the Chicago media list. It is crazy long. Especially the radio station list (never realized how many radio stations are in the Chicagoland area). Now my boss and her associate have contact information for almost all the newspaper, radio and television editors/producers in Chicago.

TGIF!

I continued compiling the Chicago media list today. I printed a few documents off for a girl who starts Monday and cleaned up the office. That's about it for today.

I couldn't concentrate at all. I turn 21 tomorrow and I'm super excited for my boat party!

Staring at the Computer Screen

Sometimes at this internship I believe I just stare at the computer from 9 AM until 4 PM. It is awful!

As soon as I got in the office I sent out a press release to all of the calendar listing editors in the Chicagoland area. Then I posted the calendar listing on kidwinks.com. For the rest of the day I compiled the basic Chicago media contact list (publications, televisions and radio). It's a long list and it is going to take me a while. It has about 185 different contacts! I just have to get it done before I leave for the summer.

....

I found an article on one of our clients in the newspaper and on two online news sites. It wasn't a good article. It was about defaulting on a loan by one of our clients... But I don't get to be part of the crisis PR.

I updated our client contact information for everyone. Then made a contact list for an event we are doing in Orange County. After that, I compiled all the editors and their contact information for national real estate publications to send a release tomorrow.

Over lunch, I reviewed a positioning release, a bio and a fact sheet. It was not very good and I can see why the client was getting upset with my boss and her associate. There were grammar errors and sentences that were just jumbled and made no sense. I edited them all. Hopefully that makes the client a bit happier.

The final thing was I had to find a computer recycling drop-off in Chicago because we replaced one computer and two monitors in the office.

Kind of a Boring Day

I revised a media alert for a skateboard park opening and researched skateboarding safety tips. Then I just worked on compiling an overall Chicago media contact list for all the news outlets in the Chicagoland area.

That's my day... Zzzzz

Monday...

The weather is beautiful out and it is almost painful to work. My view is of Lake Michigan on one side and downtown on the other. There is a beach that is always crowded when it's nice out in my view. I think it's more painful to work today because Chicago weather has not been very nice lately, so when it is, I want to be outside.

We started off the week with our regular beginning of the week meeting. I was assigned some work, but I'm going to try and spread it out throughout the week since I usually finish it all in one day, then I'm bored for the rest of the week.

I found contacts for SecurityStockWatch.com and emailed it to the associate. I emailed six different advertising representatives about our public relations firm being added to their comp list. I double checked my ad value report for client 8, and emailed my boss letting her know it was ready for review. Finally, I planned on just starting the clip report for client 6, but I ended up finishing it. Oops! I bet we'll get in a few more articles before it's actually due, so I guess I can just update it until it's ready to be printed.

Busy for the Past 3 Days

Tuesday, July 7
I just worked on the company pitch for Thursday. I looked up pricing, designed the cover page and worked on the PowerPoint. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it kept me busy all day. At the end of the day we had an internal meeting to discuss what we need to get done on Wednesday for the pitch.

Wednesday, July 8
I started the day with looking over a client's conference slides. I was reviewing them to see if there are other possible publicity angles for this specific client we can use in targeting media.

I had to put that on hold to embed a YouTube video into the PowerPoint, organize, add/subtract slides, and edit. My boss changes her mind every minute, so I was kept on my toes in putting the PowerPoint together. I was at work until 7:00 PM and had to rush to the train via cab.

Thursday, July 9
The first two hours of the day, my boss and her associate were at the pitch. When they got back, they were pretty positive it went well and think they got the client. I guess I'll find out Monday since I'm off tomorrow.

I finished going over the client's PowerPoint and put together a PDF of all the important points that we could use in publicity. Then I found television stations in the Worthington, Ohio area and radio in the Arlington Heights, Illinois area. I edited the Chicago calendar listing editor contact list and started a technology editor list for Ohio. Then I booked it to the train and almost blew my knee out in the process. When I was leaving, the computer technician was coming in finally to fix and replace the computers. Yeah!!

July 4th Weekend

Due to the July 4th weekend, I got busy and completely forgot to blog.

Wednesday, July 1
I built a detroit business media contact list. Then I researched photography companies and the cost of printing counter cards for an event we are planning for a business pitch. I began to design a logo as well for the pitch, but we don't have a name for the event yet. I did my best with a generic name and created a few different logo examples. Then I made a list of all the schools in the Orlando area that had school security apprehensions so the associate can start a press release about this client's security mechanism that being used in those schools. My final task was email a few publications' ad reps about getting out firm and our client on their comp list.

Thursday, July 2
We are trying to get a movie star for our event we're planning, so my boss had me price out airfare and hotel expenses to give us an idea how much travel would cost us alone. Then I researched D&D Technologies because they are partnering with one of our clients. We had an internal staff meeting about our pitch. Following the meeting, I did more research on pricing for the event. For the rest of the day I followed up on emails and got the company mail postaged and sent out.

Monday, July 6
We had our beginning of the week meeting. The main focus was the pitch, which is occurring this Thursday. I sent out a hinge press release to security publications. Then I put all the articles we were sent using NewsTrak into a word document for each individual client. I finished up the advertising value report that I have been working on for a while. It is going to be sent to the client to show them all the news coverage we got them in dollar value.

We had a telephone conference with the movie star we want agent. She told us it was unlikely we could get him because he is filming. Plus, we would have to pay him an ungodly amount to come even though it is a non-profit event for his charity. Stingy celebrities at their best.

Then I sent out a calendar listing to all the calendar listing editors in the Chicagoland area. My last job was to create a media contact list of editors/producers in the Orlando area that cover community news, education, business and/or technology. I finished that and then left for the day.

Discovering Meebo

I did not do much work today. I typed up the list of hardware/building trade publications that I sent the press release to yesterday for a client company distribution. After that, I looked up pricing for mobile staging and audio system rentals for a fashion show event we are putting together for a client. Surprisingly many of these companies did not have pricing online, but I emailed them and now I am just waiting for responses. If I don't hear anything by tomorrow, I'll start calling them. Then we had an internal agency meeting to talk about the event because it is actually a fictitious event right now due to the fact we are pitching this idea against another public relations firm. I kind of hope we get the client because I would feel lame if we put together an event with all this outside companies and then have to tell them it is not happening. Embarrassing it would be. Then I looked up fashion trends for the rest of the day to get any idea of what the fall 2009 fashions will be for the show.

While roaming the web for fashion, I discovered a useful tool called Meebo. Apparently many already know about it, but I did not. You can log into all your chat accounts and use them all at once. So now I can be logged into Facebook chat, Myspace chat, Yahoo, Windows Live, Google chat, and AIM. It's pretty cool. Now I will never be bored at work... okay maybe that's a stretch, but at least I can talk to people.

Having a Case of the Mondays

I had a very pleasant 3 day weekend. I got to enjoy Summerfest and some relaxation time.

When I got in the office today, I updated the weekly status report and printed it for a weekly agency meeting. This meeting I got nothing assigned to me! I swear, I think I do less and less each week. Whenever I ask to do something, they just say look up a contact number or build a media list. Will I ever get to write a press release or anything? I fear I will not and when I leave this internship, I will have learned nothing other than the fact that public relations is not my cup of tea.

I had to call hostway.com because my company email address stopped working this morning. After I got that under control I copied an article from a magazine that our client was published in and I also finished an ad value report for another client. The ad value report was a bit rough seeing that our agency does not have access to any databases, so I had no pricing for advertising or any data really. We didn't even have the actual articles, so I have no idea what the column inches were! Wow this agency is so efficient...

I looked up media contacts in the Arizona area that cover education and sent them to the associate in the office. Then I finished the hardware/building media list and sent out a press release that the associate wrote up. Then it was time to head home. I was nodding off all day and was getting grumpy. Good thing today went fast and the boss and her associate were out most of the day.

Every body is crabby

The two other people in the office are busy with this crisis management issue and are extremely snippy today. As soon as I opened my Google alerts this morning, there were five articles with our client in it. Crazy! My idea was to keep my head down and hope no one yells at (not that they would because they pretty much ignore my existence). I'm actually not really sure why they hired an intern because I do not really do anything. In regards to not doing anything, my boss asked me today what I was working on and I said "well, just media lists." She was like, "okay." Seriously... I was hoping she would realize I'm not really doing anything and give me a job to do. I guess not.

I compiled a Chicago calendar media contact list for the better part of the day. I called one client and got their exact address for my boss. I'm guessing she's mailing something to them. I also called AT&T to get our fax line fixed because we could receive faxes, but not send them. Got that accomplished. Then I sent out a new appointment release for client 8 to healthcare, security and Indianapolis publications. In total it was over 50 separate emails. However, ten of them were undeliverable.

Man I wish I had a paying job...